Crucial Help for Getting the Most from Today’s Information Systems Technology Deciding what type of information systems your company will need to stay competitive into the twenty-first century is a highly complex and risky exercise. SAP: An Executive’s Comprehensive Guide provides the information you need to assess your options realistically and make the most informed decisions possible. Written by a team of business, financial, and information systems professionals who have extensive experience with SAP system implementations at Fortune 500 companies, this book:

• Explores the strategic role of client/server enterprise computing now and in the next century
• Helps you to evaluate your company’s long-term IS requirements
• Offers an impartial look at SAP R/3 strengths and weaknesses
• Outlines the costs and benefits involved in implementing SAP R/3
• Helps you decide whether SAP R/3 is right for your organization
• Shows you how to make SAP R/3 an integral part of process redesign
• Covers all key technical SAP aspects of concern to IS professionals

"No one has a clearer understanding of valuation than does Al King. He knows the nuts and bolts of this subject, as well as its intricacies, because he has practiced his profession on the factory floor, in the boardroom, and in the courtroom. The mathematics of valuation is easy to understand. Applying the underlying principles to the ever-growing myriad of business assets and issues is very difficult. Only a handful of valuation professionals have the breadth of knowledge and experience necessary to meet that challenge. The author of this book is one of them, and he conveys that experience in a readable style. He writes as he speaks– clearly and to the point. Anyone who wishes to understand the appraisal process as it pertains to business assets needs this book." —Gordon V. Smith, President, AUS Consultants

"Al King’s Valuation: What Assets Are Really Worth aims to give the reader a deep understanding of what ‘value’ really means–and it succeeds brilliantly. King clearly explains why there is no single ‘correct’ value for many assets, using real-world examples to show that the intended purpose of a valuation must affect the result. Further, he offers examples of business problems (sometimes disasters!) caused by faulty understanding of value. Only someone with a truly deep understanding of the subject can explain it with such crystalline clarity." —Robert E. Esch, Retired Executive (General Management), Consultant, and President of Sarah Woods Traditions, Inc.

"What a wonderful, commonsense book for guys like me that covers the minefields of cost, price, and value. Every buyer or seller can gain many valuable insights from Al King’s engaging book." —Thomas Swanston, Executive Vice President, Bassett Furniture Industries

"As usual, Al King has distilled a somewhat complicated area into commonsense business analysis that we can all relate to. His book is a very worthwhile read for professionals and business owners looking to better understand valuation in the broadest sense, as well as how it applies to their particular situation. I highly recommend taking the time to read this book." —Mark Santarsiero, President, Marshall & Stevens

"Al King has taken a complex topic and separated it into easily understandable components, which he highlights with meaningful examples. The result is a resource that attorneys, accountants, and business people in general can use frequently to explain to clients both the importance of ‘valuation’ and the concepts which define it." —Sari Ann Strasburg, Pepe & Hazard LLP

"Al King has put his long and vast experience in the field of valuation and accounting to use in Valuation: What Assets are Really Worth. He uses extensive examples to delineate differences between cost, price, and value. He then proposes that future debate should lead to disclosure and use of ‘value’ on a continuous basis. This book has been authored by a true expert in this field." —Frank C. Minter, CPA, Chair, Institute of Management Accountants

This concise volume evaluates the cause and significance of recent corporate failures and financial scandals, and how they reflect on the fitness for purpose of the external auditors, financial reports, financial watchdogs, boards, directors and senior management. Failures like the disastrous collapse of Carillion, examined at length, have ultimately led to a crisis of confidence not only in the audit process but in the entire process of financial reporting. Revealing the shortcomings in audit quality, independence, choice and the growing expectation gap, Financial Failures and Scandals questions if the profession, its regulators or government watchdogs, are adequately prepared for the challenges of increasing regulation, public outcry and political scrutiny in the face of inevitable future financial failures. The fundamental structures of financial reporting, annual reports, boards of directors and senior management are often found to have failed. Tighter regulation and new requirements for reporting will inevitably result. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with insiders, users and experts, this unique book provides a compelling account of the profoundly disruptive impact of financial failures on corporate and financial accountability. Topical and readable, this book will be of great interest to students, researchers and professionals in accounting and auditing, as well as to policy makers and regulators.

This study utilizes the rich archives which survive at Durham Cathedral to examine the way in which accounting methods and systems were adopted and adapted to manage income and expenses, assets and liabilities in changing economic environments.

