Customer Reviews

Intermediate Accounting

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Except for having to buy it new, there are reasons to like the Kieso series including this 13th edition of Intermediate Accounting, which is really Financial Accounting II. These authors have done everything to make the subject progressively more accessible in each edition. I know as I suffered through the courses once too. I have a master's in accounting and am a CPA. It's surprising how many accounting texts assume the student has certain prerequisite skills and knowledge and equally surprising how so many accounting professors want to lecture on what enhances their knowledge base instead of teaching to the student. The Kieso books are really teaching books. I buy used recent editions for myself just for reference since they're so well done and so cheap. Not all CPAs do that but I practice financial accounting.

You'll be lucky if the professor is permissive enough to go with an older series because most students quickly sell these books once the course is over, so used editions are MUCH cheaper. But most professors insist on the most recent edition. I think they're motivated because their authority rests on being up to date. In this 13th edition, there's a big emphasis on International Accounting Standards, and you can be sure the professors want to bone up on this themselves. The financial meltdown has discredited the whole U.S. financial complex, and one result is that the pull is now stronger toward international accounting standards rather than U.S. GAAP. Also, the authors anticipate that everyone wants to use the cheaper previous edition, so they always change the end of chapter problems. The publisher also provides the professors with additional materials including exam materials, so there's always the incentive for the professor to use the latest edition and claim that it's the only acceptable one due to the end of chapter problems.

These are really heavy books - no fun to carry around. The book weighs 6.2 pounds. That's ridiculous. 1,440 pages and you darn well have to know this material. This gives a hint why so many people, despite knowing that good accountants tend to stay employed in a recession, won't even consider this route. But at least the Kieso books, other than their workbooks, are hardcover with large dimensions and quality paper and binding. Nothing is worse than using a thick softcover text that feels like a phone book. Unfortunately they're expensive new, and you might one day be buying the 18th edition used for a fraction of this price.

Note, if you need the WileyPlus access code, it is NOT included with this book. If your professor makes you get the code, you've got to spend even more money. You get this access code at the Wileyplus website. A kind student emailed me that the code now costs $83.50 at the site. Wiley also puts in place separate deals with some but not all college bookstores, although then the prices vary a lot at the college bookstore level. Sometimes, depending on how the professor intends to use the WileyPlus resource, you might just ask the professor and get the code, but those cases are rare.

A word of caution and encouragement: This Intermediate Accounting course along with the first one, Financial Accounting, are the two that were traditionally used to weed out students from becoming accounting majors. You've got to spend a lot more time on this course than you usually would for a typical course. Good luck - I wish you the best!

This book is required for an Intermediate accounting class that I am taking. The teacher has indicated that most of his colleagues have this textbook in their offices as a reference. THe CPA exam is also based on intermediate accounting. This book is also used at most colleges. I am only a few chapters into the book, but find that it is easy to understand and comprehensive.

This book is wonderful. I was skeptical at first with all the negative reviews about its complexity and its only uses for people who are already accountants. The fact is I am studying for the CPA and I was reading the Bick Financial books. Not only was it so stodgy, It didn't explain any of the terminology. I was reading on FIFO/LIFO from the Kieso book and they explained such words as base year, year 1 layer, price indexes. Not only that, they provided concrete examples in the form of journal entries and financial statements. Yes this book is heavy, but I am taking this class online. Even then, the conciseness and All in one reference makes this book worth carrying around. Dare I say this is like an accountant's bible?

Notes on the language -I am an average reader and am still a student. I think the words they use are fairly simple(compared to the CPA texts I have read at the very least) There hasn't been a concept that has befuddled me yet. Topics and terminology are fairly easy to find. I haven't tried to look up anything obscure, but if I run into any trouble, I'll let you guys know.

I found this book to be unreliable because of all the contents that are crammed into two volumes with extra information on codification. The context of the book would seem to target an audience of people with prior experiences in accounting than students - not student friendly. Although Wiley has been very successful in the past, they have certainly lost touch with students and the use of technology.
The two volumes of this book contain short excerpts of basic concepts such as stocks, PP&E, current, long-term liabilities, etc. The examples are buried in the sentences, examples are hard to follow, and verbose. Along with all the words, and hours of untangling the words; a very short example follows. The examples however, are not enough to satisfy the unique problems assigned in the Problems and Exercise section.

For example E15-20 asks the student to calculate the Return on Common Stock Equity, the question provides a statement listing the operating income, bond int exp, income tax, net inc, com stock, and retained earnings. So I went back to the text for information, there's only half a page of information that doesn't coincide with the Exercise. So now it forces me to use the internet to complete the problem, as my classmates have also done. Relying on the internet to complete the Exercises than using the text is a common practice. One of my classmate also noted that there are phantom companies listed in the problem that isn't supposed to be there, and my instructor was also annoyed about some of these unique problems that seem to have its own rules such as an accounting for Land and Building. The text would stated that these accounts be kept separate, not so with the Exercises.

