Principles of Financial Accounting

Reviewed by Jamie McCracken, Associate Professor, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College on 12/5/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This textbook covers a very comprehensive view of financial accounting in just 7 chapters. That is great for schools that have 8 week online courses. Each chapter is broken into sections of content that help the material be a smoother and easier read.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Nothing out of the ordinary jumped out at me as being incorrect. The details and the examples look great!

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Each chapter builds on the last and this is the most critical part of an accounting program as it is an accounting major's first course in the program. The information is a good example of service and merchandising businesses, and cash and accrual businesses.

Clarity rating: 5

The textbook is very clear and easy to read. Students should have a smooth transition from topic to topic.

Consistency rating: 5

Terms are kept consistent throughout the book, which will help the students keep up. Examples follow the same pattern and the author keeps each chapter in the same fashion as the last one completed.

Modularity rating: 5

I love the fact that chapters are broken into typically 3-7 page sections. The outcomes of each chapter are clearly divided and labeled well.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

I have never seen a principles book written like this. I love the fact that chapter 1 is cash basis, chapter 2 is accrual basis for service businesses, and chapter 3 is accrual basis for merchandisers.

Interface rating: 5

I had no issues finding anything in the text or navigating the chapters. The interface was very smooth.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

It appears that the book has been very well checked for spelling and grammar issues. It is a very clean read.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This text covers the FASB method of accounting that much of the world follows, so it is very relevant in multiple countries.

Reviewed by Wael Aguir, Assistant Professor, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 2/14/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This textbook covers all the topics that are typically taught in a principles of
financial accounting course. The instructor or student who will use it will find
great material including very well explained examples. Nonetheless, I think
the book includes more topics than should be included in an introductory
financial accounting text. In addition, some of the topics are presented with a
level of detail that is, in my opinion, beyond the scope of an intro-level
course. I would categorize this text as an “augmented” principles of financial
accounting book.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The textbook presents accurate accounting knowledge and accurate
examples. Based on the sample of examples that I picked; it does not appear
to have any errors in calculations. Overall, the content seems accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The content in the textbook is relevant to the principles of accounting course.
It will have a long life assuming no major changes will occur in GAAP, such
as the measurement or disclosure of some items covered in the book. I am
positive that the instructor can easily adapt this work to any changes, which
overall makes this text stand the test of time.

Clarity rating: 5

One of the major strengths of this textbook is its simple writing style and the
clarity of its exposition. The ideas are easy to follow, and the examples are
presented in small knowledge bites, which increases the overall readability
and clarity of the concepts for the students.

Consistency rating: 5

The author uses consistent accounting terminology throughout the textbook.
In addition, the presentation of the financial statements is also consistent.
This helps students focus more on the material and less on the presentation.

Modularity rating: 2

One of the major areas of improvement of this text concerns the adequacy
and the modularity of the content. Chapter 1, which in my opinion is the most
important chapter in the introductory course is very condensed and too
ambitious. Chapter 1 can be presented differently with a lighter coverage so
that the students do not get discouraged. Also, Chapter 4 is twice the length
of the other chapters and contains very condensed material. Chapters 3 and 6
are half of the length of the other chapters. I suggest the author divides
Chapter 4 into two or more chapters so that the chapters are evenly
distributed in terms of content and text.
One other major issue related to modularity is the absence of student learning
objectives from the textbook. It is hard to provide a good modularity and
structure if the SLOs of every chapter are not clearly stated.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 2

Another area of improvement in this textbook is the organization of the
chapters and the organization of the material within the chapters. While the
ideas seem to flow well, the sections are a little disorganized. For example, in
Chapter 4, usually the sections are organized according to the order of
liquidity of the assets, which is not the case in this textbook. In addition, the

discussion of Accounts Receivables is concealed under the section
“Uncollectible Accounts”. I would rather see the organization of the chapter
follow the order of the accounts on a balance sheet. The same comment is
also valid for the organization of Chapter 5.

Interface rating: 4

I commend the author is preparing very clear visuals. Many students will find
them helpful. The interface looks clean and clear. Nonetheless, in some
sections, there seems to be too much text compared to some other sections.
The alteration between text and visuals should be reviewed.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I didn’t identify any errors other than the ones identified by previous
reviewers. Overall, the textbook is free of grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The material is technical, and the examples are free of cultural bias. Some examples may relate more to the North American setting than any other areas of the world, and this makes sense since the textbook explains accounting standards according to the U.S. GAAP.

