Completely updated in its fourth edition with clear examples and illustrations, this book is specifically designed as an auxiliary tool for accounting-related courses. It is brief, inexpensive, and gives students a plain-English introduction to the basics of accounting and to the financial concepts of present value and expected value. It allows students to learn essential accounting concepts outside of class so professors can spend valuable class time focusing on the core concepts of a course. The chapters are short and modular, so professors can assign as much or as little as students need to know for a course.