Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists

Citation

Atrill, P., & McLaney, E. (2025). Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists (13th ed.). Pearson.

Chapter Summary

The thirteenth edition (about 570 pages) has an introductory chapter and eleven further chapters in three parts. The parts cover financial accounting (five chapters), management accounting (three) and finance (three). The back matter is extensive: a glossary, solutions to the self-assessment questions, critical review questions, multiple-choice questions and end-of-chapter exercises, and a present value table. The publisher describes the book as an introduction to techniques widely used in financial accounting, management accounting and financial management, built around activities, exercises and real-world examples.

Chapter 1: Introduction to accounting and finance

The opening chapter sets out what accounting and finance are and how they support decision-making in a business, as background to the three parts that follow.

Chapter 2: Measuring and reporting financial position

Part One, on financial accounting, begins by introducing the statement of financial position (balance sheet) and the elements it reports.

Chapter 3: Measuring and reporting financial performance

This chapter turns to the income statement and the measurement of profit for a period.

Chapter 4: Accounting for limited companies

Here the treatment turns to the accounts of limited companies.

Chapter 5: Measuring and reporting cash flows

The chapter covers the statement of cash flows, the third principal financial statement.

Chapter 6: Analysing and interpreting financial statements

The last chapter of Part One shows how to analyse and interpret the statements prepared in the preceding chapters.

Chapter 7: The relevance and behaviour of costs

Part Two, on management accounting, opens with the costs relevant to particular decisions and with how costs behave as activity changes.

Chapter 8: Full costing

This chapter covers full costing, the attribution of all of a business's costs to its products or services.

Chapter 9: Budgeting

The final management-accounting chapter treats budgeting as a tool for planning and control.

Chapter 10: Making capital investment decisions

Part Three, on finance, begins with the appraisal of long-term investment projects; the present value table in Appendix E supports its discounting calculations.

Chapter 11: Financing a business

The chapter turns to the sources of finance available to a business.

Chapter 12: Managing working capital

The book closes with the management of working capital, the short-term assets and liabilities a business needs for its day-to-day operations.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–6: Financial accounting

• Statement of financial position: a report of what a business owns and owes at a point in time.
• Income statement: a report of the profit or loss earned over a period.
• Statement of cash flows: a report of the cash generated and used over a period, distinct from profit.
• Financial statement analysis: interpreting the statements to assess a business's performance and position.

Chapters 7–9: Management accounting

• Relevant costs and cost behaviour: identifying the costs that matter for a decision and how costs respond to changes in activity.
• Full costing: charging all of a business's costs to its output.
• Budgeting: setting financial plans for a coming period and using them for control.

Chapters 10–12: Finance

• Capital investment appraisal: evaluating long-term projects, including through discounting with present values.
• Sources of finance: the ways a business can raise funds.
• Working capital management: managing short-term assets and liabilities for day-to-day operations.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Three disciplines in one volume. The three-part structure takes a non-specialist through financial accounting, management accounting and business finance, so a single module can cover how statements are prepared and read, how costs and budgets inform decisions, and how investments are appraised and financed.
• Built for practice and self-study. The publisher stresses activities, exercises and real-world examples, and the appendices give solutions to self-assessment questions, critical review questions, multiple-choice questions and end-of-chapter exercises.
• Well-established text. The book has reached its thirteenth edition, with a glossary and an optional online course (MyLab Accounting) for instructors who use it.

Limitations

• Breadth at the cost of depth. Each discipline receives three to five chapters, so topics such as limited company accounts or financing are introduced rather than developed. Students who go on to specialise will need fuller texts.
• Finance stops at the business level. Part Three covers investment appraisal, sources of finance and working capital; the contents list has no chapters on risk and return, portfolio theory, security valuation or derivatives, the topics of financial economics proper.
• No separate treatment of rules and oversight. The contents list has no chapter on accounting standards, international differences, regulation or audit, topics that matter for understanding why published accounts look as they do.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within the financial economics list this is the main practical starting textbook. Christopher Nobes's Accounting: A Very Short Introduction is a much shorter, non-technical overview that is a good first read: it covers standards, international differences, regulation and audit, which this book does not treat in separate chapters, but it is a concise overview rather than a workbook and leaves finance aside. Reading Nobes first and then working through Atrill and McLaney combines the context with the practice.

After this book, students can go deeper in each of its three parts. The Libby textbook Financial Accounting develops Part One at full length. Atrill's Management Accounting for Decision Makers (with co-authors) and Financial Management for Decision Makers extend Parts Two and Three respectively and follow on naturally, as they come from the same author. For asset pricing and derivatives, a separate course and different books are needed.

How to Use This Book

The book is written for students taking accounting and finance as part of another degree, such as economics, engineering, law or general business, who are not training to become accountants. No prior knowledge of accounting or finance is needed; basic arithmetic is enough.

A suggested plan for a one-semester module:

• Core sequence (Chapters 1–6): read Part One in order, since each statement builds on the previous one. Do the in-chapter activities as you go rather than skipping to the answers; they are the main way the book teaches technique.
• Management accounting (Chapters 7–9): these can be read independently of Part One if a module starts with costing.
• Finance (Chapters 10–12): Chapter 10 relies on the present value table in Appendix E; get comfortable with discounting before attempting its exercises.

For self-study, finish each chapter with its self-assessment question and a few exercises, and check the solutions in the appendices only after a full attempt. The multiple-choice and critical review questions make good revision before examinations. Students who need wider context on accounting rules and audit can add Nobes's short book alongside Part One.