Comments

This textbook is a Principles of Accounting text on steroids. It is
comprehensive but some topics are covered in more detail than the typical
introductory financial accounting class. I overall recommend this textbook to
fellow instructors and students. I commend the author for providing great
examples and informative visuals throughout the textbook. Nonetheless, the
instructor adopting this text will likely have to reallocate the content in the
chapters among the learning modules for an even spread of the learning
activities. In addition, the absence of student learning objectives makes it
hard to focus on the salient parts of a chapter. Lastly, the textbook does not
provide practice exercises as customary of financial accounting textbooks.

The instructors and students may also want to take this aspect into
consideration.

Reviewed by Deacon Hanson, Assistant Professor - Accounting & Business, Windward Community College on 4/21/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The textbook appears to be comprehensive in its coverage of the material in an introduction to financial accounting course. I notice that the book is direct to the point, without any unnecessary fill in the text. One of the pros of this approach is that the student gets exactly what is needed. However, the student will need to be sure to read in great detail.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The examples and text appear to be reasonably accurate. Any minor typographical errors or numerical inaccuracies should be easily spotted by an instructor with accounting background, and could actually be used to work error correction with the students.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The textbook is relevant for an introduction to accounting.

Clarity rating: 5

The textbook is clear and written in a direct manner without a lot of fluff. Some students will prefer this while others may like more verbiage.

Consistency rating: 5

The textbook is formatted in a consistent manner and easy to navigate by subject. I could be applied to any introduction to financial accounting course.

Modularity rating: 5

Depending on the course, an instructor could utilize just the sections of the text that pertain to the course.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The textbook follows the normal flow of an introduction to financial accounting textbook.

Interface rating: 5

I found the textbook to interface well in the pdf format. No issues.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The book appeared to be reasonably accurate.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

No cultural issues were noted.

Comments

I enjoyed reviewing the textbook. The book's organization is straight forward and follows the normal flow of an introduction to financial accounting course. I think that a seasoned accounting instructor would have no trouble using the textbook. I would like to seem more problems sets, but the book could be supplemented with the instructor's own problem set or another publisher's problem set.

Reviewed by Ramon Alvarado, Adjunct Finance Professor, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 2/18/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The book does cover many of the beginning topics expected in an introductory financial accounting course, but this book was more tilted toward accounting. The book could have benefited by including a section on the International Accounting Standards Board and IFRS vs GAAP.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The book was fairly accurate in the explanation of the topics, but some key explanations could have had a bit more structure. In some cases, some explanations were sporadically mentioned.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

For this type of material, no significant changes typically occur; therefore, it would be easy to quickly update with new figures. Most of this material is the founding blocks of accounting so it could be updated easily.

Clarity rating: 2

The book's layout can be difficult to follow because it uses many combinations of tables, indents, partial financial statements, and different style formats. The step's of the full accounting cycle are not entirely evident. For this type of course, the layout is key to understanding the material.

Consistency rating: 4

Most of the terminology is consistent with the exception of a few areas (e.g., sales vs revenue, common stock)

Modularity rating: 4

The book had seven chapters which covered some very important topics; however some chapters such as Chapter 6: Stockholders' Equity could have had more sections to better explain the material.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

On a top level the chapters were presented in a logical manner; however, the subheading material was often mixed and difficult to follow at times with the use of many charts. The different colors used in some tables also distracted from the material.

Interface rating: 3

The layout of the tables, graphs, pictures sort of distracted from the material. Also, some tables seemed to overshadow other tables since they were crunched together. Some financial statements were too small.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Only found a few grammatical errors, some a few contractions. Page 2, for example, sates "they repairs" and "they no longer needs for his business"

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

No major issues on this front, only that maybe the example given on Learning by Doing on page 42 (I learned how to drive a standard transmission car.....) some females may find it a bit insensitive.

Comments

The book was on financial accounting, which traditionally has served as the building blocks for understanding accounting and finance. When compared to other similar textbooks; although, this book covers many of the same topics the manner in which the book delivered and laid out the concepts was not as clear. The book had good examples on accruals.