More troubling to me is how the Wiley Plus interface is setup. I took a 150 question test in Wiley Plus and there's a Link to Text icon after submitting an answer. Why is that there? The Link to Text under the Read, Study, & Practice tab took me to the entire chapter (useless) and there is no search function like normal PDF documents, and the default Ctrl F (Find) won't work in Wiley Plus. What does this mean? It means students will frustrate more time referencing the information in the book. Using the Wiley Plus has been miserable for me, a savvy technology user. There are tutorials, flash cards, and iPod audio casts that I've been using, but gave up on, and no one in my class is using those either. The person in the tutorial section has the most irritating voice that repeats the text book in verbatim, and the tutor doesn't explain how things work; so you may as well rely on YouTube. Wiley Plus may have been built by new programmers because there's a Full Screen selection. Common sense tells me that most people want to look at the entire assignment, instead of looking through a smaller window.

One nice thing is that they finally got rid of the Time Out function allowing me to spend hour's spinning wheels on unique problems. Also, if Wiley Plus provides the text, why would a student loose points for using the Link to Text function in the assignments? Why would a student loose points for using the Show Solution link after all the attempts have been made?

Let me give some tips to educators, if you ever want students to learn the material. I would recommend Pearson modules: Math Lab, or Course Compass, those are more user friendly.

This book costs way too much in conventional campus bookstores because of their huge profit margin.This is the complete book for 100bucks less!!!!!! Arrived in two days using prime shipping that comes with the amazon student a/c...

This book is ok. I am a student and although it is useful to review what a professor explained, it is terrible to study from it without any other source of input or explanation. It is also a very big book and I was hoping to sell my printed copy and get the Kindle until I found out it has no page numbers. Please make page numbers available because I checked out the sample and margins are pretty wide that very little text is shown in most kindle locations. Like I mentioned, it's a big book for Kindle and it is extremely difficult to go a'la par with classmates when the teacher says: "go to page 568" and I'm thinking: "would that be location 30,670?" It's the only reason I haven't gotten the Kindle Edition for my Kindle.

I got the sample for PC and it looks much better but, I like to carry my kindle around not my whole PC.

First off I want to say everything stated in my review is an issue of opinion and not fact. That is everything written is my opinion of this book.

I'll have to say this is one of the poorest accounting books I've come across in some time. Shockingly a majority of schools either use it for their intro accounting classes (level 200) or intermediate accounting classes (level 300).

In terms of being a book used for intro accounting this is a poor book to use since the terms, examples, and conceptual aspects of the book are very vague and assume you already have a meta-understanding of accounting (i.e. how accounts interplay with each other and effect various financial statement). Needless to say this is a poor excuse for an intro-accounting book when students have no prior knowledge. Why some schools use this book for this reason is beyond me.


Now heres my review for this book for it's intended use...
First off, a majority of the first half of the book chapters 1-14 is review of intro financial accounting with some new concepts or elaborations of older concepts thrown in. Nothing in this book new or old material is very well explained and uses the most vague examples and explanations. This is kind of shocking considering this book is on the really wordy side for a college textbook. Also this book does a poor job of presenting Accounting as a mathematical science. When taught on these terms accounting is a lot easier for most student.

Due to the reason stated above this book is simply acceptable but not great. I say not great because this book is way too vague and lacks a lot of key information you'll have to get from outside sources (i.e. your teacher or online). A great example I have is a chapter strictly on the Statement of Cash Flow (chapter 5). This book lacks what goes into each type of category within the statement of cash flow. For instance what goes into The operating, financing, and investment portion of the Cash flow Statement is omitted for some strange reason. Furthermore, this book fails to explain why changes in accounts payable, receivable, inventory, ect effect cashflow. To me this is simply inexcusable and poor logic and judgement was used in the formation of the content within this book. This is just but one example of the inadequacies of this book.

In the end I can't give this book a recommendation. It's just really really really really poorly made from a students perspective.

I thought this accounting book was awful. The book doesn't provide enough examples, surprises you with unique problems which haven't been covered ever in the chapters, doesn't even provide a glossary or a list of key figures to check your work. So basically the fundamentals of any regular educational book are absent from this. This is basically the Detroit Lions of accounting books. Keiso and Co. are now 0-13.

I purchased this book fully expecting WileyPlus to accompany it. Which is customary with this book as a brand new book. A used book the story could be different. I received the book promptly with Amazon Prime, what a great service! However, WileyPlus did not accompany the book. The listing fails to mention that it doesn't come with it but it also doesn't mention that is does come with it. Amazon is great! I just wanted to make you all aware so that you don't run into the same difficulty that I did. Best

I wasn't sure if I would like the loose-leaf/binder textbook... but being such an expensive book, I was all for cutting the price in half. I am so glad I did! This textbook is HUGE. So happy I'm not toting this heavy, bulky book around with me. I only take the chapters I need with me to class in a 1" 3-ring binder.