Cambridge Business Publishers

Financial Accounting for MBAs is managerially oriented and focuses on the important aspects of accounting. It teaches students how to read, analyze and interpret financial accounting data to make informed business decisions. In writing the book, we strived to make the book engaging, relevant, and contemporary. To that end, we consistently incorporate real company and industry data, both in the body of the module and throughout the assignment material.

We wrote the book in modules that can be used independently of one another to acknowledge that each school’s MBA curriculum (and instructor) is different in which topics are covered and the amount of time devoted to a topic. Our introduction and discussion of financial statements comprises Modules 1 and 2. Module 3 focuses on analysis of financial statements, with an emphasis on profitability analysis. Modules 4 through 9 highlights major financial accounting topics from assets, liabilities and equity to off-balance-sheet financing and the recasting of financial reports. Module 10 focuses on recasting and forecasting financial statements. Module 11 introduces the reader to simple valuation models. Module 12 is a comprehensive case featuring Kimberly-Clark that acts as a capstone for the course.

Instructor feedback identifies a wide range of instructional approaches for the MBA core course. The two ends of the spectrum are a ‘core financial accounting’ focus and an ‘analysis and valuation’ focus. As an aid in designing your course, the following modules might best comprise such courses—the options in between would involve combinations based on instructor preference.

Core Financial Accounting	Core Accounting, Analysis and Valuation
Module 1: Introducing Financial Accounting for MBA	Module 1: Introducing Financial Accounting for MBAs
Module 2: Constructing and Reporting Financial Statements	Module 2: Constructing and Reporting Financial Statements
Module 4: Reporting and Analyzing Operating Income	Module 3: Analyzing and Interpreting Financial Statements
Module 5: Reporting and Analyzing Operating Assets	Module 4: Reporting and Analyzing Operating Income
Module 6: Reporting and Analyzing Intercorporate Investments	Module 9: Reporting and Analyzing Off-Balance-Sheet Financing (optional)
Module 7: Reporting and Analyzing Nonowner Financing	Module 10: Adjusting and Forecasting Financial Statements
Module 8: Reporting and Analyzing Owner Financing	Module 11: Analyzing and Valuing Company Securities
Module 9: Reporting and Analyzing Off-Balance-Sheet Financing (optional)	Module 12: Constructing and Illustrating a Comprehensive Case (optional)

Throughout each of the modules we use real world companies and examples to motivate and illustrate all financial accounting topics. Such an approach is both appealing and motivating to MBAs students.

Many instructors have approached us in the past to offer suggested course structures. To that end, we provide the following table of possible modules to include in courses of varying lengths:

Course Length/ Module	15 Week Semester Course	10 Week Quarter Course	6 Week Mini Course	1 Week Intensive Course
Module 1: Introducing Financial Accounting for MBAs	Week 1	Week 1	Week 1	Day 1
Module 2: Constructing and Reporting Financial Statements	Week 2	Week 2	Week 2
Module 3: Analyzing and Interpreting Financial Statements	Week 3 & 4	Weeks 3	Week 3	Day 2
Module 4: Reporting and Analyzing Operating Activities	Week 5	Week 4	Skim	Skim
Module 5: Reporting and Analyzing Investing Activities	Week 6	Week 5	Week 4	Day 3
Module 6: Reporting and Analyzing Intercorporate Investments	Week 7	Optional	Optional	Optional
Module 7: Reporting and Analyzing Nonowner Financing	Week 8	Week 6	Week 5	Day 4
Module 8: Reporting and Analyzing Owner Financing	Week 9	Week 7	Week 6	Day 5
Module 9: Reporting and Analyzing Off-Balance-Sheet Financing	Week 10 & 11	Week 8	Optional	Optional
Module 10: Adjusting and Forecasting Financial Statements	Week 12	Week 9	Optional	Optional
Module 11: Analyzing and Valuing Company Securities	Week 13	Week 10	Optional	Optional
Module 12: Constructing and Illustrating a Comprehensive Case	Week 14	Optional	Optional	Optional

We recognize that the core MBA financial accounting course is not focused on accounting majors and Financial Accounting for MBAs reflects that reality. The book highlights accounting, analysis, interpretation, and decision-making , and it downplays accounting mechanics and minutia, including detailed journal entries. We do, however, incorporate an expanded accounting equation when relevant to train MBA students in understanding the economic ramifications of transactions and their impacts on all key financial statements. We feel that this analytical tool is a great resource for MBA students in learning and applying accounting in their future courses and careers.

Today’s MBA graduates must be skilled at reading and inferring from financial statements for business decisions. These skills often require application of ratio analyses, benchmarking, forecasting, valuation, and other aspects of financial statement analysis. Furthermore, today’s graduates must be able to go beyond the basic financial statements and be able to read, understand, and apply non-financial statement disclosures such as footnotes and supplementary reports.

Our emphasis, therefore, is on real company and industry data, including detailed footnote disclosures, and how to utilize this information to make managerial inferences and decisions. This has the additional benefit of making the material interesting and relevant for MBA students.