Title: Accounting For Business Studies
Author: Aneirin Sion Owen
Publisher: Elsevier 2003
ISBN: 0 7506 5834 7
Price: £24.99
Reviewer: Simon Johnson

In today’s business climate, a little financial management knowledge can go a long way. The healthy demand for accountancy knowledge by non-specialists is evident by the straining bookshelves offering an insight into what many non-accountants view as a ‘black art’.

A S Owen’s book takes a broad brush approach to accounting, building from the basics of profit and loss on to some of the finer points of financial management.

Nineteen chapters take the reader through clear examples of accounting theory and practice, (balance sheets, budgeting, costing etc) with each chapter offering tasks or multiple choice questions for the reader to work on – answers included at the end. Some chapters also have an excellent Frequently Asked Questions section – a shame that this wasn’t included for all chapters as it’s a clearer way of re-enforcing knowledge than many of the summary conclusion sections. The layout is clean and clear, essential with its inevitable emphasis on tables and charts.

The problem facing the authors of these books is not where to start, but where to stop. Owen includes an excellent chapter on limited liability and the stock market, areas often fragmented in similar works. However, chapters on e-business and investment appraisal seem to be rather lightweight and included just to round the book out. Compared to the ‘emerging issues’ section of J R Dyson’s book, Accounting for Non Accounting Students, these chapters come across as superfluous.

It all comes down to personal preference. This is a well laid-out book that covers the core theory and practice in a generally entertaining way. It certainly makes for a good self-study book as others aimed at classroom use inevitably have fewer answers provided to their given questions. Why not take a look at this alongside works by Dyson and Anthony Rice and see which one you feel comfortable with?