The authors have taken a new "macro- to micro-" approach to the Principles of Accounting course by starting with a discussion of real financial statements first, rather than starting with the Accounting Cycle (although the Accounting Cycle is thoroughly covered in Chapters 3 and 4).  The objective is to establish how a financial statement communicates the financing, investing, and operating activities of a business to users of accounting information.  They motivate students by grounding the discussion in the real world, showing them the relevance of the topics covered to their future career.

The authors have integrated a set of analytical tools throughout the book to help decision makers solve business problems based on financial information.  After each new decision tool is presented, they summarize the key features of that tool in a Decision Toolkit. At the end of each chapter, Using the Decision Toolkit provides a comprehensive demonstration of an analysis of a real company using the decision tools presented in the chapter. In addition, for easy review and preparation for doing homework, all the decision tools of the chapter are summarized in the Decision Toolkit--A Summary section.  This thorough integration of the use of business information for decision making makes this text one of the most user-oriented currently available.