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About the Author
Ray H. Garrison is emeritus Professor of Accounting at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Brigham Young University and his D.B.A. degree from Indiana University. As a certified public accountant, Professor Garrison has been involved in management consulting work with both national and regional accounting firms. He has published articles in The Accounting Review, Management Accounting, and other professional journals. Innovation in the classroom has earned Professor Garrison the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Teaching Award from Brigham Young University.

Eric W. Noreen is a globe trotting academic who has held appointments at institutions in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He is currently Professor of Accounting at the University of Washington and Visiting Price Waterhouse Professor of Management Information & Control at INSEAD, an international graduate school of business located in France.He received his B.A. degree from the University of Washington and MBA and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. A Certified Management Accountant, he was awarded a Certificate of Distinguished Performance by the Institute of Certified Management Accountants.

Peter C. Brewer is a professor in the Department of Accountancy at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He holds a BS degree in accounting from Penn State University, an MS degree in accounting from the University of Virginia, and a PhD from the University of Tennessee. He has published 30 articles in a variety of journals including: Management Accounting Research, the Journal of Information Systems, Cost Management, Strategic Finance, the Journal of Accountancy, Issues in Accounting Education, and the Journal of Business Logistics. Professor Brewer is a member of the editorial boards of Issues in Accounting Education and the Journal of Accounting Education. His article “Putting Strategy into the Balanced Scorecard” won the 2003 International Federation of Accountants’ Articles of Merit competition and his articles “Using Six Sigma to Improve the Finance Function” and “Lean Accounting: What’s It All About?” were awarded the Institute of Management Accountants’ Lybrand Gold and Silver Medals in 2005 and 2006. He has received Miami University’s Richard T. Farmer School of Business Teaching Excellence Award and has been recognized on two occasions by the Miami University Associated Student Government for “making a remarkable commitment to students and their educational development.” He is a leading thinker in undergraduate management accounting curriculum innovation and is a frequent presenter at various professional and academic conferences. Prior to joining the faculty at Miami University, Professor Brewer was employed as an auditor for Touche Ross in the firm’s Philadelphia office. He also worked as an internal audit manager for the Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He frequently collaborates with companies such as Harris Corporation, Ghent Manufacturing, Cintas, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Schneider Electric, Lenscrafters, and Fidelity Investments in a consulting or case writing capacity.

Libby/Libby/Short wrote this text based on their belief that the subject of financial accounting is inherently interesting, but financial accounting textbooks are often not. They believe most financial accounting textbooks fail to demonstrate that accounting is an exciting field of study and one that is important to future careers in business. When writing this text, they considered career relevance as their guide when selecting material, and the need to engage the student as their guide to style, pedagogy, and design. Libby/Libby/Short is the only financial accounting text to successfully implement a real-world, single focus company approach in every chapter. Students and instructors have responded very favorably to the use of focus companies and the real-world financial statements. The companies chosen are engaging and the decision-making focus shows the relevance of financial accounting regardless of whether or not the student has chosen to major in accounting.

A strength of this book is that there are many color diagrams throughout which illustrate/highlight the material. The treatment of process cost accounting is thorough and highly simplified with many detailed examples to illustrate the computation of equivalent units. In process cost accounting, it is critical to understand the physical flow of costs, as well as, interdepartmental transfers and modified cost assumptions. In addition, there is a thorough treatment of managerial cost accounting in the areas of discounted cash flow, internal rate of return, compounding, depreciation and cash flow, net present value, uncertainty, inflation, capital budgeting, payback and the accounting rate of return. Lastly, there is a good treatment of decentralization and transfer pricing.

The book is worth the price of admission. Classic problems from this text have been replicated on some form or another on professional and collegiate standardized tests. This work helps to support what is taught in a collegiate finance course, as well as the cost accounting element.

The thrust of a cost accounting course is for the B or better student. There is a fair amount of work in this course.As such, it is geared for accounting, finance or economics majors. Quantitatively oriented students will enjoy the presentation as well as a wide constituency of teachers in academe. Even college administrators would find this text useful for preparing budget schedules and interdepartmental cost analyses. Engineering companies would benefit by having a detailed analyses of process costing and managerial accounting on individual construction jobs.

The authors of FINANCIAL AND MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING, 10E, understand that you need to find important information quickly. This textbook uses an integrated learning system to help you complete homework and lead you to accounting mastery. Building on the authors’ proven approach, clear examples and high-impact writing guide you through the preparation of financial statements as the authors artfully provide a framework for understanding what accounting is all about and accounting’s evolving role in business.

