Corporate Financial Reporting

Rating:
Summary: Great Fun to Teach
Review: Here is a secret: the study or practice or accounting may be tedious, but the teaching of accounting is fun. It's about money, power, greed, betrayal -- what's not to like? More particularly, it is one of those courses where students come in bearing such low expectations thaqt their only surprises will be pleasant.

Of all the accounting materials I've been exposed to, none is more fun to teach than this book by Brownlee, Ferris and Haskins. There is an introductory chaper of nuts and bolts. But then, the bulk of the book is made up of case studies in accounting analysis. With bright students (I use it with second- or third-year law students), you can do a whole course from the standing start.

Whenever I teach accounting, I tend to treat it as a "fraud" course--try to find the gimmick. In general, students are uncomfortable with the approach. They tend to think of accountants as nice people and their a not always happy with my seeming cynicism. Post-Enron (and WorldComm, and Adelphia, and Parmalat, etc. etc., etc.), I am tempted to call up all my former students and say -- "See? I was right all along." Meanwhile, it is wonderful to watch the student puzzle over a Brownlee problem and then say (as if with a flash of insight) -- "But that's wrong!" And of course the answer is: "That's why it's in the book."

Rating:
Summary: Great Fun to Teach
Review: Here is a secret: the study or practice or accounting may be tedious, but the teaching of accounting is fun. It's about money, power, greed, betrayal -- what's not to like? More particularly, it is one of those courses where students come in bearing such low expectations thaqt their only surprises will be pleasant.

Of all the accounting materials I've been exposed to, none is more fun to teach than this book by Brownlee, Ferris and Haskins. There is an introductory chaper of nuts and bolts. But then, the bulk of the book is made up of case studies in accounting analysis. With bright students (I use it with second- or third-year law students), you can do a whole course from the standing start.

Whenever I teach accounting, I tend to treat it as a "fraud" course--try to find the gimmick. In general, students are uncomfortable with the approach. They tend to think of accountants as nice people and their a not always happy with my seeming cynicism. Post-Enron (and WorldComm, and Adelphia, and Parmalat, etc. etc., etc.), I am tempted to call up all my former students and say -- "See? I was right all along." Meanwhile, it is wonderful to watch the student puzzle over a Brownlee problem and then say (as if with a flash of insight) -- "But that's wrong!" And of course the answer is: "That's why it's in the book."

Rating:
Summary: Not for everyone
Review: Materials are technical and explanations are skimpy. Some cases are excellent but most of exercises are just too mechanical. This book is for advanced courses for real accountants. In my opinion, not suitable for general MBAs.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book.
Review: This is an extremely well-written and thoughtful book. The authors take a highly practical and rigorous look at accounting as used in practice by publicly-traded companies. It is an effective integration of accounting principles and real-world financial statement analysis -- helps the reader develop a sense of what is aggressive, what is conservative, etc., and what critical issues are discernible but not immediately obvious from a routine examination of financial statements. A good read for would-be Ben Inkers. For a more basic introduction to accounting, check out books by Robert Anthony.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book.
Review: This is an extremely well-written and thoughtful book. The authors take a highly practical and rigorous look at accounting as used in practice by publicly-traded companies. It is an effective integration of accounting principles and real-world financial statement analysis -- helps the reader develop a sense of what is aggressive, what is conservative, etc., and what critical issues are discernible but not immediately obvious from a routine examination of financial statements. A good read for would-be Ben Inkers. For a more basic introduction to accounting, check out books by Robert Anthony.