Customer Reviews

Fundamental Financial Accounting Concepts

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I've read the reviews stating that this is a confusing book. I disagree completely. Although the author does not immediately delve into traditional T-accounts, the introduction of the "horizontal model" serves as a good foundation for building the awareness of the accounting equation that should be second nature BEFORE tackling T-accounts. The text's preface states: "A horizontal financial statements model replaces the accounting equation as the predominant teaching platform. The model enables students to VISUALIZE THE SIMULTANEOUS EFFECTS OF A SINGLE BUSINESS EVENT on the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows." I felt as though this methodology was very effective for my learning style. Recording transactions in T-accounts came almost as second nature after mastering the horizontal model.

The "Working Papers" (a separate workbook) makes doing the assigned problems easy by providing a ready-made template for each problem. If you've had to draw your own T-accounts or your own journal in a notebook before, you will definitely appreciate this.

This text serves as a good introduction to the skills necessary to master financial accounting.

Mostly, my review will be covering the "kindle" format of the book.

Let me start with the simple words, "I hate it." At first it seemed so convenient to be able to just carry anywhere without a second thought. If I had a second, I could just pull my phone or kindle out and study! How could I go wrong with such a purchase?! Well, I obviously did not think of how small the many charts and balance sheets would be. Nor did I realize that the pages would be completely inconsistent. One day the information I found the day before on page 1454 will be on page 1467. I don't know why the information is read differently...it just is.

The next problem with the kindle format is that despite the "go to" function, it is impossible to compare different numbers. Especially when you are comparing the A and B problem sets.

As for the book itself? I am not the best student when it comes to mathematical equations and charts. I feel that if I had the physical text book I would do much better. However, I also feel that the content of the book moves far too quickly to allow new students to comprehend what they are learning. Also, some of the B problems are as different from their A problem counterparts as Night and Day differ. This book is a terrible choice for an "Introductory" class to Accounting. My accounting class-the lowest possible class-uses this book to introduce the concepts...and where I understood at first...I'm now completely lost as though I studied a language before visiting a country only to end up in a country where they speak a completely different language. It's not only the book's fault...but the Teacher plays a huge part in it as well. So don't take my one star review to concentrate solely on the content of the book...because it is mostly meant for the kindle version of it.

DO NOT BUY THE KINDLE VERSION. It's not worth the headaches and frustration.

I had to buy this book for my accounting class, which I'm taking only to fulfill my GenEd requirements. Instead of delivering information in some sort of logical order, the text is all over the map. It is very difficult to understand the concepts as presented. I would have much preferred that they begin with some general accounting information, such as definitions of the terms used. This book might be helpful to future CPAs but to those of us just trying to learn some basic concepts, this book is just about worthless. I've come across plenty of poorly designed textbooks and this one is at the top of my list. What a waste of money!

This book is an excellent book to go with a Financial Accounting course. Everything is laid out in plain English, and shows you in diagrams and models exactly how each kind of transaction works. I recommend for professors everywhere to adopt this book for their clases. I'm glad mine did!

This book is terrible. I completely agree that the best way to teach accounting is by building on small concepts, which this book attempts to do, but fails miserably. It teaches many different ways to do certain transactions in one chapter and then changes half of them in the next with no explanation. If you don't have a professor that can explain, you will be lost very quickly. By the third chapter, you are wondering where to put every transaction. The worst part, when you finally delve into a full fledged, advanced accounting course and learn how to actually record this stuff, you will be left baffled as to what this book was trying to do.

It is better to spend several chapters explaining a difficult concept in a way that is useful than to make up a random way and then try to make small corrections to get to the right way.

Edmonds, McNair, Milan, and Olds have created a very easy to understand textbook for learning the basics of financial accounting. It makes the learning of the endlessly complicated parts of accounting very simple and can help to cease new accounting student's fears of going on in the profession. Even though lightly marred by a few errors, it is a great introductory book.

You need this book along with the working papers that aren't provided here and you need to attend class. If your class is like mine you will have a lot of homework and those working papers will really help you to keep things sorted especially if you have sloppy handwriting or you just don't want to write all the tables and headings and things. The working papers aren't included with this book. In my case.. I found the online McGraw hill accounting much more helpful to me than the instructor or the book. Also, if you don't have the access code which you probably won't if you buy a used copy of this book that would also be beneficial to you. If you don't have the money for that though I would suggest going to the McGraw HIll website and creating a free 3 week trial account. IT HELPED ME A LOT!!! All of the homework and the answers are on there. You really want to check that out!

Great seller, great communication, very fast shipping. Will be glad to do business again!!!!

I'm a professor at a large state university. On the rare occasions when I teach this course, I always order the Edmonds book.

I believe the purpose of introductory or fundamental financial accounting is to teach students how to read and use finanacial statements. If used properly by the instructor, this is one of only two books on the market (the other is for MBA students) that can be used for this purpose.

I whole-heartedly endorse the horizontal model used by Edmonds, et. al. Most text book writers use a form of it. I even use it in my writings.

Some students want to learn debits and credits. In my opinion, this is best left to technical courses in accounting for those interested in the nuts and bolts.

However, for anyone who want to get something long-lasting from the course, this text book combined with the right professor, will be about the only option.

If this or any text book is used to teach technical aspects at the fundamental level, you won't have a good experience. Techinical aspects are best covered in Intermediate Accounting.

This text is abysmal. It is riddled with errors and omissions, gives incomplete examples, and presents information unsequentially. It relies too much and for too long on the horizontal model without practical applicatoin to journals and statements. If your college uses this text (as Medaille College and Finger Lakes Community College currently do) run away!

Fortunately, many of the gaps are filled in by the PowerPoint® presentations they make available on their support site: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072472960/student_view0/ Note that these presentations are more extensive than the ones on the Topic Tackler CD that comes with the book. You must download these presentations if you want to have a chance with this book.