If accounting is a means of communicating information for decision-making, then any attempt to define accounting must draw upon scholarly knowledge of communication and decision-making. This means understanding accounting as a professional jargon, a language, and also as a social and psychological object that influences individual and collective behavior. Only when all of these aspects are accounted for can we hope to achieve a truly descriptive, rather than normative, accounting theory that will stand up to the rigors of academic inquiry. Here Gaetan Breton provides a comprehensive overview of what accounting really is, not just what it is presumed to be for the purposes of ordinary, day-to-day, practicality-oriented accounting courses. Drawing upon frameworks employed in the human sciences-including those used in sociology, psychology, the communication sciences, and decision theories-Breton builds a multi-faceted theory of accounting. He explains why it should be conceived as a fundamentally social activity, one that puts preparers of financial statements in contact with users-with the state, shareholders, stakeholders, and citizens-in order to help them make economic decisions based on financial information. It is from this position that he analyzes both the behavior of preparers of financial statements (who only relate financial situations) and the behavior of users (in their own analysis, understanding, and decisions). The result is a groundbreaking move towards the first science of accounting widely acceptable within academic circles. For the fundamental questions it poses to the very heart of accounting studies, this book is a must-read for researchers and practitioners as well as teachers and undergraduate students of accounting.

Identity obesity-the excessive and inappropriate collection, retention, and sharing of personal information-tends to escalate over time, as people share and mismanage more details about themselves in various places. Like overeating, it can be extremely hard to reverse the effects. This behavior forms the root cause of an identity theft epidemic. Despite the dangers, consumers and companies handle personal information carelessly, without understanding the risks. Consider these startling statistics: In 2009, more than eleven million people were affected by identity theft, which was a 10 percent increase from 2008. The majority of victims don't detect identity theft until three months after fraud occurs. It takes some people years to discover that something went wrong. Stolen wallets and documents account for 43 percent of all identity theft cases, which shows that theft doesn't always involve technology. In more than 50 percent of all identity theft cases, the victim knows or has done business with the criminal. Businesses will lose millions of dollars a year because of identity theft, and fraud will destroy families and individuals. But you can trim your identity fat with a proven program that allows you to understand risks, identify bad habits, and implement best practices with an "Identity Diet."

DISTRESS TO SUCCESS A Survival Handbook for Struggling Businesses and Buyers of Distressed Opportunities

To perform audits and study auditors and the audit function demands a detailed understanding of audit components and their characteristics. The authors of this unique book--a blend of research findings, data analysis, and proprietary data base--provide just that: a comprehensive inventory of audit tasks and essential decision aids, all developed by highly experienced auditors. Describing how some parts of the audit are more structured than other parts this work demonstrates that more experience is generally required to perform less structured tasks. In addition, most audit tasks are not perceived as being suitable for decision aids.

Of special value is the authors' comprehensive inventory of audit tasks, constructed on a coding of approximately 2,000 variables identified from their examination of 433 audit tasks. Among them are such variables as judgments of task structure, years of experience, supervised instances of practice, professional rank, and applicable decision aids. The authors' detailed description provides a collection of useful tables, giving simple descriptive statistics about task structure, knowledge base, and decision aids. The authors borrow their framework of analysis from the management science literature, creating an important study for professionals and academics in management, accounting and specialists in psychology and behavior sciences.

In the Secret of the Ages, Robert Collier shares with us the secrets of success. This book gives you the tools to have a happier and more successful life. Collier will show you how the way you think and the decisions you make have a direct influence on how successful and happy you are. With out the foundation that Collier laid herein, Rhonda Byrnes' The Secret could never have been written. Long before Michael Losier and James Arthur Ray reminded the world just how effective the power of positive thinking could be in Laws of Attraction and The Science of Success, there was Robert Collier's Secret of the Ages. www.widerpublications.com

The commonly used financial statements--balance sheet, income statement, and statement of changes in cash flows-- focus on a firM's financial structure and performance over a defined period of time. Although they may conform to generally accepted accounting standards they still fail to provide other information that is equally important to achieving true full disclosure. Riahi-Belkaoui proposes remedies for this neglect by taking a close look at other types of statements: the inflation, value added, employee, social performance, and human asset reports. His book is a concise, easily accessed summary of all types of reports, for practitioners, and especially useful as a text or review for students in graduate level courses in financial management and accounting.

