Subjects:  1. Accounting    2. Accounting - General    3. Accounting - Governmental    4. Business & Economics    5. Business / Economics / Finance    6. Business/Economics    7. Finance, Public    8. Non-Profit Organizations Management    9. Nonprofit Organizations & Charities    10. Nonprofit organizations    11. Public Finance    12. Public Finance (General)    13. Standards    14. United States    15. Business & Economics / Accounting / Governmental    16. Central government    17. Local government    18. Non-profitmaking organizations    19. Public finance accounting   

Reviews (5)

Thorough and comrehensive
This book is a perfect trade off between simplified "for-dummies" type writing that simply acquaints you with the subject matter and a comprehensive text that thoroughly covers the subject. If you are a CPA hopeful, a governmental finance professional or a political science graduate student this is the text for you. Although layout and vocabulary could be simplified for improved readability, once you become familiar with the authors' style the reading is enjoyable.

This Book is Horrible
This book is poorly written.Unless you know Non-profit accounting, it is not written so that you will learn anything.I'm assuming professors use this book because of the Smithville case and for no other reason.Honestly, I do not feel the Smithville case goes along with the book very well.The authors should have exchanged notes a little more.Unless it is required or you are already working in non-profit accounting, I would not buy this book.

Good Job
Great service.The book had breaks on the front and back coverLooks like someone drop-kicked it in shipping ... not the fault of the mailer.I thought about sending it back, but I needed it and the inside was pristine. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Accounting - Governmental    2. Business & Economics    3. Business / Economics / Finance    4. Business/Economics    5. Nonprofit Organizations & Charities    6. Business & Economics / Accounting / Governmental   

Reviews (1)

Not enough examples!
There is a lot of good information in the book, there are just not enough examples.I like to learn by actually seeing the sample journal entries. In my opinion, there weren't nearly enough of them. I would not have purchased this book except that it was required for my accounting class. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Accounting    2. Accounting - Governmental    3. Business & Economics    4. Business / Economics / Finance    5. Business/Economics    6. Finance, Public    7. Nonprofit organizations    8. Standards    9. United States    10. Business & Economics / Accounting / Governmental    11. Non-profitmaking organizations    12. Public finance accounting   

Reviews (8)

The worst accounting book I've read to date!
This is the first textbook that I haven't been able to read through all the assigned chapters.That's saying a lot since I already have one degree and working on a second.
YIKES!!!
I was "lucky" enough to take a governmental accounting course in which this alleged text was the book for the class.It was universally scorned, and at least the school had the good sense to dump it in time for the following semester.
Frustration
This is a truly horrible book. It's written so poorly that the only way it can be used is as a look-up reference. If you don't have a really good instructor for Not-for-profit accounting, find one using a different book. You won't get much out of this.Read more

Subjects:  1. Accounting    2. Accounting - Governmental    3. Administrative agencies    4. Business & Economics    5. Business / Economics / Finance    6. Business/Economics    7. Nonprofit organizations    8. United States    9. Business & Economics / Accounting / Governmental    10. Public finance accounting   

Subjects:  1. Accounting - General    2. Accounting - Governmental    3. Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice    4. Business / Economics / Finance    5. Business/Economics    6. Government Contracts    7. Government purchasing    8. Labor & Industrial Relations - General    9. Law and legislation    10. Political Science    11. Public contracts    12. Taxation - General    13. United States    14. Business & Economics / Accounting / General    15. Business & Management    16. Central government   

Subjects:  1. Accounting - Governmental    2. Budget    3. Budgeting    4. Business & Economics    5. Business / Economics / Finance    6. Business/Economics    7. Finance    8. Fiscal policy    9. Government & Business    10. Governmental Budgeting    11. Handbooks, manuals, etc    12. United States    13. Budgeting & financial management    14. Business & Economics / Nonprofit Organizations & Charities    15. Central government    16. Public finance accounting   

Subjects:  1. Accounting    2. Accounting - Governmental    3. Accounting - Managerial    4. Business & Economics    5. Business / Economics / Finance    6. Business/Economics    7. Finance, Public    8. Non-Profit Organizations Management    9. Public Accounting    10. Public finance    11. United States    12. Business & Economics / Accounting / Governmental    13. Finance & Accounting   

Reviews (7)

Please *read* this review
This textbook does not cause me any frustration due to its inherent lack of color or boring tedious material.As the professor who wrote a review above said, those people should have majored in something that is interesting to them (although, accounting, by definition, can definitely become boring and tedious at times).It is up to the student to instead decide whether working through the material is worth the reward (i.e. an Accounting degree) and if it is what they want to do as a career afterward... anyways, on to the book review:
Customer review
I am also a Master level student. I read this book and it is a great shame to the profession and a great insult to the public at large, let alone students who have to pay dearly for this textbook with a low rate of return. When discussing Accounting, Ethics should be close at heart to these experts. Unfortunately, it shows none here whatsoever. In general, I find it is a great disturbance for these self-pronounced" experts in Accounting to write such a low quality textbook with a great violation of the technical writing 's ethical category,ie, repetitive, clustered, hard to understand, contradictory sometimes; but most of all the English language used in certain introductory chapters, ie, chapters one and two, full of grammatical errors, punctuations, paragraphs and sentences are ambiguous, vague, and copied directly from the code law book. etc... We have zillions law in the USA, one more to make these authors accountable for their writings and so-called expertise in the field would NOT hurt too much. We, the students are YOUR customers, not the Professors who force your book in our throats! Be ethical, be responsible so we can avoid FRAUD, UNETHICAL practices in the real world. After all, we learn from your textbook for God's sake. Treat us with decency, and kindness, and the world shall be better if not in this generation. And remember when you die, you do not take the earthly paper of award or recognition with you. Leave your good name with a good morality instead. In the commercial world of Capitalism, the customers thrive the demand and supply. Think about it....

