Book excerpt: This is the new edition of the bestselling guide to understanding and using business accounts and accounting principles, written in a way that even the financially nervous novice can easily absorb. Accounting is generally viewed as a highly technical and complex subject. However, accounts are actually based on simple principles. It's not company accounts that are complex, it's all too often the way that they are explained. In this simple and easy read book, the author guides you through all the major accounting concepts. Discover how to master company accounts, understand balance sheets, profit and loss accounts and cash flow systems. Learn to analyse and monitor your company's financial performance. Accounts Demystified is the definitive, user-friendly guide to the fundamental principles of accounting that no manager will want to be without. In this 5th edition of the classic Accounts Demystified, Anthony Rice makes accounting astonishingly simple and pain-free.