This is an easy to read book that uses a conversational style and includes characters to whom you will relate. If you find your accounting textbooks dry and hard to understand then join Andrew, who is starting his own business and needs to prepare a five year business plan. Andrew enlists the help of a friend, Richard, who is an expert in budgeting and planning and is an accountant as well. Over a period of weeks (chapters actually), they meet in their local pub for a drink and a chat and to develop the plan. Richard introduces accounting terms and ideas as and when they become relevant. sometimes Andrew disagrees with what he is hearing and they have a debate about it, thus allowing alternative approaches to be evaluated. It is a chatty book, easy to read and written as a novel. It explains how accounting information is captured and how it is processed to help an owner or manager run his business better and make decisions more accurately. Variable costing, ratio analysis and cash flows are all included. Debits and credits are not mentioned until the very last chapter, when we find out where these terms came from. After reading this chapter such terms will never worry you again!