This recently-released Second Edition is a wonderful book for folks who find themselves in the position of needing to understand financial reports, when the last time you looked at a balance sheet was in your first year of high school accounting.
Author Gene Siciliano has produced an excellent guide to the primary concepts of finance, written from the point of view that you have no background at all in finance or accounting.
Managers of all levels in today’s business organizations need to have at minimum a basic understanding of financial systems in order to be effective. Day-to-day decisions are influenced by information found in financial reports, and without being able to interpret these financial reports, you’re flying blind. Maybe you’ve been thrust into a management position without any training – and you need to have an understanding of financial reports to do your job. Gaining a better understanding (after you’ve got the basics down) of financial systems and reports can be an entree’ to advancement, as well.
In your personal life, having a better understanding of financial systems and reports can help you with investment choices as well.
Finance for Nonfinancial Managers is just the ticket to help you with all of these issues. Mr. Siciliano has a way of making the complex interplay between strategic numbers on various reports readily understandable. The book starts out the the classic balance sheet, then goes on to the income statement, keeping you in synch with the impacts to the balance sheet as the discussion ensues. Later, key performance indicators are covered, including not only what they mean but how the indicator is calculated. Budgeting and business planning are also covered.
One of the very helpful facets of this book is a series of icons in the sidebars, highlighting Key Terms, Tricks of the Trade, Examples, and other items. This makes navigating the book quite simple – find the Key Term you’re looking for, and you can quickly drill down into the foundational concepts that you need.
I would recommend this book for anyone who needs to augment his or her knowledge of basic accounting and finance. It’s a very user-friendly and cost effective way to give yourself a foundation of knowledge on the concepts.
The above book review is part of a series of reviews that I am doing in an arrangement with McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, where MH sends me books from time to time, requesting that I read the book and write a review – like it or not. If you find the information in this review useful, let me (and McGraw-Hill) know!
Sterling Raskie, MSFS, CFP®, ChFC®
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