This book is divided into 3 sections. Below is a promise from the authors what you can expect from each section-

Section I: ABC of Accounting

This part is about the fundamentals of finance and accounting. I started studying finance and accounting in school in grade 11 (in 1998) and it took me a few years to understand it in the right context.

I have jotted down the basics of accounting here in a dead-simple way:

Why your business is different from ‘you’?

Why are most people confused with debit and credit?

How golden rules of accounting are taught in schools and universities?

How does the accounting process work behind the scenes?

Best practices for designing the chart of accounts

IFRS and International Accounting Standards

I highly recommend reading this part in detail if you have not read finance & accounting during your school/university time. This part is the building block of this book.

Section II: Microsoft D365 ERP

I recommend this for all D365 consultants, D365 finance users, and new graduates who want to start their D365 careers. It is my promise you will not regret spending time on these 5 chapters.

This part deals with specific accounting with D365 ERP (Finance & Operations). You can also use it as a ‘cheat sheet’ while configuring the accounting of D365 and there is nothing wrong with that. If you already know a little bit of finance, this section will make you more confident with the core accounting of D365 ERP.

There is a beautiful link between D365 accounting and Golden Rules of accounting (which you read in Section I)

How does Microsoft D365 handle accounting for procurement, sales, assets, general ledger, forex, inter-company?

How the posting works in D365 (which is different from the manual accounting system and differs in each ERP)

There are some tips and tricks with every chapter which make this book unique.

IFRS and IAS references at the relevant places.

An example from Chapter 6 below-

IAS 21 — The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates

International Accounting Standard (IAS-21) require general ledger account balances in foreign currencies to be revalued using different exchange rate types (current, historical, average, etc.). For example, one accounting convention requires following conversion rates-

Assets and liabilitiesà Current exchange rate,

Fixed assetsàHistorical exchange rate, and

Profit and loss accountsà Monthly average.

Section III: Financial Statements and Ratio Analysis

It is a bonus section. As you know I am a fan of Warren Buffett and cannot miss financial statements and ratios when we talk about finance and accounting. This part deals with Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, etc., and recommends which section and ratio are most important while you want to do a quick health check of a company.

I recommend this for everyone even if you don’t want to know about debit-credit or D365 accounting. It will make you a little more intelligent in reading the financials of an organization.

Note- This book is the first in the series of two books. There will be some advanced topics in the next book e.g., revenue recognition, project accounting, lease accounting, landed costing and manufacturing, etc.