Rated the most satisfying textbook by students in independent research, Spiceland/Sepe/Nelson/Tomassini’s Intermediate Accounting, 5e, has the quality, flexibility, and attention to detail students need to master a challenging subject. It’s your Vehicle to Success in the Intermediate Accounting course and beyond! Spiceland/Sepe/Nelson/Tomassini provides a decision maker’s perspective to emphasize the professional judgment and critical thinking skills required of accountants today. Reviewers, instructors, and student users of Spiceland have enthusiastically embraced the relaxed, conversational writing style that engages students in an enjoyable and effective learning experience. In addition, accounting’s preeminent textbook website provides students a wide variety of electronic learning resources, including new iPod content for the fifth edition. Coach, Study Guide, Instructor’s Manual, Solutions Manual, Testbank, and Website content are all created by authors, ensuring seamless compatibility throughout the Spiceland learning package. The end-of-chapter material, too, is written by the author team and tested in their own classes before being included in Intermediate Accounting. Few areas see the kind of rapid change that accounting does, and the Spiceland team is committed to keeping current. The fifth edition fully integrates all the latest FASB Standards, and the authors are committed to keeping you updated with all relevant content changes throughout the edition.

In the industry we call this the “Lighthouse Series.” It is the preeminent textbook in Management Accounting. I use this book as a resource. I’m a practicing CPA, licensed in Washington, DC with a master’s degree in accounting.

Initially I hesitated to review the 13th edition of the Lighthouse Series because it is hard to do so without finding something critical to say. But the authors dedicated this book “To our families and to our many colleagues who use this book.” Management Accounting is meant to be the number one textbook in its field, which it is, and the number one management accounting resource to practicing accountants, which is also the case.

This book is dominant because of the enormous investment in making it simply the most student-friendly and resourceful text in the field. This is one of the few texts where no money was spared to make it what it is today, and the list of professors that contributed by being reviewers and consultants to this text is longer than any such list I have ever seen. You can hardly find any written work that has benefited from and survived such scrutiny.

The three authors are famous within the profession as they have published many scholarly articles in the professional journals. But what impresses me more is that they have all won major awards for teaching, even awards that were decided by students. I am even more impressed with star teacher accountants than prolific publisher accountants because their contribution will ultimately be greater.

There are many topics covered in this text and the following is just a sample: job order costing; process costing; activity-based costing; cost-volume-profit; inventory; balanced scorecard; overhead application and analysis; budgeting; financial statement analysis; decentralization and segment reporting; valuation methods; management investment projects; decision-making of all types including make-or-buy and allocation type decisions and much more.

The textbook is part of a set that is produced and reviewed by all the same people. The sturdy 896 page hardcover with good paper stock and sturdy binding is a fraction of the material. You also get the best supplements of any book within the subject of accounting, and fortunately you can use one password to access all of the book’s online resources. These supplements include but are not limited to Homework Manager (a lot of problems of which only a fraction would be assigned by a professor with instant feedback); Online Curriculum Center (contains many Internet-based activities such as quizzes, tours and even information about careers and jobs); Topic Tackler Plus (interactive multimedia lessons); Workbook Study Guide; Templates; Practice Sets; Notes and Study Aids. Again, no expense has been spared and the list of professors that added value to these resources is extensive almost beyond belief.

Finally I am actually surprised at the relatively low cost on Amazon considering the quality of the textbook, the online resources behind the text and the money spent to produce this 13th edition of the Lighthouse Series. I know that for students, it is not a cheap book, but it is not as expensive as many textbooks with far less expertise and resources required for production.

If you are a student who is taking an accounting course and your instructor requires you to use the accompanying Wiley Plus website, do not expect to get a Wiley Plus, registration code with this product.

I purchased the text “new” directly from Amazon for an accounting class I am taking and I assumed that I would recieve the registration code I needed; I assumed wrong as there was no registration code included with my book.

If you do need the code for class and you do choose to buy this book from Amazon, you’ll be best off buying the cheapest, used edition and going to the Wiley Plus site directly to get a standard registration code for around $60 dollars. Of Course keep in mind shipping costs may eat up any savings you’d get buying from Amazon in the first place!

The 1 star review actually reflects my dissatisfaction with the description of this product on Amazon’s site, and not the quality of the text.

Happy Shopping!

Ideal for graduate, MBA, and higher-level undergraduate programs, FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING: AN INTRODUCTION TO CONCEPTS, METHODS, AND USES presents both the basic concepts underlying financial statements and the terminology and methods that allows the reader to interpret, analyze, and evaluate actual corporate financial statements. Fully integrated with the latest International Financial Reporting Standards, inclusion of the latest developments on Fair Value Accounting, and coverage of the Codification of US GAAP, this text provides the highest return on your financial accounting course investment

The bestselling book on intermediate accounting, Kieso is an excellent reference for practicing accountants and an invaluable resource for anyone entering the field. It integrates FARS/Codification exercises, cases, and simulations into the chapters. This introduces readers to the codification project. They’ll learn how to leverage everyday accounting programs like Excel, GLS, and other computerized accounting software giving them a strong background in the tools needed in the accounting profession. New and existing content is arranged in a way to offer accountants a chance to review key concepts.