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Review by Peter Thorpe, Director of the Australian Bookkeepers Network in Bookies Bulletin
We were recently introduced to a book titled Know Accounting Graphically. This book comes to us from an unlikely accounting author, Mike Darlow, who has a background in civil engineering and wood turning. Mike was inspired to write the book when disappointed by explanatory notes in a bookkeeping course he was undertaking.
The book is very visual and full of diagrammatic representations of accounting concepts that Mike calls balance charts. The style of language is easy to follow and low on jargon. The book avoids deep diving into accounting concepts, so if you are looking for an accounting text book you will be disappointed. But it does provide a quick explanation of a very wide range of mainstream accounting aspects and does so in an easy to follow manner.
I liked the book for a few reasons:
- The easy to follow way it explains accounting terms and processes;
- The graphical nature of the explanations works well;
- It takes accounting back to its core principles which helps understand exactly what it is that accounting foftware is doing for us.
Know Accounting Graphically covers off on a lot of concepts in its 10 pages. It starts with an explanation of the Balance Sheet Equation and the Chart of Accounts and explains its way through a multitude of terms from accrual accounting to debits and credits. The latter chapters focus on financial statements including some analysis aspects and budgeting.
I think that most people who work in the accounting function including bookkeepers willlikely get something from Know Accounting Graphically. Haing read it you will likely refer to it again from time to time to help understand terms and concepts.
Review on page 51 the spring 2016 issue of Inside Small Business
If you don't understand accounting, this graphic method may help you grasp the principles faster. It is based on a balance chart with scaled boxes above and below the x axis. The net box heights are always equal, thus balanced.
Mike Darlow is a civil engineer and a world-renowned woodturner. He devised the balance chart to help others who find traditional accounting methods hard to understand. Explaining the basics of accounting - including bookkeeping, income tax and GST - the charts are versatile. They enable trends and comparisons, and are so simple you can solve accouning problems by sketching them.
From The Australian newspaper
Understanding accounting basics is beneficial whether someone is seeking a job, a promotion or just wants to perform better.
Mike Darlow, who has written a book on the basics of accounting, Know Accounting Graphically, says the profession is often perceived as boring and difficult because the processes have been explained with complex texts for centuries.
Darlow, a former wood turner from NSW, has created a system of easily explainable balance charts to make accounting and tax easier to understand.