Could this be the best accounting book for
beginners?
Let's find out…
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Hey there welcome back to the channel
I'm James this is accounting stuff and
today we're going to be reviewing this book.
The Accounting Game.
Basic accounting fresh from the lemonade stand.
What a book?
This is YouTube?
I hear you
but this channel is all about helping
you learn accounting.
And whilst I think YouTube has
been revolutionary in helping us pick up
and understand things quickly,
I think there's still something
to be said for going old school
you know?
I want you to ask yourself this question…
Have you ever watched a video on YouTube
and thought…
That that was amazing!
I need to just take all of that and put it in here
and just apply it in my daily life
and then two days later you're like…
I can't even remember what that video was about
Well that happens to me all the time.
and that is why I like to
supplement all of that YouTube knowledge
with some longer form content
like books.
To help reinforce these ideas and make
sure they end up in here in my long-term memory.
So I'm not gonna just forget it
in a week's time.
Now I'm going to let you in on another
little secret…
I'm not a reader.
I’ve battled with reading for years and
years
the only books I could ever really get to
the end of were the Harry Potter ones
and yeah partly that's because I never
realised that I needed glasses.
But also I'd just find books so so boring
and there are too many distractions.
And what kind of books the
most boring of them all?
Accounting books.
Wait
No
Accounting books.
I was chatting the other day to
one of my viewers, Winston
on Instagram and he said that
the Finance and Accounting books that
he'd read broke new records in boredom
and that he wouldn't even recommend
these to his foes.
When you won't even recommend
a book your worst enemies…
Well that's not a good sign is it?
But Winston is totally right.
There are way too many
accounting books that pay far too much
attention to detail and end up becoming
500 page monsters that I wouldn't even
touch if my life depended on it.
But is that always the case?
Are all accounting books like that?
I decided to do some research
and see if there were any
accounting books out there that won't
have us all running for the hills.
Anyway during my research one title kept
popping up.
This one
The Accounting Game.
I think I mentioned this one during my
first ever video on the
accounting equation but today I'm
gonna do a full review of this book
and tell you everything that I liked
and didn't like about it,
and then I'm gonna rate it out of five.
To help you decide whether it's
worth your time.
Every month or two I’d like to release
more book reviews alongside my
usual tutorials so if you'd
like to see more of these then don't
forget to subscribe.
And if you have any suggestions
let us know down below in the comments
so that we can share these
books amongst ourselves and find the
good ones.
Who knows maybe I'll even end
up reviewing it on this channel?
Let's do this...
The Accounting Game:
Basic accounting fresh from the lemonade stand
published by Sourcebooks,
produced by Educational Discoveries.
I think this is the revised edition
that was released in 2008.
I picked up the paperback version
on Amazon that I think goes for around $14.
So I'll link that down below for you
in the description.
There's also a slightly cheaper
version for the Kindle.
But I would actually advise you against
getting that one the reasons that will
become clear shortly.
So who's it written by?
Well there are actually two authors.
The first one is Judith Handler Orloff
from Burlington College in Vermont.
Not to be confused with Judith Orloff
the clairvoyant.
Yeah that confused me a bit
in my research.
And the other author is
Darrell Mullis
Businessman and entrepreneur
who surprisingly has never
taken an official course in finance.
Now why should we want to learn accounting
from someone who's never taken an
official course in finance?
Well actually I think that could be
one of the books biggest strengths.
Hmm… interesting.
They say in the intro
and let me see if I'll get this right.
Most attempts to teach
accounting fail because people pay too
much attention to detail and forget to
convey the bigger framework or picture
of the subject…
Yeah that's that's not right.
We think the most attempts to
teach accounting fail because of too
much attention to details and a failure
to present the big picture framework of
how it all works and fits together.
We promise not to overburden you with the
details and to focus on what are the
really key concepts of accounting that
any business person needs to know.
I think that the author's lack of formal
financial training
helps them deliver on this promise of
not overburdening us with the details.
But does it mean they miss the mark on some
of the accounting principles?
Hmm… lets find out.
This book takes you all the way back
to your childhood.
Over the course of a long hot summer
you decide to set up a lemonade stand
at the corner of your street and start
selling your product to your neighbours
and passers by.
In this fictitious scenario you face a
whole bunch of problems that mirror the
ones that small business owners go through.
From making that initial investment
and taking out a loan from a bank.
To hiring your first members of
staff, managing your inventory and
selling your first product.
