Business Accounting and Finance by Catherine Gowthorpe, 3rd Edition

The aim of this book is to provide an introduction to business accounting and finance. The book is suitable for students on introductory accounting courses, or on business and management courses generally, or on more specialized courses such as marketing, human resources management, tourism, hospitality management and information systems. Students outside the business area following courses in engineering, computer science, fashion and fine and applied arts will also find the book a very suitable introduction to accounting and finance.

While the principal intended audience for the book comprises students taking a formal course of instruction at college or university, it is also intended that the book should lend itself to self-study by anyone who is interested in extending their knowledge of basic business accounting and finance. This could include people who are starting, or thinking of starting their own businesses. Also, the book could be useful for people who are already engaged in business but who are aware that they do not quite understand what their accountant is telling them.

The overarching aim of the book is to develop understanding of accounting. It is not, primarily, a book about how to do accounts. Some of the chapters do, indeed, require students to prepare fairly straightforward accounting statements. However, the principal purpose of this approach is to aid understanding; it is often easier to understand how accounting figures hang together if you have had some experience of working them out for yourself.

If you are a student specialising in a non-accounting subject you may find that you are obliged, unavoidably, to study business accounting and finance. Students in this category are sometimes very unwilling to engage with a subject that they find to be alien and unhelpful. If this describes you, you may find it helpful to read the ‘special notes for the suspicious’ in Chapter 1 of the book.