Customer Reviews

Intermediate Accounting, 2007 FASB Update

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The book is huge. I didn't know the book is available in two parts to cut back on the bulk. It is the size of a dictionary. The book is also very heavy, which doesn't really come in handy when I am carrying it all over the college campus. It does not fit into my oversized school bag (or it would if nothing else was in the bag).
The book is ok. My professor tests us on questions that aren't gone over in depth within the book. Each chapter has A LOT of info and not enough ways to critically access and understand all of it. The editors should consider more problems or better explainations that go into concepts more in depth then just scratching the surface as they do now.

Intermediate Accounting, Update
Intermediate Accounting is a comprehensive, attractive textbook. The usefulness of the exercises is curtailed by the lack of an answer section. I guess it is a marketing ploy to produce workbooks separately instead of providing even abbreviated answers in textbooks, nowadays. Apart from this deficiency, the book is very useful for studying accounting principles.

This textbook will only confuse anyone coming to intermediate accounting for the first time. It is extremely obtuse in its discussions and hardly provides any examples for the reader to learn from. Instead it is highly discursive about exceptions and rare instances, but never adequately teaches the basics before moving on to these topics.

If you are coming to intermediate accounting for the first time and actually want to LEARN accounting, get Horngren's "Accouting". It may not look like much, but it's got it where it counts!

Kieso's book I belive is useful for those who already know accounting, but are seeking an advanced discussion. I believe professors chose this text because they are bored with the basics that they already know. For the student, this book will leave you unprepared for both the exercise problems at the end of each chapter and for your tests, including the CPA exam.

If you are assigned this text and the problems from it, I recommend reading the same topics in Horngren first (usually he breaks Kieso's topics into two short chapters) and then reading the same material in Kieso [shudder] before taking on the problems.

This book is an expensive paperweight. It is the worst textbook I have ever used. I had to purchase another Intermediate Accounting book just to explain what the author was explaining. There are no textbook solutions or checks by the review questions. The information was presented in a backwards form, an Anarchist version of deductive reasoning. The book is incredibly cryptic and a waste of money. Don't buy this book if you can get through your class without it. If you really want to learn Intermediate Accounting, I highly recommend purchasing Intermediate Accounting by Spiceland. Spiceland's book is well written and Mcgraw-Hills website has incredibly more comprehensive online resources and puts Wiley's to shame.

The Intermediate Accounting Update was a good book to use. The only thing I didn't like about it was it didn't have any solutions in the back of the book. My professor would give copies of the solutions though. It was kind of understandable considering it had 24 chapters. This would be a better buy if they included a cd of the solutions also.

Got this book for my intermediate accounting 1 class. VERY hard to follow. Some homework questions are not even discussed within the chapters! Some are phrased in a way that you have to dig for the answer because it doesn't match how it was explained in the text (ie you're looking for potato and the text refers to spud - same thing but you have to really *look* for it). Mix with a professor who doesn't explain things well and you'll struggle a bit. Plan on reading each chapter twice to fully comprehend.

Side note: book is INSANELY heavy. If you plan on keeping the book and are going to use it again for other classes, it's WELL worth spending $10 at a kinko's to have them cut the binding off and three hole punch the text to carry just what you need for the semester with you. This book will cause serious shoulder/neck/back problems if you try to carry it around along iwth everything else. Just note the pages are kind of thin so you need to handle with care.

This is a very good book for intermediate accounting.. although the class may be super hard, the book gives ongoing examples to help lead you through the different topics that it teaches. It makes it easier to follow along and relates the topics to real life situation. overall a very good book!

I tutor college accounting and needed this book to be able to help one of my students over the phone. The book arrived early (great shipping) and in new condition. All for the low price of 18.50 including shipping. As far as the text goes, it's the same authors that wrote the books I used in college, 12 years ago so I'm familiar with the layout. I will say that sometimes the questions seem to be missing some detail that would clarify exactly what they are looking for.
The text explanations, though are great. I'm glad I bought it.

This is a very large book on US GAAP accounting (briefly compared to the international accounting standard.) About half the book consists of exercises. The book is fairly easy to read unlike some accounting texts which can be very abstract. The book has small examples throughout that demonstrate the accounting issues and small stories from the news-media regarding financial statistics, frauds, etc., which make you appreciate the need for good accounting.

However, I have only rated the book 3 stars because it is very expensive (new) and ought to make it easier for you to understand the flows of accounting. In this book, accounting issues are usually just described verbally and with a few lines of debits and credits to the relevant accounts, rather than e.g. diagrams showing the flow of monies and goods and their effect on the financial statements. This means it can be hard to get an overview, especially if you are a novice.

A small and cheap book called Financial Statements by Thomas Ittelson is much better at giving you a basic understanding of accounting and the flow of inventory, revenue, expenses, etc. and their effect on the financial statements. If you are new to accounting I would recommend that book as your first.

If you do have a basic understanding of accounting and can find a cheap used copy of this book I recommend it for its more indepth description of US GAAP.

I should perhaps mention that I am not an accountant or auditor. My interest is with investment analysis of financial statements.

PS: This review is for the 12th edition with 2007 FASB update.

I bought this for book for an accounting course at school. It's PRETTY detailed for the most part, the reading itself was really cut and dry. However, for someone that might not be THAT familiar with accounting, some of the exercises at the end of the chapter are based on assumptions, or, for some, might take some extra legwork outside of the book to come up with an answer. It could probably be written better, if anything. But for the most part, good book for referencing.