Cutting-Edge Content: Wild’s Financial Accounting continues to keep up with the rapidly changing business world, providing students the content they need to succeed. First, Financial Accounting motivates students with engaging chapter openers featuring entrepreneurial companies. Students identify with these smaller companies, and can envision being entrepreneurs themselves someday. In addition, Financial Accounting keeps material fresh and current by including new “SOX” (Sarbanes-Oxley) boxes throughout to emphasize the increasingly important ethics and corporate governance issues that face today's businesspeople. Financial Accounting also includes the current financial statements of Circuit City, Best Buy, and Apple to further reinforce real-world relevance of accounting concepts.

Decision Center: Whether we prepare, analyze, or apply accounting information, one skill remains essential: decision making. To help develop good decision-making habits and to illustrate the relevance of accounting, Financial Accounting 4e uses a unique pedagogical framework called the Decision Center. This framework is comprised of a variety of learning opportunities (see below) that give students insight into every aspect of business decision making. Answers to Decision Maker and Ethics boxes are at the end of each chapter.

CAP Model: The Conceptual/Analytical/Procedural (CAP) Model allows courses to be specially designed to meet your teaching needs or those of a diverse faculty. This model identifies learning objectives, textual materials, assignments, and test items by C, A, or P, allowing different instructors to teach from the same materials, yet easily customize their courses toward a conceptual, analytical, or procedural approach (or a combination thereof) based on personal preferences.

Chapter Preview with Flow Chart: This feature provides a handy textual/visual guide at the start of every chapter. Students can now begin their reading with a clear understanding of what they will learn and when, allowing them to stay more focused and organized along the way.

Quick Check: These short question/answer features reinforce the material immediately preceding them.They allow the reader to pause and reflect on the topics described, then receive immediate feedback before going on to new topics. Answers are provided at the end of each chapter.

Marginal Student Annotations: These annotations provide students with additional hints, tips, and examples to help them more fully understand the concepts and retain what they have learned.The annotations also include notes on global implications of accounting and further examples.

Demonstration Problems: present both a problem and a complete solution, allowing students to review the entire problem-solving process and achieve success.

Chapter Summaries: provide students with a review organized by learning objectives. Chapter Summaries are a component of the CAP model (see page viii), which recaps each conceptual, analytical, and procedural objective.

Key Terms: are bolded in the text and repeated at the end of the chapter with page numbers indicating their location. The book also includes a complete Glossary of Key Terms. Key Terms are also available as online flash cards at the book’s Website.

Quick Study: assignments are short exercises that often focus on one learning objective. All are included in Homework Manager.There are usually 8-10 Quick Study assignments per chapter.

Problem Sets A, B, and C: are proven problems that can be assigned as homework or for in-class projects. Problem Set C is available on the book’s Website. All problems are coded according to the CAP model (see page viii), and all are included in Homework Manager.

Exercises: are one of this book’s many strengths and a competitive advantage.There are about 10-15 per chapter and all are included in Homework Manager.

Multiple Choice Questions: In response to review and focus group feedback, the author has created Multiple Choice Questions that quickly test chapter knowledge before a student moves on to complete Quick Studies, Exercises, and Problems.

Beyond the Numbers: exercises ask students to use accounting figures and understand their meaning. Students also learn how accounting applies to a variety of business situations. These creative and fun exercises are all new or updated, and are divided into 10 sections:

• Reporting in Action
• Comparative Analysis
• Ethics Challenge
• Communicating in Practice
• Taking It To The Net
• Teamwork in Action
• Hitting the Road
• BusinessWeek Activity
• Entrepreneurial Decision
• Global Decision

Serial Problems: use a continuous running case study to illustrate chapter concepts in a familiar context. Serial Problems can be followed continuously from the first chapter or picked up at any later point in the book; enough information is provided to ensure students can get right to work.

The End of the Chapter Is Only the Beginning: Our valuable and proven assignments aren’t just confined to the book. From problems that require technological solutions to materials found exclusively online, this book’s end-of-chapter material is fully integrated with its technology package.

• Quick Studies, Exercises, and Problems available on Homework Manager (see page xiii) are marked with an icon.
• Problems supported by the General Ledger Application Software or Peachtree are marked with an icon.
• The Online Learning Center (OLC) includes more Taking It To The Net exercises, Personal Interactive Quizzes, Excel template assignments, and Problem Set C.
• Problems supported with Microsoft Excel template assignments are marked with an icon.
• Material that receives additional coverage (slide shows, videos, audio, etc.) in Topic Tackler is marked with an icon.

Cutting-Edge Technology: Financial Accounting also offers the most advanced and comprehensive technology on the market in a seamless, easy-to-use platform.As students learn in different ways, Financial Accounting provides a variety of technology tools to help students learn more effectively and efficiently. Homework Manager, eBook options, iPod content, and Topic Tackler are some of the options available. Homework Manager Plus takes learning to another level by integrating an online version of the textbook with all the power of Homework Manager.Technology offerings include the following:

• Homework Manager
• Homework Manager Plus
• Integrated iPod content
• Algorithmic Test Bank
• Online Learning Center
• Topic Tackler
• Carol Yacht's General Ledger and Peachtree Complete
• ALEKS for the Accounting Cycle
• ALEKS for Financial Accounting