What went wrong and how to fix it

"This is a book that well represents the skeptical, probing, and doubting spirit of the time. Professor Ketz explores the ways corporate management and auditors can ‘spin’ financial reporting to misinform investors. It is written so that the individual investor can grasp the ideas but will be useful for investment analysts and audit committee members who need a lively briefing in how to spot questionable accounting."
–– John H. Biggs
Former chairman and Chief Executive Officer
TIAA - CREF

"Ed Ketz brilliantly illustrates how the improper application of accounting rules misleads users of financial statements. This book is an indispensable resource and greatly enhances one’s understanding of the many obscure footnotes found in today’s financial statements."
–– Albert Meyer
2nd Opinion Research, Plano, TX

It is now painfully clear that "earnings management" has managed little, other than some short-term gain for a handful of managers and a long-term catastrophic erosion of the public faith in financial reporting. But it is not too late for the accounting industry to turn back from the brink. Edward Ketz lays out several specific problems in the financial reporting arena, describes how the system failed to correct any of these problems, and suggests a compelling course of action for improvement in Hidden Financial Risk: Understanding Off-Balance Sheet Accounting.

Chapter by chapter, Ketz explains how firms hide debt using:

• The equity method
• Lease accounting
• Pension accounting
• Special Purpose Entities

and then illustrates the failures of directors, auditors, regulators, and investors to detect and eliminate these tools of deception. He concludes by drawing upon his thirty years’ experience to propose how the industry can learn to identify fraud and ultimately restore investor confidence. Executives, accountants, and individual and institutional investors will find Hidden Financial Risk to be a powerful examination of the present, shifting accounting landscape.

An overview of how a new arrangement for setting financial reporting standards in the private sector came about, and why. Van Riper documents the emergence of a schism between advocates of neutrality in financial reporting standards and those who emphasize "social consequences", and the clashes between traditional views and new insights. He describes the efforts by powerful interests to block change, and examines the reasons why standard setting gives rise to contention and controversy. His recommendations to ensure standard setting in the private sector will be of special interest, not only to accounting professionals but to others throughout the finance, investment, and banking industries and to corporate management. The book begins with an overview of how and why the present self-regulatory arrangement for setting standards for financial reporting in the private sector came about in 1973. A brief description of the new structure is followed by a discussion of the essential elements of meaningful self-regulation. A schism emerged between advocates of neutrality and objectivity in standard setting and those who think the primary concern should be for possible economic and social consequences. Early clashes between traditional views and newer insights are described, setting the stage for an account of serious resistance to change. Powerful interests mount determined efforts to thwart the standard setters, undercutting not only self-regulation, but also the intent of the federal securities acts of 1933 and 1934. The practical and philosophical bases for the opposing views are examined, and recommendations are presented for ensuring continuation of private-sector standard setting despitethe intensity of these views.

Weygandt's Accounting Principles continues to provide students with a trusted and clear introduction to fundamental accounting concepts, which has made this best-selling text so popular. Helping students get the most out of their accounting course by making practice simple, the new edition continues to present the accounting cycle from a sole proprietor perspective, whilst providing the latest IFRS integration throughout (separate references to GAAP are made at the end of each chapter for courses where needed). To maximise student achievement a plethora of additional teaching and learning resources will be available including self-tests, exercises, templates, videos and more. Using metric units and companies with a more global feel, this new text is ideal for courses across the world.

Discover everything you need to know to take control of your accounts and manage the success of your business or personal finances. Brilliant Accounting is the practical, step-by-step guide that will help you get to grips with accounting basics. Written by an accounting expert with years of experience, Brilliant Accounting is free from technical jargon and theory and is packed with practical examples and expert tips and tricks. This book covers everything you need to know, from understanding reports to using accounting information to manage and develop your business.

The bestselling and astonishingly simple guide to the fundamental principles of accounting, written specifically for those without a financial background. Simple, easily absorbed and clearly explained, this book will guide you through all the major accounting concepts. You will learn how to master company accounts, understand balance sheets, profit and loss accounts and cash flow systems and how to analyse and monitor your company's financial performance.

This book describes the functions frequently used in deep neural networks. For this purpose, 37 activation functions are explained both mathematically and visually, and given with their LaTeX implementations due to their common use in scientific articles.

Essential guidance on the new fair value rules for accounting managers, auditors, and fraud investigators

Fair Value accounting is emerging as the next prime opportunity for financial statement fraud. Explaining the many complex applications of fair value accounting in the preparation of financial statements, "Fair Value Accounting Fraud" offers timely guidance on an up-and-coming issue as U.S. and international accounting rules pertaining to the use of fair value accounting continue to change.

