Customer Reviews

The Accounting Game : Basic Accounting Fresh from the Lemonade Stand

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I just graduated this June with an MBA- so I've had done lots of accounting in the past for homework and exams and case study projects at school. I just applied for a job that said I had to take an accounting exam so to study I thought I start with this book before I dive back into accounting since it's thinner than my fat textbooks. I sort of knew all this before- like in school I had half memorized where things went in the balance sheet, income statements etc. and what to subtract or add- but after reading this book, I feel like I really really understand everything in a way I never had before. The book is amazing. I understand the basic concepts intuitively now. It made everything very clear and easy. It's a fun read too!

Don't let this book title fool you. It is not an oversimplification of accounting and financial principles. It is, however, a serious and very effective examination of a very small but progressively complex business. There are not many books available on the market that make a complex and dry subject understandable and even fun. This book successfully does just that. The authors help the reader understand the principles without getting caught up in large numbers to confuse matters.

This book is a brilliant analysis of the original small business --a lemonade stand. This business starts off simple and progresses into a more and more complex financial entity over the course of several weeks. While it is so well explained that even the average teen could undertsand it, this book is a serious learning tool for anyone and does not in any way take on a condescending tone. The authors have fun, but offer meaty information. Ever wonder what the difference and advantages are between the accural and cash methods or why the statement of cashflows is so important or how depreciation effects the bottom line or how the decision to use LIFO or FIFO effects the income statement? All those answers and many more are nicely illustrated in this wonderful book.

What a fun and effective way to learn accounting! After years of teaching economics to MBA students and freshmen, I wish there had been textbooks written like this to facilitate instruction of often dry topics. It doesn't read like a textbook, rather it entertains while it teaches and got me personally involved. I didn't realize that I was learning accounting concepts until the chapter was over and I stopped laughing. I felt like I had a personal tutor with me each time I read it. Very interactive. Very fun. The material covered is comprehensive, starting out with basic terminology to the construction of a balance sheet to deriving an income statement to understanding how various business scenarios impact financial statements. Don't be put off by its simplicity, because that is what makes this book so effective and engaging. Anybody who wants to make learning interesting should read this book. Anybody who wants a great crash course in accounting to know how to read a balance sheet or explain one should read this book.

I am using this book to teach accounting fundamentals to my accounting staff. It is filled with important accounting concepts and terms that are explained with easy to understand examples. The book actually teaches itself. However, my students read a chapter and complete the related transactions before each class. We then go over the chapter together and apply what we learned to our daily accounting responsibilities.

I have been a certified public accountant for almost 25 years and I have personally benefited from the review of accounting concepts presented in this book.

ever get bombarded with terms like revenues, bottom line, gross margin, fifo, negative cash flow? i had taken almost 21 units of accounting in college but without practice(marketing is my expertise) i have but almost forgotten the meaning of the terms as well as the relationships among the balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows. this book relies on the simple method of relating the basics of accounting to running a small business as a kid(a lemonade stand) and then applies the principles of accounting to it. although i never did have problems with my accounting courses, my classmates did and they could have used a quite engaging method as described by "the accounting game." even if you are in the financial/accounting field, this would still provide you with ways of explaining concepts to non-financial people. i would highly recommend this as a must read...

This is an easy, excellent accounting book. It's the best accounting book ever. The examples are clear and understandable. It's fun to read. It gives definitions that you'll remember, and is an excellent overview of accounting.

However, I'm only giving it three stars because it suffers from something that most accounting books suffer from: impossible examples.

This book is done like a worksheet. It's about half simple instruction and half impossible examples. The examples are impossible, because to actually fill them out, you'd have to remember tons of information from 1-10 pages ago. The part where you just read is very good. The part where you're supposed to fill out the account schedules on the pages of the book is almost impossible to do by yourself.

It would be an excellent workbook to be used in a 10-day accounting class, where you write in your book as the teacher writes in his or her book. But, if you're trying to do this on your own, you really would need to keep track of tons on numbers and receipts, etc., to even be able to do the examples.

I originally ordered the Accounting Game as a tool to use for teaching my nephews and nieces about accounting. Instead, I ended up using it as a tool to teach co-workers about accounting. The co-workers were five employees from different areas of the same division of a large company. Because everyone has limited time, we chose to go through the contents in five days (1 1/2 hours each day). The small group was "elated" with the content; I could see light bulbs going on all over the small conference room. Most interesting to the group were the 3 financial statements, inventory valuation, and the difference between cash flow and earnings.

I fully intend to use the book again for a much larger group of co-workers and my nephews and nieces.

Thanks again for providing this wonderful seminar (which I've never attended) in the form of a book.

I am in the process of improving my financial literacy and like many others had always felt that accounting was dry, informal and boring. Once I picked up this book however I was engrossed and finished it in just a few days. My understanding of accounting, and more importantly how a business operates, increased by orders of magnitude. I really noticed when I came into the office yesterday and struck up a conversation with one of our stategic business planners. Before long I was pouring over our last annual report's financial statements and getting it!!!

In college I was a business major and MBA. That was 15 years ago. All through college accounting was my biggest nightmare. I just COULDN'T get it. Finance easy, stats cool, get me in accounting and I was lost.

I needed to re-learn the the subject's basics (information that I never really understood in the first place) because of a new business venture. In one week of reading this book, I walked away with a better understanding and a USEABLE undestanding of accounting, far superior to what I was exposed to in college. It just blows my mind!

Granted, time and experience may have changed my attitude and abilties toward the subject, but for the first time in my life, I walked away from this book actually liking accounting! For me, that in itself is amazing.......This book would have easily raised my GPA!

Darrell Mullis and Judith Orloff have created an easy to read and simple introduction to practically every accounting concept you will need to run a small business. Their method is simple: you are a kid with a lemonade stand. You need to handle cash, inventory, assets, liabilities, and so on while you run your business. Through this very simple approach they succeed in teaching some of the most critical accounting concepts. And they make it fun!

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