Spoiler alert
At the end of the summer
you decide to liquidate your whole business.
So we have the whole business
lifecycle in this book.
While all of this is going on
you are actively keeping a
record of each financial transaction and
summarising them in the three major
financial statements:
The income statement,
the balance sheet
and the cash flow statement.
So what did I like about this book?
Well it held my attention and
that is impressive because I fail to get
to the end of a lot of the books that I read.
It’s short.
At 179 pages you can get through this
in two to three days.
The authors build a vivid picture of this
world in which your selling lemonade.
I mean I never sold lemonade as a kid but
now I feel like I'm a veteran.
Darrell and Judith do a fantastic job of leading
you
into new concepts like
showing the income statement
and the balance sheet
as scorecards before revealing their
true form further into the book.
This helps you as the reader
understand these ideas intuitively
before they go and throw
all that technical jargon at you.
I feel that the book is really well structured.
The ideas just flow into one
another so smoothly.
Things like the accrual versus cash method,
capitalisation versus expenses
and cash versus profit
are all just delivered to you so fluidly.
They make great use of colour
in reflecting the liquidity of assets
and visually it's just a great book to read.
There's a glossary at the back
that has descriptions of all of the
major accounting terms.
So I found myself flicking backwards
and forwards to this page quite often.
They introduce the reader to the
idea of creative accounting.
Legitimate, legal ways to
present your books to reduce or postpone
your taxes.
Food for thought if you're
running your own business…
But by far the biggest thing that I like in
this book is that it's interactive.
There are heaps of examples to work through
as you make your way through the book.
They'll help you test your knowledge and
reinforce these ideas to get the most
out of this book.
You'll need a pen to fill out the answers
as you work your way through
and a highlighter so that
you can note down all of the key sections.
When I finished this book I went back
through it and noted out all of my
favourite ideas on the Notes app
on my laptop.
So now I can access all of these
anywhere, anytime on my phone
if I need my memory jogged.
So that's everything I liked about the book
but what's not to like?
Well at first glance I was worried
that they were going to oversimplify things.
But that really isn't the case.
The examples start quite easy but then
they get progressively more and more
difficult as you make your way through
the book.
Not too quickly though so don't
worry about that.
The underlying accounting is sound
and should be more than enough
for a small business owner.
That being said.
If you're experienced you might find
this book quite easy and maybe
it doesn't have all of the detail
that you want.
But then the book isn't aimed at you anyway.
Darrell and Judith promise
not to overburden you with the details
and this is basic accounting
that we're talking about.
However I was surprised that this book
didn't really mention debits and credits.
They focus on balancing
the balance sheet instead.
Which I suppose gets the job done
but I’d still like to see
debits and credits in here.
There's also no mention of GAAP or IFRS
which are the principles and standards
that govern accounting
or the indirect cash flow statement
but they do have the
direct cash flow statement.
Maybe some of those topics are
beyond the scope of this book.
And one more thing.
The lemonade stand in this book
is a product based business so
that's the focus here.
On businesses that have inventory.
I do appreciate though that in this
revised version they've added a chapter
on service businesses so you can see how
the accounting differs in
the income statement between
these two types of business.
Darrell and Judith say that
this book is for all of you who have
hated accounting,
had difficulty learning it
or ever thought you didn't really get it.
But I would go a step further and say
that even after studying accounting this
was a great read.
I am quite frankly amazed that
an accounting book was able
to hold my attention to the end.
And it was refreshing to take
a step back and see the whole
framework of accounting
from a different point of view.
This is an accounting book for beginners
so you could argue that it's light on the
detail
but in some ways that's how it delivers.
You could always supplement this with
some further reading once
you’ve got the hang of it.
After much deliberation I'm
going to give it…
Four and a half stars.
I was considering going even higher
but this is my first book review
so there has to be room for improvement.
I would highly recommend this to
anyone running a small business.
You'll get a lot of value out of this book.
I'd also recommend it to anyone
who's studying accounting.
Don't be put off if you think
it looks a bit childish.
This book will help cement
your understanding of how
accounting works
in the big picture.
If you'd like to pick up a copy
I'd appreciate it if you use the link down
in the description.
It's an affiliate link so you
get the chance to support this channel
and get a copy of the book
at no extra cost to yourself.
Let us all know if you've got any
other accounting book recommendations
down in the comments.
If you'd like to learn more
about accounting.
Then don't forget to subscribe to the channel.
I've made a whole playlist of
accounting basics videos
that you can find right here.
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