01 / Classic Textbook Recommendation
Classic Textbook Recommendation
Who this book is for
First-year students in economics, business, management and other programmes who take an accounting and finance module as part of a broader degree, and readers who want to understand company reports and financial decisions without technical bookkeeping. It suits students who want a single introductory book spanning both the accounting and the corporate finance sides of the course.
Prerequisites
No prior knowledge of accounting or finance is assumed; basic arithmetic is enough.
What it covers
The book introduces the statement of financial position, the income statement and the statement of cash flows, accounting for limited companies, and the analysis of financial statements with ratios. It then covers cost behaviour and cost-volume-profit analysis, full costing, budgeting, investment appraisal using payback, accounting rate of return, net present value and internal rate of return, sources of finance, and the management of working capital.
How to use it
Nobes's Very Short Introduction explains what accounting is and why it matters in a brief essay; this is a full textbook with activities and self-assessment questions that also covers business finance. A reader who needs to prepare and interpret statements and investment calculations may prefer it, working each activity as it appears.
Edition and sources
This record describes the 13th edition, published by Pearson in 2025 with a 2026 copyright date; eTextbook and MyLab versions also exist. Bibliographic data comes from the Pearson product page.