Financial accounting / Kermit Larson

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part One. Introduction -- Part Two. Processing Accounting Data -- Part Three. Accounting for Assets -- Part Four. Accounting for liabilities -- Part Five. Accounting for Owners' Equity -- Part Six. Financial Statements, Interpretation and Modification.

Financial Accounting and its supplements provide a complete textual package for the first accounting course at the college and university level. Students who enroll in this course have a variety of backgrounds and educational goals. For many students, the course is their first educational exposure to such business topics as alternative forms of business organization, typical business practices, financial statements, and legal instruments such as notes, bonds, and stocks. The objectives of the course generally include: (1) developing a general understanding of financial reports and analyses that students will use in their personal affairs regardless of their fields of specialization, (2) providing a strong foundation for future courses in business and finance, and (3) initiating the coursework that leads to a career in accounting. Financial Accounting serves all of these objectives. The central focus of Financial Accounting is to explain how financial information is accumulated and reported in periodic financial statements and to help students interpret and use accounting information intelligently and effectively. The concepts and principles that guide financial accounting are explained and persistently emphasized so that students will be able to generalize and apply their knowledge to a variety of new situations. The early chapters of Financial Accounting use the single proprietorship to illustrate the accounting cycle. However, corporations are gradually introduced through the first four chapters in a manner that does not interrupt or confuse the discussion of the cycle. As a result, students gain a clear understanding of unincorporated entities and are also prepared for the corporate illustrations of Chapter 5. The assignment material for Chapter 5 is divided equally between corporate and proprietorship businesses so instructors can easily move to full reliance on corporate illustrations or defer an emphasis on corporations until the later chapters in the book.