Accounting Principles 10th Edition

Book Preface

Study Objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

[1] Explain what accounting is.
[2] Identify the users and uses of accounting.
[3] Understand why ethics is a fundamental business concept.
[4] Explain generally accepted accounting principles.
[5] Explain the monetary unit assumption and the economic entity assumption.
[6] State the accounting equation, and defi ne its components.
[7] Analyze the effects of business transactions on the accounting equation.
[8] Understand the four fi nancial statements and how they are prepared.

What Is Accounting?

Why is accounting so popular? What consistently ranks as one of the top career opportunities in business? What frequently rates among the most popular majors on campus? What was the undergraduate degree chosen by Nike founder Phil Knight, Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank, former acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Thomas Pickard, and numerous members of Congress? Accounting.1 Why did these people choose accounting? They wanted to understand what was happening fi nancially to their organizations. Accounting is the fi nancial information system that provides these insights. In short, to understand your organization, you have to know the numbers.

Accounting consists of three basic activities—it identifi es, records, and communicates the economic events of an organization to interested users. Let’s take a closer look at these three activities.

Brief Contents
1 Accounting in Action 2
2 The Recording Process 50
3 Adjusting the Accounts 98
4 Completing the Accounting Cycle 152
5 Accounting for Merchandising Operations 208
6 Inventories 260
7 Accounting Information Systems 314
8 Fraud, Internal Control, and Cash 360
9 Accounting for Receivables 414
10 Plant Assets, Natural Resources, and Intangible
Assets 456
11 Current Liabilities and Payroll Accounting 508
12 Accounting for Partnerships 552
13 Corporations: Organization and Capital Stock
Transactions 592
14 Corporations: Dividends, Retained Earnings, and
Income Reporting 632
15 Long-Term Liabilities 668
16 Investments 722
17 Statement of Cash Flows 760
18 Financial Statement Analysis 824
19 Managerial Accounting 876
20 Job Order Costing 922
21 Process Costing 964
22 Cost-Volume-Profit 1010
23 Budgetary Planning 1052
24 Budgetary Control and Responsibility
Accounting 1096
25 Standard Costs and Balanced Scorecard 1146
26 Incremental Analysis and Capital Budgeting 1192
APPENDICES
A Specimen Financial Statements: PepsiCo, Inc. A1
B Specimen Financial Statements: The Coca-Cola
Company, Inc. B1
C Specimen Financial Statements: Zetar plc C1
D Time Value of Money D1
E Using Financial Calculators E1
F Standards of Ethical Conduct for Management
Accountants F1