For over a decade, I have been teaching finance and accounting to leaders and managers, who have backgrounds in other disciplines. These people are smart and understand that you only earn respect at the top if you understand how money flows in and out of the organization you serve. They need to know the risks and opportunities that finance presents – and how the best decisions combine scientific and technical considerations with financial ones.

But it often stops there. Nobody was able to explain finance in a way that made sense to them.
When I discovered the method described in The Joy of Accounting, all of that changed. People who dreaded being told to take an accounting course as part of their leadership development program began to compete to get a place in the classes we offered; they described the courses as “the best professional development course I have ever taken”; and, my favorite, “this course should be compulsory for all high-school kids.”

There was only one thing missing – a book that described the course so that they could take it home, digest it, review it, and, most effective of all, explain what they had learned to someone else, which is, incidentally the most effective way of consolidating your own understanding of anything.

Happily, the “inventors” of the course, Peter Frampton and Mark Robilliard, have come up with a book that is an excellent resource for anyone who:
• Needs to understand the basics of finance and accounting, but can’t get to a course
• Has taken the course, but would like a reference book so that they can review what they have learned
• Is taking an accounting class where concepts are being badly explained
• Teaches finance and accounting and finds their learners have a hard time grasping basic concepts.

Perhaps the notion of “basic concepts” is what distinguishes the approach from other texts I have seen. Sadly, many texts follow a definition-oriented approach: learn the definitions of basic concepts, and it will all come together! It doesn’t! The approach described in The Joy of Accounting focuses on explaining ideas without worrying, at first, about precise definitions although these come later. Relying on “educational and transitional definitions,” the authors make basic accounting concepts so clear that they seem obvious.

But no concept has value without practical application. The authors deal with that in two ways.

First, they guide the reader through transactions and explain how these will affect the balance sheet and income statement. Initially, using color to guide them, learners don’t worry about whether something is a debit or a credit – they think in terms of “green effects” and “orange effects.” Once these effects are mastered, the transition from “green” to “debit” and “orange” to “credit” becomes clear. Beginners are often bewildered because they do not focus on the perspective of a transaction – whose story is being told, a point that is masterfully explained early in the book by showing that a transaction can equally be explained as a purchase or a sale. It depends only on perspective.

Second, a series of case studies at the end of the book provide robust example of how applying the principles explained in the book can solve real business problems.

If you want to understand the basics of accounting and finance, buy this book. The learning is profound; the approach is simple; and the methodology achieves the M&M nirvana in learning – it’s Meaningful and Memorable.

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The Joy of Accounting: A Game-Changing Approach That Makes Accounting Easy