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Best accounting books - Advanced Level


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Guest Schwab711
Posted

Does anyone have any advice on some good books on accounting? I'm looking for more advanced-level reads (prefer textbooks but open to anything; if anyone wants to share their books from their MBA/MFE programs that would be great). I would really like industry-specific stuff but general GAAP/IFRS books would be great. Is it worth getting the CPA exam study guides or is it not detailed enough?

 

My main interest is improving my understanding of inventory and revenue recognition. I hear big-shot HF managers talk about great shorts due to red-flags where they think the accounting is likely non-sense; after reading their thesis it usually makes sense but I'm not very good at finding these independently.

 

Also, if there are any IBs out there, I'd be very interested in any suggestions on books detailing Derivative/MBS/CMO/ABS/ect valuation methods or risk management books.

 

Posted

I would recommend Wiley GAAP: Interpretation and Application of GAAP.  It'll cover both inventory accounting and revenue recognition and there is a section in the back that covers industry-specific accounting issues.  There are new editions of this book each year.  The newest edition, 2015, is about $100 on Amazon.  If you want to save some cash, but 2014 or even 2013.  Not much has changed since those versions.  You can get the year or two old editions for about $40.

 

If you want really detailed accounting guides for specific industries, the AICPA publishes a number of industry guides that are really detailed.  They are called AICPA Audit and Accounting Guides and cover just one industry each.  At $75 each they are expensive, so you'd have to be pretty serious about a specific industry to buy one.  The AICPA guides are much more detailed than the Wiley GAAP book for the industry that it covers, but the Wiley GAAP book should be detailed enough for most and it is much more comprehensive in the breadth of topics it covers.

Posted

I also just noticed that the guy who used to author Wiley GAAP now has his own GAAP book called GAAP Guidebook: 2015.  At only $29 this might be a worthwhile buy (but I haven't personally looked at this book).

Posted

I think the best ones are by Howard Schilit, Abraham Briloff, Quality of Earnings by  Thornton L. O'glove and similar forensic accounting books.  If you learn them well you can spot aggressive accounting by mgmt trying to inflate earnings. 

Guest Schwab711
Posted

Thanks everyone. I have the CFA books already so I didn't mention them. I really like the Kaplan ones, I take test I in June. Anyone take the CPA exam? I don't hear of many big-time investors get both the CPA and CFA exams. Separate question, does anyone have personal experience on whether it was worth it?

 

I heard of Quality of Earnings, I just bought it today. I'll probably take a flier on the guy who wrote Wiley at $30 too. I just got Hull - Options, Futures, and Derivatives. It's faster to get through this stuff when you don't get tested on it later :)

Posted

For more detailed accounting analysis (along the lines of Quality of Earnings), I'd recommend checking out the books by Mulford & Comiskey. I liked Creative Cash Flow Reporting better than Guide to Financial Reporting & Analysis.

 

For regular accounting stuff, I just got a used copy of an advanced accounting book off Amazon- tons of options (textbooks).

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

I would recommend Wiley GAAP: Interpretation and Application of GAAP.  It'll cover both inventory accounting and revenue recognition and there is a section in the back that covers industry-specific accounting issues.  There are new editions of this book each year.  The newest edition, 2015, is about $100 on Amazon.  If you want to save some cash, but 2014 or even 2013.  Not much has changed since those versions.  You can get the year or two old editions for about $40.

 

 

Hey, I am also thinking of getting the Wiley GAAP book. I noticed that the 2012 version is significantly cheaper than the 2013 one on Amazon, about $7 vs. $34 respectively. Do you think the '12 one would be okay to use or do you think it's too old?

 

Thanks

Posted

As others have recommended, Creative Cash Flow Reporting by Mulford and Cominsky, Quality of Earnings by O'glove and Financial Shenanigans by Schilit are all good. Even if you're very advanced, I imagine you'd learn something useful from all of them. I learned a lot from them. Enjoy!

Posted

The answer really depends on how you define "Advanced".  In accountant's terms, "Advanced" level of accounting deals with topics such as business combinations, statement consolidations, intercompany transactions, FX translations & transactions, etc...

 

So if that's what you are talking about, I would say just try to search Amazon and look for "Advanced Financial Accounting" textbooks and make sure that they have the above topical materials covered.

Posted

The answer really depends on how you define "Advanced".  In accountant's terms, "Advanced" level of accounting deals with topics such as business combinations, statement consolidations, intercompany transactions, FX translations & transactions, etc...

 

So if that's what you are talking about, I would say just try to search Amazon and look for "Advanced Financial Accounting" textbooks and make sure that they have the above topical materials covered.

 

Great point, even beyond that each vertical is likely to have giant texts on minute details for that vertical.  I recently found a series of books on Amazon focusing on M&A accounting and valuation for specific industries.  For example there is a 300+ page book discussing M&A for banks, that's a lot of pages on a very narrow topic.  There are entire books on inventory accounting if that's your thing.

 

A better way to look at this is to determine your goal, the find what you need to get there.  In my experience if you need a book on inventory accounting to determine if something's a good investment it's more than likely not a good one.  Or if it is you'll be facing an impossible uphill battle trying to teach the world arcane accounting concepts that might be masking true value.

 

The suggestions on here are great, for most investment activities I think these books would easily suffice.

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