AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH
Financial Accounting: An Integrated Statements Approachis an innovative text that uses
a unique pedagogical approach to enhance student learning of financial accounting.
Designed for a one-term financial accounting course, the text is written for either
undergraduate students at two- or four-year colleges and universities or by first-year
MBA (Masters of Business Administration) students with no prior accounting back-
ground. The text combines a thorough understanding of accounting concepts, princi-
ples, and reporting with applications to actual business settings. The text emphasizes
the “why” rather than just “how” generally accepted accounting principles are applied.
Using a unique Integrated Financial Statements (IFS) Approach, the text describes and
illustrates the integrated nature of the financial statements, how transactions affect the
statements, and the importance of using all the financial statements in analyzing and
interpreting a company’s performance and financial condition. The IFS approachis
composed of IFS exhibits, IFS spreadsheets, and IFS margin notations.
The text uses a simple to complex approach that first allows students to better
grasp basic financial accounting concepts before advancing to more complex topics.
For example, Financial Accountingdoes not introduce debits and credits until students
have a solid understanding of how to prepare financial statements, how to analyze
transactions, how to record transactions, and how to interpret the integrated nature of
transactions.
By carefully structuring its illustrations, Financial Accountingalso explains and illus-
trates why the accrual basis of accounting is required by generally accepted account-
ing principles. Rather than covering the statement of cash flows late in the text, Financial
Accountingintegrates the statement of cash flows and its importance throughout the
text. The early coverage of the statement of cash flows is enhanced by the IFS Approach,
which reduces its complexity. The authors describe and illustrate each of the preced-
ing characteristics of Financial Accountingnext.
THE INTEGRATED FINANCIAL
STATEMENTS APPROACH
TheIntegrated Financial Statements (IFS) Approachfocuses on enhancing student under-
standing of the integrated nature of the financial statements and how transactions
affect the statements. The IFS Approachis composed of IFS exhibits, IFS spreadsheets,
and IFS margin notations.
IFS Exhibits
TheIFS Approachis first introduced in Chapter 1 in Exhibit 8 as shown at the top of
the following page.
Preface