Found it to be quite informative
I am not sure why the other reviewers had problems with this book.I actually found it to be quite easy to read and understandble in its explanations of terminology.I work for a software company which sells a budgeting tool.Since realigning over to our public sector division, I decided to buy this book in order to hone my governmental accounting skills.My accounting degree certainly helped and this books assumes a minimal set of accounting skills.The problems were quite helpful in reinforcing the concepts. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Accounting    2. Accounting - General    3. Accounting - Governmental    4. Business & Economics    5. Business / Economics / Finance    6. Business/Economics    7. Finance, Public    8. Fund Accounting    9. Local finance    10. Municipal finance    11. Public Accounting    12. United States    13. Business & Economics / Accounting / General   

Reviews (1)

Essential for the professional in governmental accounting
The GFOA did an excellent job of explaining governmental accounting.The book has incorporated the new model as established in Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement 34.The book is worth owning just see how a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) is prepared and looks under the GASB Statement 34 model.Read more

Subjects:  1. Accounting - Governmental    2. Business & Economics    3. Business/Economics   

Reviews (8)

An Important and Constructive Vision
It isn't easy to make a book about accounting interesting and uplifting, but this book comes fairly close to accomplishing that. It provides a clear understanding of why it matters how well accounting rules treat intangible assets, and gives some good guidelines on how to improve them.
One side of the story
This book was published 2001 by Brookings as part of a pair; the other being Unseen Wealth
Concise analysis of intangible management
The discipline of intangible management (knowledge management) has been around for decades; there have been many attempts in better understanding & management of intangible assets, with different perspective (organizational learning, technology, strategy etc). Lev has provided a very concise analysis of intangible management with an economics perspective. His analysis is very systematic, robust, with support of empirical studies; his treatment of the subject is coherent & enjoyable to read. But I find the recommendation part of the book slightly weak; the 'value chain scorecard' does not provide significant enhancement over Kaplan & Norton's balanced scorecard. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Accounting - Governmental    2. Business & Economics    3. Business / Economics / Finance    4. Business enterprises    5. Business/Economics    6. Corporate Finance    7. Corporations    8. General    9. Intangible property    10. United States    11. Valuation    12. Management & management techniques   

Subjects:  1. Accounting - Governmental    2. Business & Economics    3. Business/Economics    4. Reference - General   

Reviews (3)

Great Book
It's a text book with lots of great examples of business challenges.I was required to purchase this book for my class but I also enjoy reading it (as much as I could any textbook) because the concepts are pretty easy to understand.There are also a lot of internet resources to enhance understanding of the concepts.

>Government,
This book concentrates on govermental accounting, and really only has two chapters that specifically apply to non-profit accounting.

Introduction to Governmental and Not-for-Profit Accounting
I would rate this book very highly for the non-accounting professional. The book takes the high level of technical terms and reduces it so that itis user friendly for all groups of business professionals.Read more

Subjects:  1. Accounting    2. Accounting - General    3. Accounting - Governmental    4. Business & Economics    5. Business / Economics / Finance    6. Business/Economics    7. Finance, Public    8. Fund Accounting    9. Nonprofit Organizations & Charities    10. Nonprofit organizations    11. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT   

Subjects:  1. Accounting - General    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Fund Accounting    5. Charities & voluntary services    6. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    7. Public finance accounting   

Subjects:  1. Accounting - General    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Fund Accounting    5. Central government    6. Public finance accounting    7. Social research & statistics   

Subjects:  1. Accounting - Governmental    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Fund Accounting    5. Accounting    6. Charities & voluntary services    7. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT   

Subjects:  1. Accounting - General    2. Accounting - Governmental    3. Business & Economics    4. Business / Economics / Finance    5. Business/Economics    6. Cost accounting    7. Public Contract    8. Public contracts    9. United States   

Reviews (1)

Fairly quick delivery, book in good shape, good price
At the college book store, this was $140.I purchased it here for $90 (after tax and shipping) brand new with a minor manufacturing defect to the spine.It was well worth the purchase and the saved money. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Accounting    2. Accounting - Financial    3. Accounting - Governmental    4. Accounting - Managerial    5. Business & Economics    6. Business / Economics / Finance    7. Business/Economics    8. Management Accounting    9. Managerial accounting    10. Non-Profit Organizations Management    11. Nonprofit Organizations & Charities    12. Nonprofit organizations    13. Business & Economics / Accounting / Governmental    14. Management & management techniques    15. Non-profitmaking organizations   

Subjects:  1. Accounting - General    2. Business & Economics    3. Fund Accounting    4. Politics / Current Events    5. Public Policy - Economic Policy    6. Reference    7. Central government    8. Public finance accounting    9. Social research & statistics   

Subjects:  1. Accounting - General    2. Business & Economics    3. Business / Economics / Finance    4. Business/Economics    5. History    6. Business & Economics / Accounting / General    7. Public finance accounting   

Reviews (1)

Making Finance Make Sense
Most material dealing with public finance or budgeting delivers more drudgery than useful information.Reed and Swain cut through buzz words and cliches--their writng provides detailed explanation without confusingthe reader, offering a better understanding of how money moves in thepublic sector.I definitely recommend starting with this book before yougo anywhere else. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Administrative agencies    2. Business & Economics    3. Business/Economics    4. Economics - General    5. Entrepreneurship    6. Finance    7. Finance, Public    8. Politics / Current Events    9. Public Affairs & Administration    10. Public Finance (General)    11. Public administration    12. Business & Economics / Economics / General    13. Business & Economics-Economics - General    14. Business & Economics-Entrepreneurship    15. Political Science / Public Affairs & Administration    16. Public finance    17. Public finance accounting