Customer Reviews

Financial Accounting

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The authors present the concept that Accounting is inherently interesting, yet the available textbooks are not. With this edition of Financial Accounting, they have done an excellent job of delivering a highly interesting, engaging and relevant text suitable for the serious student or the non-major.

The most useful aspect of this book is its ability to assist the reader in "thinking like an accountant". Each chapter, presented in building-block style, teaches you how to view real-world companies from several financial viewpoints. There is an emphasis placed on financial reporting and the analysis of financial statements which are interesting and very relevant to the outside business world.

The pace of the text is excellent and the pure accounting topics are interspersed with sidebars concerning ethics and international acccounting issues.

Especially appealing was the fact that the subject companies in the text were highly recognizable and the authors included background information about each one. I found this much more effective than presenting the reports of imaginary enterprises.

Whether you are an Accounting major or a non-major fulfilling a course requirement, you will find this text to be an interesting read and a valuable reference.

Perhaps you will discover like I did, surprisingly, that Accounting IS inherently interesting.

I am an engineer running a small company. Last year I bought an accounting package to keep better track of my business. Though the software is great the accompaning manuals are of no use and their concise introduction to accounting did make matters worse.

I have been looking at several accounting manuals but could not find one I could just sit down with and read on my own.

Well now I have found it. This manual is easy to read, clear and to the point and the real company examples make it interesting. After reading only two chapter I realized that the information that came with the accounting software put me totally on the wrong track.

I can recommend this book, manual very highly.

The book is very well rounded and very helpful in introducing what might have been confusing subjects. Author brings in real life examples and raises questions of ethics in accounting. Graphic design is excellent and makes the book "look" interesting. No effort was spared to make this book graphically appealing. I recommend this book even to the non-accounting/business person. The lessons taught in chapters one thru four are essential for everyone to know in order to make sound economic choices.

i realize that a review of a textbook is somewhat of a moot point. after all, you have to buy the book that the professor tells you to buy. but, here it is anyway:

the book was average in every sense of the word. the one thing i did not like about it was that it did not highlight every new word or phrase and define it. only about half of the new words or phrases were highlighted in a text box next to the paragraph. this means that if you were searching for a word or phrase, if it was not noted in the margin, then it was very difficult to find it. this is fairly typical of textbooks, so i figured it was average.

This text is more sizzle than steak.

Appropriate, perhaps, for a survey class for non-accounting majors, but insufficient for the student pursuing accounting as a major. Let's face it, a large part of introductory accounting is drill and practice. The book skimps on these elements. The narrative is generally lively, and true to its billing the book is full of real-world examples for the chapter subjects. The text also has a very modern, splashy graphic design.

The book does not have enough in the way of examples that teach the mechanics of journal entries, T-accounts and the like.

This text, unfortunately, represents the trend of dumbing down our school books. An "A" for style, a "C+" for substance.

This book is not for beginners! The exercises in the textbook are difficult to follow because they don't provide much examples in the chapters. Also, important topics are briefly discussed. However, I enjoyed reading the case studies.

Given how dry a subject Accounting can be (especially for non-Accounting majors) - this book really was fantastic. It serves up excellent examples, has a modern, graphic and splashy style that made it easy to follow along and refer back to key terms, and I liked the tie-ins to business in the general commentary. It's a great text for a self-paced course like an online accounting course offered at Berkeley. I felt like I learned a lot from this book.

This text is a great resource for learning financial accounting. By the writer's use of examples, the information is easier to learn

The book's preface indicates "We assume the students has had no prior exposure to accounting and financial statements, and has had little exposure to the business world". Hah! As I read through this book, I honestly believe these authors (professional CPAs) had completely forgot who their target audiences were.

If this is a required textbook for your class, I highly suggest looking into a good supplemental book. Good luck.

If your school uses this book, not only don't take this class, drop out of the school. If I could rate this with negative numbers I would. This is the worst textbook ever devised by man OR woman. If you are already a CPA looking for a review, it might be worth something, otherwise it teaches nothing. It presents examples without first explaining things then explains things using examples that have no bearing on what is being taught.

If you have to use this book, my sympathy for you. I can only hope the school will refund at least a portion of my money.