View source for Learning Accountancy: The Novel Way by Zarir Suntook

{{infobox1
|title=Learning Accountancy: The Novel Way
|author=Zarir Suntook
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=A more logical way of learnng book-keeping eastablishes the reasons for learning double entry before you have to master the principles.  Recommended as an introduction to book-keeping not least becuse of its clear explanations. 
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=225
|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing
|date=April 2010
|isbn=978-1443819480
|cover=1443819484
|aznuk=1443819484
|aznus=1443819484
}}

If you're planning on learning how to prepare accounts the traditional method has what almost amounts to an initiation ceremony.  You're introduced to double entry book-keeping, which is the equivalent of being asked to learn HTML without ever having seen a web page.  Some people ''do'' take to it like ducks to water – they're usually the people who think that Sudoku is ridiculously easy – but most people find that the concepts are difficult to grasp and this isn't helped by not really understanding why they need to master it.  Zarir Suntook hasn't quite stood the methods of teaching on their heads but he's taken a more logical approach which is gentler on the brain.

Double Entry isn't even mentioned until chapter five.  The reader is introduced first of all to the reasons ''why'' accurate accounts are necessary to see how a business is going, by looking first at some basic accounting terms and concepts and ''then'' looking at cash flow, profit and loss and the balance sheet.  There's a particularly clear explanation of the difference between cash flow and profit and loss which illustrates that even a profitable business can fail because of cash flow problems.  This is probably one of the most difficult points for a budding entrepreneur to grasp, with that oft-heard refrain ''but I '''know''' I'm making a profit''.

By the time that double entry is introduced the student sees as a simple explanation of how the figures which he's been looking at are built into accounts.  It falls into place rather than dominating that part of the mind which worries.  Other principles of book-keeping are clearly explained and fell neatly into place. 

As someone who learned her book-keeping in the old pen and ink days (and when there was debate about whether or not it was fair that ''calculators'' should be allowed in exams) I particularly appreciated  the chapters on computerised accounting systems, with advice on hardware, the software, buying, setting up and testing the system.

I do have a couple of relatively minor quibbles about the book.  The title is ''slightly'' misleading in that there is a lot more to accountancy than book-keeping and this book really only looks at the book-keeping side.  The other point is perhaps personal  - but I've always learned best by working examples as I mastered each area and then checking to see if I was right (or, more often with book-keeping, where I was wrong) and this book doesn't take that road.  On balance I think I would recommend it as a primer to introduce the student to the concepts but then to use other books which provide examples to be worked.

I'd like to thank the author for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

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