Accounting In Context

This is the second edition of an introduction to all the financial and management accounting concepts and techniques required by the general business student.

"Financial Accounting, 10th Edition, by Jamie Pratt and Michael Peters, provides students with a clear understanding of financial accounting by framing accounting processes in the context of real world business practices. It builds solid foundations in the mechanics of preparing the financial statements and the theories underlying the accounting measures of performance so that students can clearly understand the economic consequences associated with financial accounting choices. Pratt & Peters Financial Accounting explores key themes of measurement, decision-making, and economic factors."--Publisher description

Accounting in a Business Context covers all the key areas of financial and management accounting, but is written specifically for non-accounting students. It focuses on how managers will actually use information, rather than how accountants prepare it. This way it avoids burdening the general business student with unnecessary technical skills or obscuring the core management issues with accounting jargon. This fully updated and revised edition takes account of all the latest ASB developments, and includes new material on ratio analysis and activity based costing.

In this Australian adaptation of the hugely successful text by Libby, Libby and Short, Brad Potter presents an accounting principles textbook for today - an effective blend of accounting concepts and real company reports that focuses on how accounting data informs business decision-making. Accounting In Context introduces accounting concepts early and integrates them carefully in later chapters, illustrating the context at each stage with insightful use of actual company information and financial statements. Well-known and recognised for excellence in teaching, Brad Potter has written this text with successful learning very much in mind. Students will build strong conceptual understanding and confidently develop skills in applying accounting principles and techniques; a solid basis for further studies or for application in the business arena.

Underlying this book, first published in 1988, is the belief that it is insightful to examine accounting not as merely a technical process, nor as a technical process with social and political consequences, but as an activity which is both social and political in itself. One way of illuminating the social nature of accounting is through studying its cultural variations, for although accounting is a feature of modern industrial society the extent of its use varies across cultures. This book examines the history of accounting and explores the complicated relationship between accounting and society.

This text covers the technical aspects of capital investment decision-making, including the selection of an appropriate discount rate, and also its human and behavioural characteristics. It is a book that will be of value to accounting and finance students, general business students, and also to those actively involved in the capital decision-making process at all levels.