Introduction to Financial Accounting

Reviewed by Katheryn Zielinski, Assistant Professor, Minnesota State University Mankato on 6/14/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text reading follows typical financial accounting flow. Beginning with the foundational introduction to what accounting is through the full accounting cycle, while including financial statement analysis towards the end of the book. Students will find the format helpful; the voice is student-friendly. There is online homework help for students. Instructors will find the text format friendly to semester-long class as concepts broken down into 13 chapters. The chapters explain the learning outcomes, use examples to express concepts, with chapter summary at end. The topics included are consistent with intro accounting courses.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

No issues noticed with accuracy. The text includes accurate financial accounting information.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

For an introductory accounting class with focus on US the concepts covered are typical.

Clarity rating: 5

The content is presented in a student friendly manner. Answers are provided. The extra information is helpful for students wanting extra practice.

Consistency rating: 5

The format and layout of the book chapters are consistent. All users will quickly understand the format as it is applied the same to each chapter. This helps provide consistency for students learning introductory accounting.

Modularity rating: 5

The content within the chapters can be broken-down and assigned as instructor plans for the course length. The manner is which the material is presented flows easily as reading.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The text organization is consistent and coherent. Each chapter is presented in same manner.

Interface rating: 5

No observed tech issues. PDF downloaded and used with ease.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammar or language issues.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

No cultural insensitive or offensive context noted.

Comments

This is a student friendly text. However, students might find a glossary helpful, as well as an index.

Reviewed by Lawrence Overlan, Part-time Professor, Bunker Hill Community College on 6/4/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

I appreciate how the Statement of Cash Flows has a separate chapter towards the end of the book. Might be better to wait until that chapter instead of also discussing it in Chapter One.....lots of material for opening week....

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I sampled several problems...all correct.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Hard to make accounting obsolete. All the required material is present.

Clarity rating: 5

Problems are presented clearly and with good font size. Excellent color schemes and graphics.

Consistency rating: 5

Yes....no problems detected in this area. Very straightforward.

Modularity rating: 5

Chapters contain the right amount of content. Not too long with out breakup diagrams or examples etc.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Standard flow of chapters with excellent subdivisions.

Interface rating: 5

To the contrary, the graphics and flow charts break up the material very nicely.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No issues.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

No issues noticed in this area.

Comments

Nice work! I will definitely consider adopting.

Reviewed by Patty Goedl, Associate Professor, University of Cincinnati Clermont College on 3/27/18

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text covers all of the topics normally found in an introductory financial accounting (principles of accounting I) text. The table of contents essentially mirrors the table of contents found in the leading texts in this field. I like that this text also covers the classified balance sheet, financial disclosures and partnerships.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Content is error-free, accurate, and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The content is up-to-date. Introductory accounting does not change often so future updates should be minimal. The authors used the year 2015 in most of the problem and examples. This might make the text "seem" out-of-date in a few years.

Clarity rating: 5

The book is clear and concise. The topics are clearly explained and the technical terminology is appropriate for an introductory level.

Consistency rating: 5

The writing, style, and formatting are consistent throughout this text.

Modularity rating: 5

The text is divided into topical chapters, which is appropriate considering that the concepts build on each other. The chapters are further subdivided into sub-topics. This makes it easy for an instructor to pick which sub-topics to cover.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Excellent organization and flow. The concepts logically build upon each other and the material is presented in a clear fashion.

Interface rating: 5

The HTML interface is excellent. The book has good graphics, end of chapter content, and even video examples.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I did not notice grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way

Comments

Excellent book that is comparable to any of the leading financial accounting titles. The authors even provide end of chapter problems, videos, and interactive Excel problems for students. Overall, a great resource! I commend the authors for making something of this caliber freely available.

Reviewed by Margarita Maria Lenk, Associate Professor, Colorado State University on 1/7/16

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The content of this textbook matches the content and organization of most introductory financial accounting textbooks. It is written by Canadian authors, but is relevant to US students. The text begins by explaining the role of financial accounting in society, and then describes the underlying structure of double entry accounting systems and the process of recording economic events that impact the value of the organization through the journals and the ledger. The records of these events are then summarized into the primary financial statements. The numeric subtotals and totals on these statements are used to calculate standard financial measures and ratios used to evaluate the organization's performance. The text's organization then proceeds sequentially through the balance sheet accounts, explaining in more detail how the accounting for each category of economic value is recorded and reported. The author's decision to move the most complex content to the end of the book matches how most faculty choose to organize their coverage of these topics.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

My reviewed resulted in highest marks regarding accuracy. The only possible concern I would mention here is that the authors use a commonly used technique in chapter two which sometimes leads to students misunderstanding that revenues and expenses are not part of owners' equity until the revenues and expenses are closed at year end to retained earnings. It is my preference to teach introductory students that revenues and expenses are distinct and separate from equity, and then explain that revenues and expenses ultimately get closed to equity. So, this is not an inaccuracy by the authors, just a point that some instructors may want to know before adopting the textbook.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

It is my opinion that the content of this textbook will be relevant and current for at least a decade. Any changes made to accounting principles, Canadian or International, will be very easy and straightforward to update.

Clarity rating: 5

It is my opinion that the clarity of this text is very high. The authors are succinct and use visuals often to highlight the theoretical structures.

Consistency rating: 5

This test is very consistent with the framework that is set up by the authors in the beginning of the text.

Modularity rating: 5

The textbook is very clearly divided into separable modules, making it easy for both students to read and for instructors to choose which modules to include in their course.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The content of this textbook matches the content and organization of most introductory financial accounting textbooks. It begins by explaining the role of financial accounting in society, and then describes the underlying structure of double entry accounting systems and the process of recording economic events that impact the value of the organization through the journals and the ledger. The records of these events are then summarized into the primary financial statements. The numeric subtotals and totals on these statements are used to calculate standard financial measures and ratios used to evaluate the organization's performance. The text's organization then proceeds sequentially through the balance sheet accounts, explaining in more detail how the accounting for each category of economic value is recorded and reported. The author's decision to move the most complex content to the end of the book matches how most faculty choose to organize their coverage of these topics.

Interface rating: 5

The online text worked perfectly in my Chrome browser. The end of chapter exercises and problems are perfectly formatted on the screen. All assessment materials (quizzes, exams, etc.) are located on a different site that requires registration to have access.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found the grammar to be very clear, concise and very effective. Because the book is written by Canadians, expenses are sometimes referred to as revenue expenditures, which does not match how US textbooks refer to expenses, but is perhaps a better learning tool, as the expenses are always recorded in the period in which they match the revenue generation, so I support the authors' choices regarding how they refer to the difference between assets (capital expenditures) and expenses (revenue expenditures).

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The textbook adequately refers to the international accounting standards. That is the only cultural relevance which is relevant to introductory financial accounting.

Comments

I found this textbook and its exercises to be a useful teaching and learning tool. Instructors and students have access to pre-made PowerPoint slides, exercises and problems, and there is the option to enrol in an online service for online assessments, which seem to have student feedback capabilities in addition to assessment gathering capabilities.