Survey of Accounting, 1st edition

Published by Pearson (August 14, 2026) © 2027
  • Tracie L. Miller
  • Stephanie Poindexter

Title overview

For survey of accounting courses.

A foundation in accounting, for success in business

Survey of Accounting aims to provide all students, no matter their major, with essential knowledge of the role of financial and managerial accounting. Requiring no prior knowledge of accounting, the text seeks to instill the judgment and decision-making skills needed to plan and operate a business.

In addition to learning how to read, understand and analyze accounting data, students explore how managers, investors and employees use accounting information to make decisions. In doing so, they build the financial literacy skills needed to confidently make their own decisions, both professionally and personally.

Hallmark features of this title

Flexible, intentional organization

  • Chapters are organized by financial vs. managerial content, featuring the small business perspective and the manager’s point of view, respectively.
  • Topics are organized into smaller chunks, making it easy to assign the content you’d like to cover during the term.

Real-world accounting

  • Accounting in Your Business boxes explore how businesses apply accounting concepts and address common questions faced by new business owners.
  • Data Analytics in Business features highlight how business owners and managers interpret data visualizations and analytics to make business decisions.

Application and assessment

  • Tying It All Together end-of-chapter cases feature well-known companies and help students synthesize chapter concepts.
  • Try It! exercises in each section of the text give students a chance to apply what they’ve just learned and to gauge their understanding.

Key features

Features of MyLab Accounting for this title

  • Interactive Reading Assignments engage students through an integrated blend of narrative, media and assessment, while holding them accountable for coming to class prepared.
  • Mini Sims put students in professional roles and ask them to respond to real business challenges.
  • Excel® Skills Sims build foundational Excel skills in a simulated, auto-graded environment.
  • Data analytics mini-dashboards help students answer business questions using accounting data.
  • End-of-chapter assessments, assignable in MyLab, include review questions, exercises, problems, critical-thinking activities and business simulations.

Features of Pearson+ eTextbook for this title

  • “A Closer Look” interactives break down complex exhibits into manageable steps. Hotspots on exhibits offer pointers and explanations.
  • Interactive flowchart diagrams provide self-paced review options.
  • FAQ features present common questions from students, while highlighting patterns in the concepts or rules that consistently confuse them. Students can click to see the answer or clarification.
  • Let’s Review sections at the start of each chapter provide a refresher on prior concepts, as well as an assessment tying prior knowledge to future content.
  • Check Your Understanding assessment sections at the end of each chapter prompt students to connect multiple concepts.

Table of contents

FINANCIAL CONTENT

  1. Introduction to Accounting
  2. The Balance Sheet
  3. The Income Statement
  4. Accrual Accounting
  5. Internal Control and Cash
  6. Accounting for Merchandising Operations
  7. Inventory and Receivables
  8. Long-Term Operational Assets
  9. Liabilities
  10. Corporations

MANAGERIAL CONTENT

  1. Introduction to Managerial Accounting
  2. Cost Behavior and Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis
  3. Job Order Costing
  4. Budgetary Planning and Control
  5. Responsibility Accounting and Performance Evaluation
  6. Short-Term Business Decisions
  7. Capital Investment Decisions

APPENDICES

  1. Double-Entry Accounting
  2. Financial Statement Analysis
  3. Present Value Tables and Future Value Tables

Author bios

About our authors

Tracie L. Miller, PhD, CPA (formerly Miller-Nobles) is the program chair for the Accounting program at Franklin University. She has extensive teaching experience, including faculty appointments at Austin Community College, Texas State University, Aims Community College and The University of Texas-Austin. Dr. Miller received her doctoral degree from Texas A&M University. She has public accounting experience with Deloitte Tax LLP.

Dr. Miller is the president of Teachers of Accounting at Two Year Colleges (TACTYC). She has served in leadership roles for the American Accounting Association, including as a member of the board of directors, secretary of the Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum section, president of AAA’s Two Year College section and a former member of the Pathway’s Commission on Accounting Higher Education. She is an active member of the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants (TXCPA), serving as a member of both the board of directors and Accounting Education Foundation Board. 

Tracie has received several teaching and professional awards, including the AAA / J. Michael and Mary Anne / Deloitte Foundation Cook Prize, TXCPA Outstanding Accounting Educator and AICPA Bea Sanders Award for innovative teaching. In her spare time, Tracie enjoys spending time with her husband, Kevin; his three kids, Caleb, Josh, and Meggie; her parents, Kipp and Sylvia; and her friends. She believes that camping and hiking are restorative and calming, and that life is meant for good friends and great adventures. Tracie has been mentored by many wonderful colleagues and inspired by her students.

Stephanie Poindexter (formerly Swaim) is a professor of accounting at Dallas College in Dallas, Texas. Stephanie began her education career in 2013. She was a paralegal prior to becoming a CPA and working in the EY Assurance Services area. She holds BS and MS degrees in accounting and information management from the University of Texas at Dallas and an Associate of Applied Science in Paralegal Studies from Dallas College. She is also a certified public accountant licensed in Texas.

Stephanie participates in many professional organizations, such as the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the American Accounting Association, the Institute of Management Accountants and the Texas Community College Teachers Association. Stephanie is a board member of the Teachers of Accounting at Two-Year Colleges. She also serves on the Conference on Teaching and Learning Accounting Steering Committee, the AICPA CGMA Teaching Symposium Committee and the TXCPA Accounting Educators Conference Planning Committee.

Outside of her professional pursuits, Stephanie is engaged in a number of activities, including traveling, cooking, gardening, hiking and spending time with friends and family.

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