This text was written in response to the recommendations made by the Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC). Developed around a decision making model, students are taught how to understand the financial accounting processes and how to interpret and use the resulting information. Rather than focus on the recording process, the text teaches why particular items appear in or are omitted from financial statements, how items are valued in the financial statements and the usefulness of reported information in a decision-making context.

Students will learn how to evaluate current reporting criteria in a decision making context and be introduced to "what-if" analysis using specific business decisions. Through the linking of decisions and information, students will learn how to think and analyze rather than memorize. Recognizing that coverage of the basic recording process is necessary for students to understand fully the nature of accounting and the information generated by the accounting system, transactional journal entries will be included in some chapters of the text. Broad concepts will be emphasized and those concepts will be illustrated through extensive use of current business situations.