You'll find discussion of
U.S. GAAP and IFRS rules on fair value accounting issues, highlighting the areas most vulnerable to fraudExplanations of 75 categories of fair value accounting fraud schemesFraud risk checklist that you can put to immediate usePractical detection techniques useful for auditors, investigators and others who rely on financial statementsExpert advice from Gerard Zack, CFE, CPA, author of "Fraud and Abuse in Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Prevention and Detection"

Comparing US accounting standards to International Financial Reporting Standards-thereby making this book useful worldwide- "Fair Value Accounting Fraud" helps you understand the new rules and develop new auditing and investigative techniques to enable you to detect potential fraud.

Sustainability Accounting, Management Control and Reporting: A European Perspective traces a picture of innovative performance measurement tools and approaches to drive organizations to implement their shared value and sustainability strategy, considering different perspectives around accounting, managerial control and reporting. In recent years, organizations managing their responsible approach with relevance and pressure from stakeholders and regulations has proven to be a major challenge. During the first two decades of the 21st century, many companies have reached a real maturity in this area and have deployed coherent responsible approaches that are integrated into their overall strategy. It is now a matter of steering these responsible approaches from an accounting and managerial standpoint, but also of reporting on them. It requires the simultaneous use of comprehensive accounting, controlling and reporting tools. This book provides an innovative perspective on sustainable management control, comprehensive accounting and integrated reporting, presenting the most recent proposals and the main critical issues. Aimed at researchers, academics, managers, business leaders and advanced students, the book will be especially valuable to those in the fields of corporate social responsibility, strategic management, and accounting.

This series arose out of the belief that the international accounting literature should devote more attention to the study of the accounting problems and issues of emerging economies (developing and newly industrialized countries).
Through an increasing awareness of the real issues and the accounting practices advocated in it, these works have become relevant to the actual needs of its readers, and is making real contributions to the accounting development process of emerging economies.
The volumes presented aim to:
*Raise the level of interest in the specific problems of accounting in emerging economies
*Increase awareness of real issues, so that accounting in these countries will not just be seen as a matter of copying what is done in the industrialized countries
*Provides an authoritative overview of the research and progress in this field

This volume describes the development of accounting thought during the twentieth century by focusing on a relatively narrow and long-lived issue, income smoothing.
The task begins with the creation and description of three taxonomies of income smoothing literature in order to identify the context and bounds of the preferences and behavior that are to be the subject of the study. Then a chronological review of English-language literature referring to income smoothing behavior is conducted that covers the period, 1893 through 1998. The review starts with literature discussing secret reserves created so that fat years could pay for lean years and moves to income smoothing as a criterion for accounting choice.
This literature on the smoothing criterion provided motivation for some of the earliest modern empirical studies in accounting. Empirical studies of smoothing have continued at a fairly constant rate since 1966 and make up a substantial portion of the literature review. A modification of the conventional smoothing hypothesis is proposed at the conclusion of the narrative that takes into account some relevant variables that tend to be overlooked because of the fragmentation of the literature. An extensive annotated bibliography and other appendices provide important supplements to the narrative.

This package contains Nobles, Horngren's Accounting 10e and access to MyAccountingLab. Important information for students: You need both an access code and a course ID to access MyAccountingLab. Ask your lecturer before purchasing a MyLab product as you will need a course ID from them before you can gain access to the system. For courses in Principles of Accounting This package includes MyAccountingLab (R). Redefining tradition in the accounting course. The tenth edition of Horngren's Accounting presents the core content of the accounting course in a fresh format designed to help today's learners succeed. Built upon the foundation of the Horngren franchise, this new edition was created by an all-new author team who sought to bridge the gap between textbook content and classroom instruction techniques. New pedagogical features such as Instructor Tips & Tricks and Common Questions, Answered walk students through the material as a great instructor would, fostering deeper understanding of accounting theory and practice. The table of contents for the tenth edition has been significantly overhauled to match the way the contemporary course is often taught. Additionally, the whole text has been put through a rigorous accuracy check, so instructors can be confident that it is up-to-date and error-free. And thorough integration between the text and MyAccountingLab places practice opportunities just a few clicks away-and provides a truly interactive learning experience. See Lead author Tracie Nobles share the newly revised and revamped edition of Horngren's Accounting: http://bit.ly/14Gn3Be Take a tour of Horngren's Accounting: http://bit.ly/horngrensaccounting This package includes MyAccountingLab, an online homework, tutorial, and assessment system designed with a single purpose in mind; to improve the results of all higher education students, one student at a time. With a wide range of interactive, engaging, and assignable activities, students are encouraged to actively learn and retain tough course concepts. Find out more at www.MyAccountingLab.com.

