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Accounting Resources
Table of Contents:

Accounting Standards
  • Accounting Research Manager Authentication Required
    A comprehensive financial reporting knowledge base. Updated daily, it aims to help reduce the amount of time you spend conducting accounting and auditing research while enhancing the quality of your results; find insightful interpretations on GAAP, GAAS and Securities and Exchange Commission rules; keep up-to-date on current accounting, SEC, auditing, and government projects that may affect your company. A 20 minute tutorial is available describing the database contents and showing how to use the database effectively.
    • Choose the Accounting Research Manager for comprehensive accounting standards

  • International Financial Reporting Standards and International Accounting Standards Board
    The IFRS Foundation, the oversight body of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB),is an independent, not-for-profit private sector organisation working in the public interest. Its principal objectives are:
    • to develop a single set of high quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted international financial reporting standards (IFRSs) through its standard-setting body, the IASB;
    • to promote the use and rigorous application of those standards; to take account of the financial reporting needs of emerging economies and small and medium-sized entities (SMEs);
    • to bring about convergence of national accounting standards and IFRSs to high quality solutions.
Accounting Terminology, Acronyms, Dictionaries,


Professional Accounting Associations

How to Read a Financial Report
  • Find Books about Financial Statements
    • MNCAT
      Search with MNCAT to find books, journals, etc. owned by the library. Search by keyword, subject, title, or author for materials on your topic.
      • Use Subject Term: Financial Statements
Find Books on Corporate Accounting and Auditing Standards and Disclosure in Accounting.
  • MNCAT
    Search with MNCAT to find books, journals, etc. owned by the library. Search by keyword, subject, title, or author for materials on your topic.
    • Use Subject Term:
      • Public Company Accounting Oversight Board -- Rules and practice.
      • United States. Securities and Exchange Commission -- Rules and practice.
      • Corporations -- Accounting -- Standards -- United States.
      • Auditing, Internal -- United States.
      • Disclosure in accounting -- Compliance costs -- United States.
Find Corporate Financial Reports
Use the following resources when conducting an internal analysis. Locate relevant information about a company's strengths and weaknesses.
  • Find corporate annual reports for publicly held corporations:
    • Mergent Online Authentication Required
      Profiles of public corporations around the world that includes summaries, company histories, property, financials, subsdiaries, joint ventures, long term, press release and historical annual reports. Licensed for 60 simultaneous users
      • To get a .pdf copy of the annual report to shareholders, choose the Reports tab, then the year.

    • SEC: Corporate filings from the US Securities and Exchange Commission
      The SEC requires all public companies (except foreign companies and companies with less than $10 million in assets and 500 shareholders) to file registration statements, periodic reports, and other forms electronically through this site (formerly called EDGAR). Anyone can access and download this information for free. Here you'll find links to a complete list of filings available from the SEC and instructions for searching the SEC database.
    • NetAdvantage Authentication Required
      Industry overviews, rankings and comparative statistics for major industries in the United States. Detailed information about public companies--annual reports, stock reports, bonds, valuation, and financial statistics. Includes the Register of Corporations, Directors, and Executives for locating private and smaller companies.
    • Locate the company's Web site
      You can usually find the company's Web site by searching for www.companyname.com If that doesn't work, try going to Google at http://www.google.com and typing in the company's name.
  • Some Research Problems You May Face:
    • Is the company publicly-held or is it privately owned?
      • Corporate Affiliations Authentication Required
        This directory is useful for researching the largest public and private companies worldwide. Corporate ownership information on 200,000 of the most prominent companies, subsidiaries and divisions. Includes historical data for the last 10 years on executives, sales, and the number of employees. Each company profile includes products, brands, and competitors along with the service agencies such as advertising and accounting. Licensed for 7 simultaneous users
        • Location(s):
Find Financial Ratios for the Industry
    • Key Business Ratios Authentication Required
      Key Business Ratios, from Dun and Bradstreet, help you to assess how a business is doing compared to an industry or a competitor. The 14 key business ratios cover the critical areas of business performance --solvency, efficiency and profitability. They are broken down into median figures, with upper and lower quartiles. Ratios are arranged by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Codes -a four-digit number that classifies business establishments by defining the industries in which they do business.
    • Bizminer Authentication Required
      BizMiner offers industry financial analysis benchmarks for over 5,000 lines of business and industry market trends on thousands more. Their market analysis reports are available at the national and local levels down to the zip code. Bizminer is a great resource to use when developing business plans, or for any sort of entrepreneurship initiatives where you need to measure peer performance in an industry.
Examples Representative of Financial Reporting
  • Accounting trends & techniques.
    Annual publication of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) containing a survey of the accounting and disclosure characteristics of corporate annual reports. It gives examples representative of financial reporting by 600 sampled companies (e.g., their treatment of leases and business combinations). Financial statistics are also given.

    Accounting trends & techniques.
    New York : American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 1962-
    Annual
    Subject LC : Financial statements -- Periodicals.
    Corporation reports -- Periodicals.
    • Location(s): TC Wilson Library Quarto HF5681.B2 A35 Non-Circulating

    • Location(s): TC Wilson Library Quarto HF5681.B2 A35 Non-Circulating
    • Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability

Accounting History
  • Global History of Accounting

    • A global history of accounting, financial reporting and public policy : Americas.
      Published Bingley, UK : Emerald, 2011.
      Series Studies in the development of accounting thought; v. 14B.
      Availability TC Wilson Library HF5616.N7 G59 2011 Regular Loan

    • A global history of accounting, financial reporting and public policy : Asia and Oceania.
      Published Bingley, UK : Emerald, 2011.
      Series Studies in the development of accounting thought; v. 14C.
      Availability TC Wilson Library HF5616.A78 G56 2011 Regular Loan

    • A global history of accounting, financial reporting and public policy : Europe.
      Published Bingley, UK : Emerald, published with the support of the University of Sydney, 2010.
      Series Studies in the development of accounting thought; 14A.
      Availability TC Wilson Library HF5616.E85 G56 2010 Regular Loan

  • Digital Accounting Collection
    The Digital Accounting Collection at the University of Missippi is composed of several discrete collections. The “Accounting Pamphlets Collection– Bibliographic Citations Only” containing over 33,000 references, indexes the pamphlets, brochures and newsletters that the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ library collected from 1918 to 2000. The AICPA Library has an agreement with the University of Mississippi which allows digitization and display of older AICPA materials.

    The other collections are full text searchable. The “Accounting Pamphlets Collection - Full Text ” is a small, but growing, collection of full text materials culled from the “Bibliographic Citations Only Collection.” Currently, the "Accounting Pamphlets Collection - Full Text” features pamphlets from the early twentieth century which were published as practical guides to bookkeepers in various industries and organizations.

    The Academy of Accounting Historians has kindly given permission to publish the Accounting Historians Journal and the Accounting Historians Notebook. Complete runs of both periodicals, save the last (embargoed) year, are now available.

    The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants has given permission to post the full text of all their noncurrent exposure drafts. Finally, a small collection of accounting art provides an entertaining glimpse into accounting through the ages.

Identify Companies within an Industry -- Identify Competitors
  • Mergent Online Authentication Required
    Mergent Online contains information about public corporations around the world. Mergent also includes the full-text image files of corporate annual reports for publicly traded US and foreign corporations going back to 1996. EDGAR filings are also available through Mergent. Our University of Minnesota license allows 6 simultaneous users.
    To get a list of publicly traded companies in an industry, find your SIC code, then choose the Advanced Search option in Mergent. Open the Category box and choose Industry Codes. Type your SIC code in the values box, add the search string to the Search Criteria box, press Run Search to generate a list of public companies in the industry. (Off-site access is available only for students, staff, faculty of the University of Minnesota).
  • Million Dollar Database (Dun & Bradstreet) Authentication Required
    A directory of private and public companies in the United States and larger companies worldwide. Use this directory to find companies by NAIC or SIC industry descriptions, size, location, to learn if a company is private or public, to find contact information, and to learn about the parent and subsidiary companies in a corporate family. Licensed for 5 simultaneous users.
  • Hoovers Authentication Required
    Includes company and industry information such as ownership,contact information, business descriptions, locations, history, competitors, employment statistics, sales, Fortune 500 rankings, product lines, SIC and NAICS industry codes, executives and other financial information.
History of the Corporation
Use this library guide to find resources that will help you find out about the company's history.
  • Mergent Online Authentication Required
    Profiles of public corporations around the world that includes summaries, company histories, property, financials, subsdiaries, joint ventures, long term, press release and historical annual reports. Licensed for 60 simultaneous users
  • Mergent WebReports Authentication Required
    Documents covering public corporations in over 100 countries. MergentWeb contains all the historical information recorded in Moody's Manuals dating back to the early 1900s. This archive is an excellent source of corporate history, business descriptions and financial statements.
  • ProQuest Historical Annual Reports Authentication Required
    Database offers corporate annual reports for U.S. companies from 1884 to the present. Key data (financial, Fortune 500 ranking, industry classification, key people, geographic location, auditor, and related companies) are indexed in the citation and can be searched. Reports can be browsed by company name, industry or date. Cross-searchable to other historical periodical databases.
  • MarketLine Reports (formerly Datamonitor) Authentication Required
    Company Profiles cover key facts, history, employees, major products, revenue analysis, SWOT analysis, top competitors, locations and subsidiaries. Industry Reports include analysis, market size, market share, forecasts, segmentation, and leading companies. Access via Business Source Premier
  • International Directory of Company Histories Authentication Required
    This 100+ volume set offers extensive histories on hundreds of global companies. Use the index in the last volume to find your company listing.
    • Location(s): Set is located in Wilson Reference Quarto HD2721 .N68x.

    • Location(s):
Find Financial Analysts Reports About the Company
  • Investext Authentication Required
    Use this database to find full text of reports and forecasts prepared by top Wall Street and international brokerage firms. (Available off-site only to students, faculty, and staff of the U of M unless accessing from a U of M campus library.) This is a set of security analysts reports available to you off-site. There is at least a two week embargo period, so the reports are not the most current reports available. Check Multexnet for more up-to-date information.
  • Value line investment survey (Online)
    The Value Line Investment Survey is a comprehensive source of information and advice on approximately 1,700 stocks, more than 90 industries, the stock market, and the economy. It has three parts: The Ratings & Reports section contains one-page reports showing Value Line's Timeliness, Safety, and Technical ranks, financial and stock price forecasts for the coming 3 to 5 years, an analyst's written commentary, and more. The Summary & Index contains an index of all stocks in the publication as well as many up-to-date statistics. It also contains a variety of stock "screens" designed to help investors identify companies with various characteristics. The Selection & Opinion section contains Value Line's latest economic and stock market forecasts, one-page write-ups about interesting and attractive stocks, model portfolios, and financial and stock market statistics.
    Also available in print in Wilson Library Reference, at: HG4501 .V262
    Older issues are available on microfiche in Wilson Library Reference at the class number shown above.
    • Location(s): TC Wilson Library Reference Quarto HG4501 .V262
    • Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
  • Value Line investment survey (Small & Mid-Cap edition)
    The small and mid-cap editions (formerly the Expanded Edition) of Value Line investment survey covers 1800 stocks which are smaller and more volatile than those covered in the standard edition. The small and mid-cap edition does not include analyst commentaries. A key feature of this edition is the performance rank which is adapted from the timeliness rank. Both ranks are designed to predict a stock's relative price/performance for the next 6-12 months. Available in PRINT in Wilson Reference.
    Location(s): TC Wilson Library Reference Quarto HG4501 .V262 Non-Circulating

