Introductory Financial Accounting for Business

Learning Financial Accounting can often feel like learning a foreign language to students. Before students even grasp the underlying concepts of Accounting, they are immersed in unfamiliar terms, and before students fully realize the purpose of financial statements, they are asked to make detailed recording procedures. This early emphasis on terminology and recording can be a struggle for non-accounting majors to see the relevancy, leading to increased dropouts and higher failure rates. This creates a challenge for Financial Accounting instructors, who must balance the need to engage and retain non-majors while fully preparing Accounting majors for the next level.

The authors of Introductory Financial Accounting for Business offer a solution emphasizing an analytical approach to Accounting – teaching students to think like business professionals and speak in terms of bottom-line consequences: How will a given transaction impact my overall business? How can I make better business decisions whether I’m an accountant, manager, or entrepreneur?

Business leaders are demanding that new graduates have these critical thinking skills in order to handle a rapidly changing modern business environment.  Today's students will encounter new technological advances in automated data capture, data analytics, and artificial intelligence – processes that are automating traditional recording procedures. Rather than tallying transactions, students will be required to analyze and interpret data, making decisions early and often and thinking like business professionals. The Edmonds/Olds team’s fresh approach and modern pedagogy helps prepare students for their business careers.

Mark A. Edmonds, Ph.D., CPA, is an assistant professor in the Department of Accounting and Finance at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He has taught principles and advanced accounting classes in face-to-face, flipped, and online formats.

Dr. Edmonds is currently spearheading the effort within the Collât School of Business to integrate data analytics into the accounting curriculum. He has developed business analytics teaching tools at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Several contributions have been made to this text revolving around the data analytics concepts Dr. Edmonds incorporates into his classes. He is the recipient of the Loudell Ellis Robinson excellence in teaching award.

Dr. Edmonds began his career providing assurance services for the internationally recognized accounting firm Ernst & Young. He utilizes this professional experience to bring a practical approach to the concepts covered in this text. At the conclusion of his professional service, he obtained his PhD from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He serves as the education adviser on the board of the Institute of Internal Auditors Birmingham Chapter. Dr. Edmonds’ research focuses on alternative learning strategies in accounting. He frequently publishes in prominent journals such as Issues in Accounting Education and Journal of Accounting Education.




Christopher T. Edmonds, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Accounting and Finance at the UAB Collat School of Business. He also is the course coordinator for the face-to-face and online principles of accounting courses. Dr. Edmonds specializes in teaching and developing engaging face-to-face and online introductory accounting courses. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and universities on best teaching practices and has delivered over 40 professional teaching workshops. His passion for helping students learn inspired him to create hundreds of short videos teaching the fundamental concepts of accounting. This work led to the publication of the first interactive video textbook for introductory accounting.

Dr. Edmonds has received seven prestigious teaching awards including the UAB President’s Outstanding Teaching Award, UAB Faculty Student Success Award, UAB Transformative Online Course Award, UAB Loudell Ellis Robinson Classroom Teaching Award, UAB Disability Support Recognition Award, and the Virginia Tech Favorite Faculty Award. He has published four textbooks and has written numerous articles that have appeared in publications including The Accounting Review, Auditing: A Journal of Theory and Practice, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Issues in Accounting Education, Advances in Accounting Education, Advances in Accounting, and Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting. He currently serves on several editorial boards. Dr. Edmonds started his career as a web application developer creating software solutions to put newspapers online.

He began his academic training at Colorado State University. He obtained an MBA from UAB. His PhD with a major in accounting was awarded by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.




Jennifer Echols Edmonds, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Collat School of Business. Her primary teaching areas are financial and managerial accounting. She has experience teaching in the Undergraduate, MAC, and MBA programs.

Dr. Edmonds is passionate about increasing engagement and creating a community for all students. She has spoken at numerous conferences such as the AAA Annual Meeting, AAA Conference on Teaching and Learning in Accounting, AAA Teaching, Learning & Curriculum section, Teachers of Accounting at Two-Year Colleges, and Annual Accounting Educators’ Symposium. She has received the UAB Loudell Ellis Robinson Classroom Teaching Award, as well as teaching grants from Deloitte, UAB, and Virginia Tech. She created teaching resources for incorporating International Financial Reporting Standards into Intermediate Accounting. The teaching resources were published online at the American Accounting Association.

Also active in the research community, Dr. Edmonds serves on the editorial board for Advances in Accounting and Journal of International Accounting, Auditing, and Taxation. She has published articles in prominent journals such as Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Advances in Accounting, Research in Accounting Regulation, and The CPA Journal.

Dr. Edmonds received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Birmingham-Southern College and completed her master’s and PhD degrees in accounting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.