The author begins by examining the traditional statements. He shows how they fail to disclose vital information on the measurement and impact of inflation; the measurement of total wealth generated by the total production team, not merely its return to stockholders; necessary information on employees, and about them, that can be useful in management decision making; the measurement of social costs and the benefits attributable to the effects of organizational behavior on the environment, and the measurement of the value of human assets. He takes up these failures and neglects one by one and provides concise discussions of the other, less widely used statements that could remedy them, statements that could provide a fully useful display of an organization's financial well being, if they were better understood and commonly available.

Manage costs before they occur

"Traditional cost cutting has always had a backward focus and created lots of negative reactions–both rational and irrational. In his new book, Jan Emblemsvag introduces a new forward looking life-cycle approach to cost management. Employing foresight instead of hindsight puts the focus on processes, uncertainty and risks, and future value creation.

"The author’s strong side–besides having a good holistic concept–is the ability to express himself accurately and clearly on very complicated and sophisticated theory. Managers, consultants, and others with interest in cost management will be enlightened and inspired by the book–and no doubt find it of great help in applying the methods and processes that are presented.

"The idea of turning uncertainty into an asset for managers is quite unique. Making budgeting less data-oriented and more risk-oriented is another good idea. The next step now is to make operative approaches and apply the theory in practical situations!"
–John-Erik Stenberg
Considium Consulting Group AS

"This book skillfully combines the ideas of life-cycle costing and activity-based costing to come up with an approach to effectively manage costs in an uncertain environment."
–Dr. Arnold Schneider
Professor of Accounting
Georgia Institute of Technology

Life-Cycle Costing (LCC), a cost projection method typically associated with engineering, allows for the accurate prediction of the total costs a product will incur throughout its life-cycle. Meshing this technique with activity-based costing, risk management, and Monte Carlo analytical methods, Jan Emblemsvåg offers a broad range of businesses a new, more effective approach to cost management in Life-Cycle Costing.

By introducing uncertainty into its models, "Activity-Based LCC" offers managers the clarity of hindsight before costs are actually incurred. Among other features, Life-Cycle Costing includes:

• Three case studies that demonstrate how Activity-Based LCC affords superior cost management
• A step-by-step guide to LCC methodology
• Definitions of key terms
• A discussion of activity-based costing and risk management fundamentals
• An appendix with examples of Monte Carlo methods

Life-Cycle Costing provides controllers and cost managers an insider’s look at the next generation of cost management techniques.

Accounting has often been described as the language of business. As the increasing competition of overseas markets begins to affect even the smallest local companies, many more business professionals must become fluent in accounting principles and practice. Standardization of Financial Reporting and Accounting in Latin American Countries highlights the recent move to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and addresses some of the concerns raised due to cultural differences and the level of enforcement of these standards in separate countries. Describing the evolution of both financial and managerial accounting due to the adoption of IFRS, this book is an essential reference source for both students and seasoned professionals in the fields of accounting, finance, and related management fields, especially those with an international emphasis.

Since the first edition of The Financial Times Guide to ETFs was published in 2009, the number of ETFs in issue has doubled and ETFs are now common both on investor platforms and increasingly amongst financial advisors. This massive increase in demand has highlighted an urgent debate - just how dangerous are ETFs and how much do investors and advisers understand about the structure of the index tracker? The second edition of this book attempts to answer this debate and is the indispensable bible on trackers for professional advisers and serious private investors. This new edition also features a chapter based around the theme of Due Diligence and a new chapter on How to use ETFs and Index Funds for theLong-term, as well as a new Jargon busting section and a-new appendix looking at new ideas beginning to emerge.

