Understanding Financial Statements

Understanding Financial Statements, 7/E retains its reputation for readability, concise coverage, and accessibility while incorporating the many new requirements and changes in accounting reporting and standards. The text gives students the conceptual background and analytical tools necessary to understand and interpret business financial statements. Its ultimate goal is to improve students' ability to translate financial statement numbers into a meaningful map for business decisions and thus enable each student to approach financial statements with enhanced confidence.

Lyn M. Fraser has taught undergraduate and graduate classes in financial statement analysis at Texas A&M University and has conducted numerous seminars on the subject for executive development and continuing education courses. A Certified Public Accountant, she is the coauthor with Aileen Ormiston of Understanding the Corporate Annual Report: Nuts, Bolts, and a Few Loose Screws (Prentice Hall, 2003) and has published articles in the Journal of Accountancy, the Journal of Commercial Bank Lending, the Magazine of Bank Administration, and the Journal of Business Strategies. She has been recognized for Distinguished Achievement in Teaching by the Former Students Association at Texas A&M University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Aileen Ormiston teaches accounting in the Business Department of Mesa Community College in Mesa, Arizona. She received her bachelor's degree in accounting from Michigan State University and a master's degree in finance from Texas A&M University. Aileen, prior to embarking on her teaching career, worked in cost accounting and also as an auditor in public accounting. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the American Accounting Association. Mesa Community College was one of 13 universities and colleges that received a grant from the Accounting Education Change Commission, and Aileen was actively involved in developing the new accounting curriculum. As a result of her pioneering work in changing accounting education, she was the recipient of the "Innovator of the Year" award from the League for Innovation in the Community College.