More Than a Numbers Game: A Brief History of Accounting - Rilegato

King, Thomas A.

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0470008733 ISBN 13: 9780470008737

Casa editrice: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2006

Riassunto

The world certainly suffers no shortage of accounting texts. The many out there help readers prepare, audit, interpret and explain corporate financial statements. What has been missing is a book offering context and discussion for divisive issues such as taxes, debt, options, and earnings volatility. King addresses the why of accounting instead of the how, providing practitioners and students with a highly readable history of U.S. corporate accounting. More Than a Numbers Game: A Brief History of Accounting was inspired by Arthur Levitt's landmark 1998 speech delivered at New York University. The Securities and Exchange Commission chairman described the too-little challenged custom of earnings management and presaged the breakdown in the US corporate accounting three years later.

Somehow, over a one-hundred year period, accounting morphed from a tool used by American railroad managers to communicate with absent British investors into an enabler of corporate fraud. How this happened makes for a good business story. This book is not another description of accounting scandals. Instead it offers a history of ideas.

Each chapter covers a controversial topic that emerged over the past century. Historical background and discussion of people involved give relevance to concepts discussed. The author shows how economics, finance, law and business customs contributed to accounting's development. Ideas presented come from a career spent working with accounting information.

Su questo libro

Informazioni sull?autore

THOMAS A. KING is treasurer of Progressive Insurance, which is regarded as one of the most innovative companies in the insurance business. He grew up in Racine, Wisconsin, and studied liberal arts at Harvard College. King worked for three years on the New York audit staff of Arthur Andersen & Co., earned an MS in accounting from New York University, and obtained CPA and CMA certification. After receiving an MBA from Harvard Business School, he joined Progressive Insurance in Cleveland. King spent ten years in marketing and general management before returning to accounting. Since then, he has served as corporate controller, investment strategist, and treasurer. At Progressive, King helped craft financial policies that support business objectives and managed investor relations when the company became the first to report monthly financial results.

Dalla quarta di copertina

Since Luca Pacioli wrote the first accounting text back in 1494, thousands of books have been published to explain the how's of accounting—how to value assets, audit financial statements, comply with tax laws, estimate product costs, evaluate corporate performance, and so on. Missing in this journey has been a work that discusses the major why's of accounting practice.

In More Than a Numbers Game: A Brief History of Accounting, author and financial expert Tom King fills this void by examining key issues and events that have transformed accounting from a tool used by American railroad managers to communicate with absent British investors into an enabler of corporate fraud during the Internet and telecom frenzy.

More Than a Numbers Game revolves around a history of ideas associated with accounting's use by U.S. corporations. Each chapter—which explores a controversial accounting topic that has emerged over the past century—is filled with vivid historical background and lively discussions of the people involved, to give relevance to the concepts covered. Simple examples and light humor make complex subjects understandable to the informed layperson.

This book not only examines the purposes and limitations of financial, cost, tax, and regulatory accounting, it also provides context for many of accounting's most divisive issues, including:

• Management complications that arise from inflation's uneven nature
• Consequences of managers' fear of showing earnings volatility
• The unsolved mystery of accounting forinternally developed intangible assets
• Why debt rose into and then fell out of favor with corporate management and their boards
• How compensation with options replaced debt as a governance tool in the 1990s
• How politics hobbled efforts to standardize accounting practice

Through engaging anecdotes, illustrative examples, and real-world case studies, More Than a Numbers Game also reveals how economics, finance, law, and business customs have contributed to accounting's overall development. With this book as your guide, you'll discover that accounting is not a static discipline, but an evolving tool full of idiosyncrasies.

More Than a Numbers Game takes a detailed look at more than one hundred years of corporate accounting history in the United States—from the initial use of double-entry bookkeeping to Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)—and shows how accounting has solved numerous financial problems as well as created substantial controversy along the way.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Data di pubblicazione: 2006
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0470008733
• ISBN 13: 9780470008737
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 242
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile