Financial statement exposure has been limited for me until recently in my career and this book has helped me understand the many dynamics of financials and the relationship between them. Great resource and learning tool.

This is an outstanding introduction to accounting and it is rare that I've seen books this good. This is not to say that you can put the book under your pillow and expect your head to absorb its contents overnight, as it will still require time and effort on your part to get a good understanding of accounting. But it is hard to imagine a book better suited for newcomers to accounting. (Please note that I'm not affiliated with the author in any way.)

I was a business major in college, and took a few accounting classes. I haven't used accounting much since then, but needed to brush up. This book worked out great.

This book is an easy read, but like any great book, it leads to a deeper understanding of the subject matter. I'll be referring back to it frequently.

It's clear and detailed. If you follow every step you will definitely understand everything. However, there are many overlaps which you may not need.

I learn by example and this book allowed me to do just that. With the 39 well-explained real-life like transactions the authors guides the student through many aspects of financial transactions. A very good book and well worth the read to develop a solid foundation to financial accounting. Not a comprehensive financial accounting book by any means, but does an excellent job developing the most important concepts. The book also provides an introduction to ratio analysis which is useful especially after going through the case. In all, very highly recommended! Good job Mr. Ittelson!

I have not read a book in many, many years... mainly because I have a very short attention span. If the point does not get accross in 2 seconds, my mind drifts to lala land.... Miraculously, I have read it many times over.

This was such an easy read. Retention is aided by the large print & clear diagrams showing how each transaction affects all the statements (without the unnecessary, complex verbage.)

So far, this has been the only book I have found to affectively explain how the finacial statements are linked. This is a perfect reference guide for experienced professionals & a must for the classroom.

Honestly, I got more out of this book than my BA in accounting & MBA in finance. Thank you!!!

This book was for a business class and it was very helpful and informative. I will be keeping this one for reference later, as it's easy enough to understand for the future after I've forgotten all that I learned.

I'm in an MBA program and have had numerous undergraduate accounting classes. This book is fantastic. It is FAR superior to "How To Read A Financial Report" by John Tracy. "Financial Statements: A Step-By-Step Guide to Understanding and Creating Financial Reports" by Thomas R. Ittelson is clear and concise. It's the best book I've found on the subject. I highly recommend it!

A sound review of what I learned almost 40 years ago and have not used in about 25 years. Brought back what I learned and used years ago.

For the person who buys stocks, this book is an absolute must. Ittelson's writing is clear and gets to the point. By the end, you will have a very good understanding of financial statements. I got interested in this book as an investor and I am very pleased with my time investment in reading this book.

I bought 3 books, the one I am reviewing, "Reading Financial Reports For Dummies", and "Guide to Understanding Financial Statements". This book gives no information for beginners who are trying to learn how to understand financial statements. I read all 3 books twice, and I didn't get anything...and I mean nothing from this book. The other two were very well written. Reading Financial Reports For Dummies and The Guide to Understanding Financial Statements. I suggest not wasting your money on this book. It is basically a lot of numbers with very little explanation. It is also confusing because the definitions are different and there is no explanation why they defintions change when reading a financial report.

This book would be an excellent supplement to a beginning accounting class. The author explains the material so that it is very easy to understand.

But if you've taken intermediate or advanced accounting classes, don't waste your money. There isn't anything new in this small book. It doesn't cover all areas of accounting and the areas that are covered are not in-depth. Example: There is a brief mention of straight-line deprection but nothing about salvage value and no mention about the other depreciation methods.

This book is excellent. Basic and for beginners. You may need little help to undersand some issues but this will not affect the idea that this book is very simple to understand than the academic books. The book explain how to create the 3 financial statements by giving an exmaple of a comapny. It is a step by step anaylsis. You will feel as if you are in real practical life. Go get it. If ever you did not find it convenient, still, you will not regret buying it.

Please see the reviews by Robert I. Hedges and M. Kramer. Both gentlemen said it better than I can. This is the one.

THIS BOOK IS REALLY BAD. NEITHER FOR AMATEURS NOR FOR THOS WHO WANTS TO BRUSH UP THEIR BASIC ACCOUNTING KNOWLEDGE.

Excellent read to unravel the confusing vocabulary of the subject. Excellent as a review and easy to understand.

This is a comprehensive book and easy and fun to read. Now if you can't understand this book then I suggest not to deal with any numbers and leave it all up to a professional. This book is an easy guide that takes you by hand to show you all three statements income, cash flow and balance sheet and explains them all and tell you how they are related. It also builds a company and records all transactions into these 3 statements. It's easy and fun.

I'm getting an MBA and have taken no prior business classes. I found this book to be very useful, especially the step-by-step walkthrough. I was initially concerned that the book would be too basic when reading the first section, however the next sections were excellently executed.

With this as background i'm moving on to Higgins Analysis For Financial Management, Techniques Of Financial Analysis by Eric A. Helfert, and The Analysis And Use Of Financial Statements by Gerald White as recommended by one of the reviwers here. I've also order Graham and Dodd's Security Analysis as the capstone for my self-education.

I've recently begun investing in stocks, but I knew nothing about financial reports or accounting. Now I do. Not only did I learn a lot from Ittelson, I want to know more! I liked this book because it was easy to get through (the writing is straightforward and the font is BIG), it utilizes a building-block method of learning, and employs a fictional company from page one to illustrate all the concepts of financial reports. If you're a beginner, this is a great place to start.

A solid foundation is critical to understanding concepts. So you'd think most books would spend a lot of time ensuring and clarifying the basics, right? Wrong! Simply not true! Most of the accounting/finance books just don't get into clarifying the very basics - the confusing array of terms used, how they fit together, what they actually mean in a realworld setting, etc.

This book - a must on every managers shelf - adds value by providing clear and consise definitions and relates them visually. The chapter on connections ties a lot of information together with such ease. Above all the step by step examples go a long long way into clarfying any remaining confusion you'd have. Its very easy to read. You'd probably finish it over a weekend. So its tremendous bang for buck.

Clearly the first introductory book one should read. There are plenty of good books for the next level (IMHO).

**_Simply go get it - read it. Enjoy the clarity in your decision making. Highly recommended._**

Here is a list of books that might also help.
Introductory level:
1. Financial statements (Thomas Ittelson, this book)
2. How to use financial statements: A guide to understanding the numbers (James Bandler)

Next Level:
3. Financial Statement Analysis: the investors self study to interpretting & analyzing financial statements, revised edition (Charles J. Woelfel)
4. Analysis For Financial Management (Robert C. Higgins) - This is one excellent book.
5. Techniques Of Financial Analysis: A Modern Approach (Eric A. Helfert)

MBA Level:
6. The Analysis And Use Of Financial Statements (Gerald White, Sondhi, et. al) - dense reading (plus the plain format of this version of the book is sure to make you fall asleep. Hats off to you if you can read this book cover to cover. :).)
7. Also Corporate Finance: theory and practice (Damodaran) has a very good advanced level introductory chapter. Pick it up at a library and ...

If you had to buy 1 book:
I'd recommend - #1 above.

If you could buy 2 books (over time):
I'd recommend - #1 and #4 above.

If you could buy 3 books (for an in depth managerial understanding):
I'd recommend - #1, #4 and #5 above.

Good luck!

Although the first half of the book seems naive even for begginers, second half reveals to be much better as author explains dinamics of connections among financial statements through a very interesting sequence of day-to-day operations of a simplified applesauce factory. In fact, even more experienced people would enjoy reading this part, as it is very clarifying.

I had no background or basic concepts regarding financial reports and found it to be important serving on a non-profit board of directors to have that understanding. The book defined the vocabulary used when discussing the reports and demonstrated how one aspect of documentation interfaces with other aspects of the financial report. It gave me good information and I still refer to it when I'm not sure I understand the explanation the accountant is giving.

I am a graduate student nearing the completion of my MBA degree. By definition, my area of study demands an understanding of economics, accounting, and finance. I found this book to be very informative and extremely helpful as I navigate through the complexities of financial matters. Mr. Ittelson speaks in basic terms about what financial statements mean and how they work. This book puts it all together for the reader. Thank you, Mr. Ittelson, for simplifying a very complex matter. When will you be authoring your next step-by-step guide to business? I'll be first in line to buy it.

This is a very nice book and yet very simple and easy to understand. Recommended to students, teachers, novice accountant and to those who knows nothing about accounting. This is a very good book to start. Just give it a try, I know you would like it.

As I have had the occassion to prepare financial statements and reports on spreadsheet, I frequently found that when I had a basic (i.e., elementary) question about how to prepare the accounting entries, the chances were good that I would find the answer in this book. The last time I had such an accounting question, I promised myself that if this book would have the answer that I would write a review on Amazon. Sure enough it did!

While the book gets only skin deep on accounting concepts, it does an excellent job in deconstructing how the Income Statement, Statement of Cash Flows, and Balance Sheet are changed. It literally shows the statements before the change, the individual line item changes, and the statements after the change. It does this case by case for about thirty or so, commonly occuring accounting entries during the regular business cycle.

Very few accounting related books make explicit what happens the way this book does. While the book skips a lot of details, it has proven very useful and is well worth the price. I highly recommend it.

Incidently, another book which covers practical presents techniques that can be used in accounting and financial related spreadsheets is "Excel Best Practices for Business".

I took an accounting class...and I had difficulty interpreting the financial statements. So I gambled to buy this book with a hope to unravel the mystery on financial statements. It really worked!!! I read half of the book in less than a day. The information was methodically presented in a concise and clear manner. There are hands-on examples that systematically connect financial statements to business transactions. Overall, the knowledge gained exceeds multiple folds of the time and money invested on this book!

I bought this book and I'm not happy with it because first of all, it is not written by an accountant, and second of all, it is just too confusing for people like me, who are starting out in the small business adventure. I read a lot of books but this one is not worth your money.

I took an accounting cource at University, i now wish that my professor used this book in the cource. So easy to understand and with great examples. Suitable for anyone who wants to lear accounting the fast and easy way.

I've been buying from Amazon.com for at least 5 years but this is my first review. I am 3/4 of the way through Ittelson's book and I want to write this review while my enthusiasm is still burning white hot.

Ittelson has a gift that few experts have. He anticipates all my newbie/beginner stupid questions. Here I am on page 169 wondering why paying payroll taxes doesn't show up on the Income Statement. Sure enough, right after I've wondered to myself why there is no transaction on the Income Statement, I see his note explaining that these payroll tax expenses were put on the Income Statement when the goods were shipped, "not when the actual payment is made."

As soon as the little voice in my head asks, "But why did they do it *this* way?" Ittelson gives me the answer.

I give Ittelson a lot of credit for this. After you've studied something for years, as he clearly has, it's often almost impossible to see the subject with the eyes of a beginner. Believe me, I'm a teacher, I know how difficult it can be.

The first part of the book examines the three basic statements line-by-line: Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement, and Balance Sheet.

The largest part of the book sounds incredibly dry and dull. Each even-numbered page displays all three financial statements: Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement, and Balance Sheet. The odd-numbered page explains a business transation: paying payroll taxes, for example. The transaction's impact on the three financial statements is displayed on the even-numbered page.

Believe it or not, Ittelson makes it interesting to read about these business transactions. He creates a narrative about starting a business and running it. Along the way, he offers a few humorous pearls of business wisdom. This is dry, technical stuff but he makes it entertaining without ever sacrificing explanatory precision.

This is a great book for anyone who feels they need to sharpen their skills with financial statements. I've read short descriptions of financial statements before but it never sank in. What's great about Ittelson's book is that first he gives very clear definitions of key terms and then he takes you step-by-step through each business transaction and how it is reflected on the financial statements.

I wish I had read this book more than 10 years ago when I first started in the business world. I assume that you learn this stuff if you have an MBA. But I didn't. This gives one a solid grounding in the brass tacks of the business world.

This book has been of enormous value to me. It is an essential reference for anyone who needs to understand what business finances are about.

I would like to thank the author for writing such an insightful and intuitive book on accounting. I highly recommend it to budding entrepreneurs who want to quickly understand financial statements.

This was a great book which I could finsih in one day. I am a person with a non finance background and now I can explain to any person what a balance sheet and Income stmt mean.

To the author,
I have found one error in the book. While explaining the stockholder equity in page 41. It should be Q + R = S. Whereas in the book it is Q - R = S

Otherwise the book is faboulous for any reader.

Wow, what a great book! I am a technical professional enrolled in a graduate business degree program, and until now the plethora of financial and accounting terminology and rules has been bewildering for me. That is no longer true after buying this book. I have primarily used it as a reference book, and without fail any explanation I have needed has been easy to find, clear and concise.

I am no longer in the financially confused majority, largely thanks to this book. The author's education is in biochemistry (as is my undergraduate education), and because he originally came from the hard sciences where clarity and accuracy are valued above all else he was better able to be clear and easy to understand in comparison to many business school authors who seem to thrive on jargon and platitudes.

This is a great book to have on the reference shelf. If you are involved with business finance or investment analysis it is simply the best book available on the subject and should be considered indispensable!

The authors presented the information in a quick, easy to read format. The apple company example they refer to throughout the book really helped to pull it all together. Highly recommended to obtain useful knowledge quickly.

This is a fabulous introduction for the novce (like me). The book clearly defines terms and presents material in a conceptual order that really makes sense. It is also laid out very well visually, breaking out concepts and clearly linking text to examples of different kinds of financal statements, which is a very effective technique for illustrating the topic at hand. The last chapters of the book include an introduction to ratio analysis, which is a useful beginning for individual investors interested in securities analysis.

If you are in the finance business, of any kind, and you are not an accountant, this book is for you.

I would recommend this book to anyone whom needs to acquire a basic understanding. It was a little basic for me, but its a great review of vocab, and how changes in the statements affect one another.

After having read many financial textbooks, I think this book is amazing. The author did an excellent and remarkable work. To begin with, he took in very serious consideration his audience, which is people with poor knowledge in finance. Thus, his book is very easy-to-read and its content very explicit. Every single financial term is clarified with a layman's language. Moreover, for every single term, there is a very understandable example. Likewise, in every page there is a sheet explaining all the transactions. I strongly believe that this book is a masterpiece for non financial managers.

This is the first book that demonstrates an understandig of the necessity of abandoning jargon to get to knowledge, for a layman. At the end of this book, I was able to relate back to the Jargons, and I agree with the author, nothing is simpler than reading statements! Excellent read for novices!

I purchased this book for an MBA course and ended up using it more than the assigned text. The author makes a complicated subject seem like childs play! Thanks to this book, I am confident that my MBA case analysis for future courses are on target!

The author explains quite well the contents of the book. I would give this book 5 stars but for the fact it lacks sections on mutiple year statements and examples of dicounted cash flow and IRR calculations. Before reading the book, I couldn't write a financial statement. Now I've written one albeit without IRR forecast.

When trying to start or run a buisness, knowing how to handle one's accounts and finances can become a very important issue for the small buisness owner. As I read this book, the complex ways of keeping a buisness's records became much clearer to me, so much that I was able to fully comprehend the meanings and motives behind the ways that the book was written. I reccomend this book, mainly because I believe it is of great use to anyone who wishes to learn a great deal about finacial statements.

This is a wonderfully clear and concise introduction to the interpretation of financial statements such as 10-Qs. Read this if you are not a CPA or MBA, but must "get a handle" on Balance Sheets, Income Statements and Cash Flow Statements. This should be the first book you buy for this purpose-- print out your company's 10-Q and have it in hand.

This book is really a must for anyone who wants to learn how to read finacial statements in a quick and easy way. "A Step by Step Guide" is fun to read and is very informative. I recommend it!

Of five books on the subject I reviewed, this one was the clearest, most comprehensive, introduction to the subject of understanding financial statements.