Financial statements are used by a wide variety of groups as a first step in evaluating a firm's management and understanding a company's business activities. This note explains that absolute figures by themselves tell us little about whether a company is successful or how it has managed its assets and liabilities.

This case is ideal as an introduction to relevant costs and product costing. The case describes the issues a manager of a German plant producing solder faces in deciding whether to scrap or reuse returned packaging which contains toxic waste or change the packaging.

Parent Industries Inc. slowly builds a simple consolidation exercise. The exercise is kept simple, as the objective is to explain the mechanics of consolidations to individuals who use financial statements as opposed to those who prepare them.

Managerial accounting involves gathering and preparing accounting information, which is useful for managerial decision-making. It seeks to explain what happens to the wealth of the organization under different possible courses of actions. These notes review and explain the methods and process for analysing and presenting data for decision making.

The case demonstrates the importance of understanding the difference between a lump sum invested over time and an annuity. The case is based on a real event. Auto dealers in the US were fraudulently using a computer program, which made an unfair interest rate comparison, to convince car buyers to finance their purchases.

The case presents a short history of financial accounting, the various ways accounting information can be viewed, some fundamental questions about financial accounting, a discussion on the use of auditors, and on why accounting is regulated. It provides a conceptual framework.