Review of Accounting Handbook (Barron's Accounting Handbook) (Hardcover)

I was very unhappy with this accounting textbook. With almost 500 pages devoted to defining accounting terminology out of a 1,000 page book, Siegel/Schim should have titled it "An Accounting Dictionary with some shallow chapters on Accounting." The remaining 500 pages gave only a shallow review of accounting procedures.Space dedicated to business accounting is lost because there is a chapter on doing personal tax returns and one on personal financial planning. This personal aspect doesn't belong since the book's title, "Accounting Handbook" implies business accounting. Now if the authors are trying to connect a business owner's decisionmaking with his personal planning, than why were there no chapters on partnership and corporate tax planning or income tax preparation? The chapter on non-profits was a terribly short 15 pages long. There is no discussion of G/L, AP, AR or other mundane, but required basics of accounting.

Product Description
The new edition of this authoritative reference volume belongs on the bookshelf of every accountant, bookkeeper, accounting manager, business manager, and student majoring inbusiness administration. Its early chapters present an overview of financial accounting with focus on financial statements, reporting requirements such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Corporate governance, management/cost accounting, analysis of financial statements, and up-to-date information on taxation. The major section that follows is a nearly-500-page A-to-Z dictionary of accounting terms, defining everything from Accelerated Cost Recovery System to Zero-Base Budgeting. Concluding chapters cover information technology (IT), quantitative methods for accounting, auditing, personal financial planning, governmental and nonprofit accounting, forensic accounting, and international accounting. Added features include tables, diagrams, and extensive appendices.

From the Inside Flap
(back cover)
Accounting
Handbook
Fourth Edition

An overview of financial accounting

An A-to-Z dictionary of accounting terms

Accounting and Information Technology

Quantitative accounting methods

Auditing

Personal financial planning . . . and much more

Tables, Diagrams, and Appendices

(front jacket flap)
Accounting Handbook
Fourth Edition

Joel G. Siegel, Ph.D., CPA, and Jae K. Shim, Ph.D.

The fourthedition of this authoritative reference volume belongs on the bookshelf of every accountant, bookkeeper, accounting manager, business manager, and student majoring inbusiness administration. Its early chapters present an overview of financial accounting with focus on financial statements, reporting requirements such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Corporate governance, management/cost accounting, analysis of financial statements, and up-to-date information on taxation. The major section that follows is a nearly-500-page A-to-Z dictionary of accounting terms, defining everything from Accelerated Cost Recovery System to Zero-Base Budgeting. Concluding chapters cover information technology (IT), quantitative methods for accounting, auditing, personal financial planning, governmental and nonprofit accounting, forensic accounting, and international accounting. Added features include tables, diagrams, and extensive appendices.

(back jacket flap)
Joel G. Siegel, Ph.D., CPA, is Professor of Accounting at Queens College in the City University of New York.

Jae K. Shim, Ph.D., is Professor of Accounting, School of Business Administration, California State University, Long Beach.

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