Steve Collings is the audit and technical director for Leavitt Walmsley Associates Ltd, a Chartered Certified Accountants based in Sale, south Manchester. He specialises in financial reporting and auditing, and has an interest in small business taxation issues. Steve has written extensively for [...].uk and is author of The Interpretation and Application of International Standards on Auditing and IFRS For Dummies, also published by Wiley. Maire Loughran, CPA, is a member of the American Association of Certified Public Accountants. An adjunct professor of auditing, accounting and taxation courses, she is also the author of Auditing For Dummies.

Introduction 1

Part I: Getting Started with Financial Accounting 7

Chapter 1: Seeing the Big Picture of Financial Accounting and International Accounting 9

Chapter 2: Making a Career in Financial Accounting 25

Chapter 3: Introducing the Primary Financial Statements 37

Chapter 4: Acronym Alert! Setting the Standards for Financial Accounting 53

Part II: Looking at Some Accounting Basics 65

Chapter 5: Doing the Books: The Process behind Financial Accounting 67

Chapter 6: Taking a Butcher's at Accounting Methods Under UK GAAP and IFRS 87

Part III: Bonding with the Balance Sheet 97

Chapter 7: Looking at Assets 99

Chapter 8: Grappling with Liabilities 115

Chapter 9: Examining the Equity Section 131

Part IV: Investigating Income and Cash Flow 143

Chapter 10: Understanding Profit or Loss 145

Chapter 11: Figuring Out the Statement of Cash Flows under UK GAAP and IFRS 165

Chapter 12: Discovering and Understanding Depreciation 181

Chapter 13: Dealing with and Accounting for Inventory 195

Part V: Analysing the Financial Statements 207

Chapter 14: Using Ratios and Other Tools 209

Chapter 15: Delving into the Disclosures 225

Chapter 16: Reporting to Shareholders 241

Part VI: Tackling More Advanced Financial Accounting Topics 255

Chapter 17: Accounting for Business Combinations 257

Chapter 18: Accounting for Income Taxes 275

Chapter 19: Accounting for Leases 287

Chapter 20: Reporting Changes in Policies and Estimates and Correcting Errors 299

Part VII: The Part of Tens 311

Chapter 21: Ten Financial Accounting Shenanigans 313

Chapter 22: Ten Industries with Special Accounting Standards 321

Index 329