Basic Accounting Concepts, Principles, and Procedures, Volume 1, 2nd Edition Second Edition

My experience with accounting is being the family member who performs daily accounting duties for a growing retail service business. I use a popular accounting software program that by and large works well, much as advertised. However, my lesson learned is that you cannot simply install, follow procedures in the manual, start clicking and assume that all the rest will take care of itself, if you don't actually understand what you are doing. I initially ended up in some dark places for some very long days when I tried that, including expensive time on the phone with our accountant. Life notably improved upon accepting the reality that I needed to acquire a bit of accounting knowledge - meaning that if I didn't take a class, which I probably should do, then I needed to find a suitable book what would address my needs. What is particularly useful about these two volumes is 1) Conceptual presentation is very direct with very clear examples 2) The content coverage is extensive and is sufficiently detailed to be useable in the real world, for example dealing with the merchandise that we also sell in addition to our main services or stepping through what closing is doing 3) The books detailed explanations and analysis of financial reports makes the software system output much more meaningful. Overall, my takeaway is that both good accounting software and well-written, comprehensive instructional accounting references are must-haves.

The new website at worthyjames.com (for volumes 1 and 2) is superb.Solutions are easy to access, and PowerPoint slides have been added. Sample book pages and other information are also available. The book and website are both user-friendly. Highly recommended.

I loaned out my copies of the old edition and never got them back so I went ahead and bought the new edition volumes. The prior edition worked quite well as a very straight forward backup reference in my first year class. It also had more practice with available answers than the assigned text. Since I decided to try the intermediate accounting class (!), I got the new edition for backup for needed review to make the transition and again as a basic reference. It again functioned quite well in this role same as first edition; so I'm giving it 5 stars. (There were a few chapters not needed for the current course). Two somewhat more advanced topics (statement of cash flows and bonds) were especially helpful. Price seems reasonable for the content.

Wow! A lot of material in these two books. Probably used as textbooks in some accounting courses. I would say that the main feature is that they are quite easy to use and to understand. Examples in my case were the subjects of debits and credits, which I now understand pretty well. Lots of practice with answers--you will never use all the questions and solutions but they do offer a nice choice, if you want that. The books cover a lot of topics.

This was the only introductory financial accounting book that I could find that had really comprehensive coverage of both periodic and perpetual inventory methods (volume 2) that I needed to review for a qualified exam. Transaction explanations in both volumes are very good. These books seem to be a combination of instruction, extensive practice, and reference. Probably that's why there are two volumes. Not difficult reading!

I really like this book. It is easy to read and understand. In addition, the illustrations really help you.

This book has a lot of helpful information and practice questions the problem is you can't get the answers. It comes with a disk (can't use anymore with laptops) it also gives you a website. The website is not longer available, so don't get this book if you plan to learn from the questions.

Like other reviewers I'd have to agree that the explanations and illustrations in the two books are good. However, there is a feature I liked a lot that isn't described very much. The books have a huge amount of questions and problems and you can see the solutions online. This was super useful to me because I used the books from the library and I could go online to see answers and solutions anytime. A few years back I took a college class and you could do the same thing but the answers access stopped when the class was done. This is better.