Advances in Management Accounting (AIMA) is a publication of quality applied research in management accounting. The journal's purpose is to publish thought-provoking articles that advance knowledge in the management accounting discipline and are of interest to both academics and practitioners. The journal seeks thoughtful, well-developed articles on a variety of current topics in management accounting, broadly defined. All research methods including survey research, field tests, corporate case studies, experiments, meta-analyses, and modeling are welcome. Some speculative articles, research notes, critiques, and survey pieces will be included where appropriate. Articles may range from purely empirical to purely theoretical, from practice-based applications to speculation on the development of new techniques and frameworks. Empirical articles must present sound research designs and well-explained execution. Theoretical arguments must present reasonable assumptions and logical development of ideas. All articles should include well-defined problems, concise presentations, and succinct conclusions that follow logically from the data.

A global banking risk management guide geared toward the practitioner Financial Risk Management presents an in-depth look at banking risk on a global scale, including comprehensive examination of the U.S. Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, and the European Banking Authority stress tests. Written by the leaders of global banking risk products and management at SAS, this book provides the most up-to-date information and expert insight into real risk management. The discussion begins with an overview of methods for computing and managing a variety of risk, then moves into a review of the economic foundation of modern risk management and the growing importance of model risk management. Market risk, portfolio credit risk, counterparty credit risk, liquidity risk, profitability analysis, stress testing, and others are dissected and examined, arming you with the strategies you need to construct a robust risk management system. The book takes readers through a journey from basic market risk analysis to major recent advances in all financial risk disciplines seen in the banking industry. The quantitative methodologies are developed with ample business case discussions and examples illustrating how they are used in practice. Chapters devoted to firmwide risk and stress testing cross reference the different methodologies developed for the specific risk areas and explain how they work together at firmwide level. Since risk regulations have driven a lot of the recent practices, the book also relates to the current global regulations in the financial risk areas. Risk management is one of the fastest growing segments of the banking industry, fueled by banks' fundamental intermediary role in the global economy and the industry's profit-driven increase in risk-seeking behavior. This book is the product of the authors' experience in developing and implementing risk analytics in banks around the globe, giving you a comprehensive, quantitative-oriented risk management guide specifically for the practitioner. * Compute and manage market, credit, asset, and liability risk * Perform macroeconomic stress testing and act on the results * Get up to date on regulatory practices and model risk management * Examine the structure and construction of financial risk systems * Delve into funds transfer pricing, profitability analysis, and more Quantitative capability is increasing with lightning speed, both methodologically and technologically. Risk professionals must keep pace with the changes, and exploit every tool at their disposal. Financial Risk Management is the practitioner's guide to anticipating, mitigating, and preventing risk in the modern banking industry.

This series is devoted to the factors influencing accounting practice. It analyzes topics such as regulatory philosophy, self-regulation in accounting and regulatory policy. Each volume is structured into three parts - main articles, perspectives and book reviews. This volume includes a theoretical investigation of client internal control structures and management fraud. It also covers topics such as the volatility of pension costs, public accountant's professional conduct, an examination of borrower and lender perceptions, bank loan loss provisions after resignation, retirement or death, and the economic consequences of accounting standards and Islamic banks.

This series focuses on the academic and theoretical side of the profession in the areas of financial accounting, accounting education and auditing. Articles range from empirical and analytical, to the development of new technologies.

The Controller's Guide to Planning and Controlling Operations is a comprehensive guide for controllers, CFOs, and budget managers who need to determine: The soundness of sales forecastsThe best approach for setting product pricesThe profitability of customers and market segmentsFederal tax remittance rulesThe impact of a just-in-time system on inventory levels

Packed with clear and realistic strategies, it helps create a coherent framework of financial plans that apply to the full breadth of ongoing corporate control systems, as well as illustrates: When to use labor and materials standards to control manufacturingHow to control research and development costsHow to grant appropriate credit levels to customersHow to set up an effective capital budgeting processHow to create a cost-of-capital calculation