Customer Reviews

Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods and Uses

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Many people get this book wrong. This is a book for graduate students, not for undergraduates. It introduces the concepts of financial accounting in a condensed way, which does require more time and patient to understand it, like the way we study in MBA program. Since this book assumes its reader as future statement readers, it introduces finanical statements, including balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement,in the first few chapters to let student understand the linkage among them. It is usually very difficult to understand for those without background, though. Plus, given the fact that this book is required by most of top MBA programs, like Chicago, Columbia, and NYU, I'd like to say that accounting professors have told us the quality of this book. For those who have a hard time on this, I would also recommend its accompanied study guide and solution manuals (used one available on amazon website ISBN 0030269695& ASIN: 0030182697; make sure get the right edition!!). After all, this is a good book, but requires more practices. Good luck.

I'd never had any accounting courses before. This textbook was required for my financial accounting course in an MBA program. The book does a good job of logically explaining all the important topics. Unfortunately, it takes a Herculean effort to sit down and study the material due to the dry subject matter.

The authors did a good job of using examples from real firms, which, I think, makes it more interesting. I've decided to keep this book after the course for a reference.

This textbook is not very good. The chapters do not cover the subject material very well at all.

More advanced subjects are not covered in the book and you are instead referred to a website. That is ridiculous. The treatment of inventories is especially terrible.

I would not recommend this book.

FACMU provides an excellent introduction into the world of Financial Accounting. Unlike most textbooks I've seen, FACMU introduces cash flow analysis fairly early (Chapter 4) in the course. (The importance: What do Boston Market and W.T. Grant have in common? Both filed for bankruptcy after operating profitably for most of the years prior to their filing.)

Stickney and Weil make a concerted effort to illustrate how financial accounting is done outside of the US. At the end of most chapters are a couple of pages how a particular topic is viewed by the International Accountign Standards Committee (and, occasionally, how industrialised countries may differ). For example, in Great Britain, firms can place a valuation on their brand names. (Here, they generally can't.)

Each chapter is contains abundant examples and practice exercises, many culled from real companies' financial statements. (W.T. Grant is especially interesting.)

Summary: a good introduction to financial accounting. Don't wait for the movie :-)

I am the co-author of this book. the 10th edition is now out. If you are a student, you'll want that. If you're trying to learn on your own, you'll find this 9th edition adequate and much cheaper. good luck. roman

The text was used in the school accounting course instructed by the very author. Excellent professor, but the text wasn't helpful for a beginner in accounting like I.

I recently used this book for an accounting class. I am not really an "accounting head", having come from a computing background, and I had to do the course as a graduate degree requirement. I found the book to be very thorough and well written. The authors took their time to explain every new term throughout. The book also has numerous exercises [maybe too many]. I do not expect to "do accounting" in the future, but if I have to, I'll get a copy of this book again. In reading this book, I found my professor's advice quite handy: 1. start off with the learning objectives for each chapter; 2. read the chapter summary; 3. check all the diagrams in the chapter; 4. read the text; 5. practice as many exercises as you can; 6. finally, review your work. I did this and smashed the course [B+--not bad for a "non-accounting head"]. I found the accompanying study guide [By LeBronne Harris and James Moon] invaluable also. This is probably the best book out there on Financial Accounting.

This is a great book for persons who want an integrated approach to financial analysis. I think it is best used as a reference (I wouldn't want to read through it), and have used it frequently as such, post-MBA (NYU). It should definitely not be looked at as an accounting primer, nor even as an accounting textbook. While another leading text instructs on one-dimensional "analysis" of financial statements, this book provides a much more multi-dimensional framework for analyzing information. Not for the faint-hearted or for those who just want rote number-crunching techniques.

The book is concise, precise. The book explains in one page what other do in many pages. The authors Stickney and Weil do a superb job in explaining the Concepts and Methods. I've followed this book since its third edition, when the great Sidney Davidson was on the team. They have always use a Conceptual approach rather than a procedural. When I need to review a concept, I open this book first, and then maybe I may open others. This book is more suitable for graduate level. It is not for undergraduate.

It was a text book for my accounting class. Actually, it was my first meeting with accounting. The whole semester was a nightmare. The large of the nightmare could be attributed to this boring textbook.