Review
This book has done its best to make this dry subject come to life.....For someone setting up their own business this does introduce some key concepts in an easy a way as possible....There is a small glossery which is good to have at hand. It (the book) may also be useful to investors trying to analyse companies as well as to those running them." --Working Lunch "Adam's Read"
Product Description
Join Andrew as he learns a simple way to prepare flexible five year plans for his new business venture. See how easy financial planning can be, with the balance sheets, profit & loss account and predicted cash flow all clearly shown, linked together on just one spreadsheet. Then see how ratios help him assess his business s financial health and performance. Oh, and by the way, learn how simple accounting really is whilst doing this! Indeed, it is as easy as 1 = 1 Using this approach, all of a companys transactions are recorded on a spreadsheet. Beginning with the opening balance sheet as the first row, you enter each of your planned transactions line by line as you work through the book. Every line balances and, if one of the entries is in the cash flow or profit and loss columns you progressively build these reports up as you go along. Finally, when you add up the columns you produce your closing balance sheet! By returning to these basic principles you will find that getting to grips with the subject is easy - and can even be fun! Chapter titles - The Language of Business - The Separate Business Entity - The Transaction Equation - The Worksheet Overview and the Profit and Loss Story - The Cash Flow Story - The Balance Sheet Story - Cost Behaviour and Break-Even Analysis - Modelling the future - A Matter of Interpretation - A Little Bit of History, how the double entry system evolved - Glossary of Terms - A Few Transatlantic Equivalent Terms
About the Author
Derek was Senior Tutor in Accounting at the London Business School for over twenty years where he taught on both the MBA programme and on the many management seminars. He is particularly interested in making the subject easy to master - hence the novel approach of this book! Before joining LBS Derek spent three years at the Stanford Business School. His interests there were largely in the behavioural area as knowledge of how managers respond to control systems aids in the design of more effective ones.