    • Location(s): TC Wilson Library Reference Quarto HG4501 .V262 Non-Circulating
    • Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
  • MarketLine Reports (formerly Datamonitor) Authentication Required
    Company Profiles cover key facts, history, employees, major products, revenue analysis, SWOT analysis, top competitors, locations and subsidiaries. Industry Reports include analysis, market size, market share, forecasts, segmentation, and leading companies. Access via Business Source Premier
Find Industry Profiles: Sources to Help You Analyze Industries
  • S&P Capital IQ NetAdvantage Authentication Required
    Overviews, rankings and comparative statistics for major industries that provides detailed information on public companies such as stock reports, bonds, stock valuation annual reports, and other detailed fianancial statistics. NetAdvantage also includes investment services such as the advisory newsletter Outlook and screening directories for stocks, bonds and mutual funds. There are also directories for private companies and the Register of Corporations, Directors, and Executives
  • IBIS World Authentication Required
    Industry reports for the United States, China, and selected global topics. Each reports provide overviews, leading companies, sales information, and authoritative sources for researching hundreds of industries. Includes Business Environmental Profiles that summarize key drivers for industries in the U.S.
  • Value Line Investment Survey Authentication Required
    The Value Line Investment Survey is a comprehensive source of information and advice on approximately 1,700 stocks, more than 90 industries, the stock market, and the economy. It has three parts: The Ratings & Reports section contains one-page reports showing Value Line's Timeliness, Safety, and Technical ranks, financial and stock price forecasts for the coming 3 to 5 years, an analyst's written commentary, and more. The Summary & Index contains an index of all stocks in the publication as well as many up-to-date statistics. It also contains a variety of stock "screens" designed to help investors identify companies with various characteristics. The Selection & Opinion section contains Value Line's latest economic and stock market forecasts, one-page write-ups about interesting and attractive stocks, model portfolios, and financial and stock market statistics.

    Guide for finding industry reports in the Value Line Investment Surveys


    • Location(s): WILSON Reference Quarto HG4501 .V26

  • Mintel Market Research Database Authentication Required
    Market research reports on consumer products, services, and lifestyles. Each report describes the economic drivers, leading companies, market share, market size, trends, segmentation, and consumer attitudes and purchasing habits. Reports cover consumer markets in the USA and Europe. Requires setting up a personal account to access.
Find Journal or Magazine Articles on Corporations, Industries, Financial Accounting
  • Business Source Premier Authentication Required
    Use this popular research database to find business articles from 2,200 journals and magazines in marketing, management, information technology, operations, human resources, accounting, finance and economics dating back to 1965. Additional company and industry profiles from Datamonitor are included along with country reports and SWOT analyses.
  • Factiva Authentication Required
    Full text database of media outlets, trade publications, news sources and websites that has international coverage. Includes daily newspapers, transcripts, newswires, and all editions of the Wall Street Journal. Financial information for publicly traded companies, stocks, funds, currencies, and common market indexes. Limited to 7 simultaneous users.

    Due to licensing restrictions for academic subscriptions, not all of the news sources in Factiva are available. See this list of Excluded Titles. If you need assistance using Factiva, please contact the Journalism Librarian.
  • LexisNexis Academic Authentication Required
    LexisNexis Academic is a full text databases of business, legal, news, magazines, and wire services. It includes sources for accounting, environmental studies, health and medical care, government and politics, people, and consumer information. Legal publications include law journals, federal and state statutes, codes, cases, agency rules & regulations, patents and legal reference materials.
  • ProQuest Newsstand Authentication Required
    ProQuest Newspapers provides indexing and full text access to 1,270 newspapers and wire feeds. Full-text titles include major U.S. daily newspapers such as the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.
Find Journal Articles on Accounting, Government Oversight, Business Law, Taxation
  • Hein Online Authentication Required
    Full-text legal periodicals database with browse and full-text search features. Includes coverage of many older legal periodicals not available in electronic format elsewhere.
    Remote access available for University of Minnesota -- Twin Cities students, staff and faculty
University of Minnesota Business Library Web Site

Page Coordinator: Mary E. Schoenborn hawki003@tc.umn.edu
This URL: http://www.lib.umn.edu/libdata/page.phtml?page_id=4215

 

 

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