Intended for use in a one-semester introductory financial accounting course, the first of a two-course sequence in introductory accounting (followed by managerial.) The course is found at both two-year and four-year schools.

This text starts with a "macro" view of accounting information by presenting real financial statements. The authors establish how a financial statement communicates the financing, operating, and investing activities of a business. To integrate the use of financial statements for decision making, the authors identify for students a finite set of tools necessary to make business decisions based on financial information: the Decision Toolkit. This tool kit is consistently re-introduced throughout the text, culminating in Chapter 14, where the student applies all of the tools introduced by prior chapters. This thorough integration of the user's approach makes this new text one of the most user-orientated currently available.

Paul D. Kimmel, PhD, CPA, received his bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota and his doctorate in accounting form the University of Wisconsin. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has public accounting experience with Deloitte & Touche (Minneapolis). He is the recipient of the UWM School of Business Advisory Council Teaching Award, the Reggie Taite Excellence in Teaching Award, a three-time winner of the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award at the University of Wisconsin, and a recipient of the Elijah Watts Dells Award for Honorary Distinction for his results on the CPA exam. He is a member of the American Accounting Association and has published articles in the Accounting Review, Accounting Horizons, Issues in Accounting Education as well as other journals. His research interests include accounting for financial instruments and innovation in accounting education. He has published papers and given numerous talks on incorporating critical thinking into accounting education and helped prepare a catalog of critical thinking resources for the Federated Schools of Accountancy.

Jerry J. Weygandt, PhD, CPA, is Arthur Andersen Alumni Professor of Accounting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Illinois. Articles by Professor Weygandt have appeared in the Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, the Journal of Accountancy, and other professional journals. These articles have examined such financial reporting issues as accounting for price-level adjustments, pensions, convertibles securities, stock option contracts, and interim reports. He is a member of the American Accounting Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Wisconsin Society of Certified Public Accountants. He has served on numerous committees of the American Accounting Association and as a member of the editorial board of the Accounting Review. In addition, he is actively involved with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and has been a member of the Accounting Standards Executive Committee (AcSEC) of that organization. He has served on the FASB task force that examined the reporting issues related to "accounting for income taxes" and is presently a trustee of the Financial Accounting Foundation. Professor Weygandt has received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching; he also has served as President and Secretary-Treasurer of the American Accounting Association. Recently he received the Wisconsin Institute of CPAs Outstanding Educator's Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Donald Kieso, PhD, CPA, received his bachelor's degree from Aurora University and his doctorate in accounting from the University of Illinois. He has served as chairman of the Department of Accountancy and is currently the KPMG Peat Marwick Emeritus Professor of Accountancy at Northern Illinois University. He has public accounting experience with Price Waterhouse & Co. (San Francisco and Chicago) and Arthur Andersen & Co. (Chicago) and research experience with the Research Division of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (New York). He is a recipient of NIU's Teaching Excellence Award and four Golden Apple Teaching Awards. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Illinois CPA Society, the AACSB's Accounting Accreditation Committee, the State of Illinois Comptroller's Commission, as Secretary-Treasurer of the Federation of Schools of Accountancy, and as Secretary-Treasurer of the American Accounting Association. Professor Kieso is serving as Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee pf Aurora University, the Boards of Directors of Castle BlancGroup Inc. and Valley West Community Hospital, and as Secretary-Treasurer of The Sandwich Hospital Resolution Board. From 1989 to 1993 he served as a charter member of the national Accounting Education Change Commission. In 1988 he received the Outstanding Accounting Educator Award from the Illinois CPA Society; in 1992 he received the FSA's Joseph A. Silvoso Award of Merit and the NIU Foundation's Humanitarian Award for Service to Higher Education; and in 1995 he received a Distinguished Service Award from the Illinois CPA Society.