Advances in Accounting Education(AAE) is a high-quality publication of both empirical and non-empirical research that investigates vital matters within teaching, learning, and curriculum development. By focusing on these topics, it works to support the improvement of accounting programs at colleges and universities, as well as foster innovative discussion and significant contributions to faculty development. This 24th volume features 11 peer-reviewed papers surrounding five key themes: (1) research on student attitudes and behavior, (2) cases and pedagogical approaches in tax, (3) financial reporting and introductory accounting, (4) research about the CPA exam, and (5) international perspectives. It considers a variety of topics within these themes, from student study choices and changes in ethical attitudes over time to policy implications for the accounting profession. It even includes an instructional case for use in intermediate accounting courses and a comprehensive pedagogical approach (with a case) for teaching a complex topic in taxation. With international and nuanced perspectives from expert voices in the field, AAE is essential reading for students and accounting educators. Some practitioners and regulators in the accounting profession may also find useful policy-related nuggets in Volume 24.

This book presents the most current trends in the field of finance and accounting from an international perspective. Featuring contributions presented at the 17th Annual Conference on Finance and Accounting at the University of Economics in Prague, this title provides a mix of research methods used to uncover the hidden consequences of accounting convergence in the private (IFRS) and public sectors (IPSAS). Topics covered include international taxation (from both the micro- and macroeconomic level), international investment, monetary economics, risk management, management accounting, auditing, investment capital, corporate finance and banking, among others. The global business environment shapes the international financial flows of finance and the demand for international harmonization of accounting. As such, the field of global finance and accounting has encountered some new challenges. For example, policy-makers and regulators are forced to restructure their tools to tackle with new features of trading at global capital markets and international investment. This book complements this global view of development with country-specific studies, focusing on emerging and transitioning economies, which are affected indirectly and in unforeseen ways. The combination of global perspective and local specifics makes this volume attractive and useful to academics, researchers, regulators and policy-makers in the field of finance and accounting.

"Advances in Accounting Behavioral Research" publishes high-quality research encompassing all areas of accounting that incorporates theory from, and contributes knowledge and understanding to applied psychology, sociology, management science, and behavioral economics. Research published in this series encompasses all areas of accounting and covers a broad range of issues that affect the users, preparers and assurers of accounting information. This volume focuses primarily on developing psychometric measures that can be useful for future research. This includes research focused on developing an instrument for measuring taxpayer locus of control, developing a scale for examining social norms related to tax compliance, identifying characteristics of audit partners that might predict 'risky' behavior, and identifying facets of culture that influence employee satisfaction. Further, the quality of auditors' decisions as judged by engagement quality reviewers and jurors are examined. Finally, an investigation of the factors that influence coauthorship provides interesting insight into the habits of the most productive accounting researchers.

This book explores how digital transformation is reshaping the manner in which higher education sectors emerge, work, and evolve and how auditors should respond to this challenging and risky digital audit universe in transforming the higher education system. It serves to help professionals to understand the reality of performing the Chief Audit Executive (CAE) role in today's evolving business economy, specifically in the higher education sector. It compares and contrasts the stated IIA standards with the challenges and realities auditors may face and provides alternative scenarios to gaining a "seat at the table." This book also provides insight into critical lessons learned when executing the CAE role relevant for digitally transforming universities. The main purpose of this study is to rethink the audit culture in the digital era and reveal the key characteristics that are open for improvement so that digitally transforming universities can be audited according to the higher education standards with a digitally supported value-added audit approach. Based on this approach, the audit culture is reassessed considering the digital university conceptual framework and business model. There are two main points to consider for the digital university work environment: traceability and auditability. In this respect, policy recommendations are made for best practices to achieve value-added digital audits in transforming universities. The book has been written from both the reality and academic perspectives of two experienced authors. Sezer is a past CAE, CEO, and long-term senior internal auditor who has worked in the internal audit role for various listed companies, financial institutions, and government entities. Erman has extensive information technology and university accreditation knowledge in the global higher education sector. This brings a blend of value-added approaches to the readers and speaks to issues about understanding and dealing with audit culture and business evolution in digitally transforming organizations along with the requirements for upholding IIA standards. Geared toward the experienced or new CAE, University Auditing in the Digital Era: Challenges and Lessons for Higher Education Professionals and CAEs can be a tool for all auditors to understand some of the challenges, issues, and potential alternative solutions when executing the role of university auditing. In addition, it can be a valuable reference for university administrators and CIOs, as well as academics and all stakeholders related to the higher education sector.

This book draws on ancient Egyptian inscriptions in order to theorize the relationship between accounting and order. It focuses especially on the performative power of accounting in producing and sustaining order in society. It explores how accounting intervened in various domains of the ancient Egyptian world: the cosmos; life on earth (offerings to the gods; taxation; transportation; redistribution for palace dependants; mining activities; work organization; baking and brewing; private estates and the household; and private transactions in semi-barter exchange); and the cult of the dead. The book emphasizes several possibilities through which accounting can be theorized over and above strands of theorizing that have already been explored in detail previously. These additional possibilities theorize accounting as a performative ritual; myth; a sign system; a signifier; a time ordering device; a spatial ordering device; violence; and as an archive and a cultural memory. Each of these themes are summarized with further suggestions as to how theorizing might be pursued in future research in the final chapter of the book. This book is of particular relevance to all accounting students and researchers concerned with theorize accounting and also with the relevance of history to the project of contemporary theorizing of accounting.

This book explores the role of accounting and reporting practices, such as corporate and integrated reports, as organizations attempt to represent sustainability. By relying upon the case of a large international oil and gas company and its recent development of integrated reporting, this book argues that the ambiguity of sustainability as a concept, and the impossibility to fully capture it through accounting and reporting practices, does not mean that any attempt to represent it inevitably leads to distortion or obfuscates 'reality'. Rather, the way in which this concept is presented through accounting and reporting practices can have a constructive effect on the organization through the aspirations that these representations entail. The book demonstrates that accounting and reporting practices, such as integrated reporting, are not expected to offer complete representations of organizations' sustainability. Rather, these practices offer a number of representations (e.g. graphs, diagrams, tables, grid) that affect the way in which organizations understand and report on sustainability, changing its meaning over time. Finally, this study demonstrates that undefined concepts, such as 'sustainability', and practices, such as 'integrated reporting', mutually construct each other. The attempt to represent sustainability within the organization and the debates that this process generates, make accounting and reporting practices unfold themselves, and evolve. The book will be of interest to scholars in the field of accounting, management and sustainability, as well as practitioners from a wide array of additional fields, such as planning and control, organizations' strategy, business ethics, corporate social responsibility and corporate reporting.

Let 50 World Class Speaking Coaches Show You How to Keep Your Audience on the Edge of Their Seats and Turn Your Presentations Into Profits. The World Class Speaking In Action 6-Part System provides you with real life examples and case studies on how to... * Craft an unforgettable message that hits home with your audience * Deliver your speech in a way that keeps your audience on the edge of their seats * Sell your message so your audience members take the exact next step you want them to take * Master leading-edge technologies and speak to thousands without even leaving home World Class Speaking In Action is a definitive guide for the professional speaking and coaching industry. Until now, public speaking books have covered either the art of public speaking or the business of public speaking. World Class Speaking In Action shows you how to master both. World Class Speaking is the one-stop-shop for building breakthrough presentations and turning them into bundles of profits!

A detailed guide to the discipline of corporate valuation

Designed for the professional investor who is building an investment portfolio that includes equity, "Corporate Valuation for Portfolio Investment" takes you through a range of approaches, including those primarily based on assets, earnings, cash flow, and securities prices, as well as hybrid techniques.

Along the way, it discusses the importance of qualitative measures such as governance, which go well beyond generally accepted accounting principles and international financial reporting standards, and addresses a variety of special situations in the life cycle of businesses, including initial public offerings and bankruptcies. Engaging and informative, "Corporate Valuation for Portfolio Investment" also contains formulas, checklists, and models that the authors, or other experts, have found useful in making equity investments.Presents more than a dozen hybrid approaches to valuation, explaining their relevance to different types of investorsCharts stock market trends, both verbally and visually, enabling investors to think like traders when neededOffers valuation guidance based on less quantitative factors, namely management quality and factors relating to the company and the economy

"Corporate Valuation for Portfolio Investment" puts this dynamic discipline in perspective and presents proven ways to determine the value of corporate equity securities for the purpose of portfolio investment.

This book, first published in 1989, contains reprints of the early periodical on accounting, The Book-Keeper. It dealt with 'historical reviews of methods and systems in all ages and by all nations. Elucidations of accounts, introducing new and simplified features of accounting. Problems from the counting-room discussed and explained. Instructive notes upon plans and methods of book-keeping in every department of trade, commerce and industry.' The journal is a primary source for students interested in the history of accounting.