As a high school accounting teacher, it’s critical to have the right resources to share with your students. After all, if learners aren’t rehearsed in today’s best accounting practices, how can they be effective employees in a field that demands accuracy and integrity?
If you don’t have the resources to teach accounting or your textbooks are outdated, your students could miss important information they need to succeed.
Below, you’ll discover four of the best accounting textbooks for high school in 2024:
- Accounting
- Financial & Managerial Accounting
- Introduction to Accounting: An Integrated Approach
- Century 21 Accounting
For each book, you’ll find information about its content and price to help you decide which is best for your accounting classes.
1. Accounting
Authors: Carl Warren, Christine Jonick, and Jennifer Schneider
Publication Date: 2024 (29th Edition)
Publisher: Cengage
Cost: $179
In Accounting, major academic publisher Cengage offers a survey of introductory concepts designed to help students see the “bigger picture” involved in accounting. This book covers a broad range of topics, introducing students to the many elements of accounting work and providing considerable detail on several subjects.
Accounting from Cengage includes 24 chapters:
- Introduction to Accounting and Business
- Analyzing Transactions
- The Adjusting Process
- The Accounting Cycle
- Accounting for Retail Businesses
- Inventories
- Internal Control and Cash
- Receivables
- Long-Term Assets: Fixed and Intangible
- Liabilities: Current, Installment Notes, and Contingencies
- Liabilities: Bonds Payable
- Accounting for Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies
- Corporations: Organization, Stock Transactions, and Dividends
- Statement of Cash Flows
- Financial Statement Analysis
- Introduction to Managerial Accounting
- Job Order Costing
- Process Costing
- Activity-Based Costing
- Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis
- Budgeting
- Evaluating Variances from Standard Costs
- Differential Analysis and Product Pricing
- Capital Investment Analysis
In addition to the textbook, teachers can purchase an optional instructor and student website to access related materials.
Overall, this comprehensive textbook introduces students to the ins and outs of accounting. But with over 1400 pages, there’s probably far more content here than you could possibly cover in your high school accounting class.
In other words, the authors discuss each topic in great detail, so beginning accounting students might be better off with a shorter textbook that still covers the basics.
2. Financial & Managerial Accounting
Authors: Carl Warren, Jefferson Jones, and William B. Tayler
Publication Date: 2023 (16th edition)
Publisher: Cengage
Cost: eBook from $55, Hardcover $156
Also available from Cengage is Financial & Managerial Accounting, an accounting textbook more specific to the CTE career interests of high school students. Would-be accountants seeking to work in the business world will appreciate that this text more specifically tailors to their interests than the original Accounting.
Like its predecessor, Financial & Managerial Accounting is comprehensive and includes 28 chapters:
- Introduction to Accounting and Business
- Analyzing Transactions
- The Adjusting Process
- The Accounting Cycle
- Accounting for Retail Businesses
- Inventories
- Internal Control and Cash
- Receivables
- Long-Term Assets: Fixed and Intangible
- Liabilities: Current, Installment Notes, and Contingencies
- Liabilities: Bonds Payable
- Corporations: Organization, Stock Transactions, and Dividends
- Statement of Cash Flows
- Financial Statement Analysis
- Introduction to Managerial Accounting
- Job Order Costing
- Process Costing
- Activity-Based Costing
- Support Department and Joint Cost Allocation
- Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis
- Variable Costing for Management Analysis
- Budgeting
- Evaluating Variances from Standard Costs
- Evaluating Decentralized Operations
- Differential Analysis and Product Pricing
- Capital Investment Analysis
- Lean Manufacturing and Activity Analysis
- The Balanced Scorecard and Corporate Social Responsibility
To accompany the text, publisher Cengage also offers an optional online homework platform at an added cost.
Financial & Managerial Accounting shares an author and many of the same chapters as its sister textbook, Accounting. But the emphasis here is on accounting in everyday business environments. This could make it a better choice for students in classes like Principles of Business, Marketing, and Finance, who may favor an integrated approach.
However, this text is just as extensive as Accounting, providing a wealth of content most teachers cannot cover in a single high school accounting course.
3. Introduction to Accounting: An Integrated Approach
Author: Penne Ainsworth 
Publication Date: 2019 (8th edition)
Publisher: AICPA
Cost: $179 ($149 for AICPA members)
A third high school accounting textbook option is Introduction to Accounting: An Integrated Approach. This textbook comes directly from the Association of International Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and is designed for introductory accounting classes.
Compared with other accounting texts, it’s more readable and takes a narrative approach to instruction. Introduction to Accounting is also designed for high school and college students and is appropriate for new accounting students at either age level.
The textbook is separated into seven parts, and these 20 chapters:
- Accounting and Business
- Business Processes and Accounting Information
- Operating Processes: Planning and Control
- Short-Term Decision Making
- Strategic Planning Regarding Operating Processes
- Planning, the Balanced Scorecard, and Budgeting
- Accounting Information Systems
- Purchasing/Human Resources/Payment Process: Recording and Evaluating Expenditure Process Activities
- Recording and Evaluating Conversion Process Activities
- Marketing/Sales/Collection/Customer Support Process: Recording and Evaluating Revenue Process Activities
- Time Value of Money
- Planning Investments: Capital Budgeting
- Planning Equity Financing
- Planning Debt Financing
- Recording and Evaluating Capital Resource Process Activities: Financing
- Recording and Evaluating Capital Resource Process Activities: Investing
- Company Performance: Profitability
- Company Performance: Owners’ Equity and Financial Position
- Company Performance: Cash Flows
- Company Performance: Comprehensive Evaluation
The AICPA textbook is roughly half the size of other accounting volumes for the same price. But its structure is easier to follow, and its narrative style makes it a solid choice for high school classes, where the breadth of accounting material is just as significant as its depth.
It also comes from a reputable professional organization that sets academic standards for Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). However, this book’s 2019 publication date is less current than other options on this list.
4. Century 21 Accounting
Authors: Claudia Bienias Gilbertson and Mark W. Lehman
Publication Date: 2019 (11th edition)
Publisher: Cengage
Cost: eBook from $43 for a six-month subscription
Century 21 Accounting: General Journal differs markedly from other introductory accounting texts.
This accounting textbook is explicitly designed for a high school audience and provides a step-by-step introduction to many of the core concepts surrounding accounting. Unlike other texts intended for high school and college-level accounting courses, this textbook spends more time on basics like financial statement analysis.
Century 21 Accounting features these 24 chapters:
- Starting a Proprietorship: Changes That Affect the Accounting Equation
- Analyzing Transactions into Debit and Credit Parts
- Journalizing Transactions
- Posting to a General Ledger
- Cash Control Systems
- Work Sheet and Adjusting Entries for a Service Business
- Financial Statements for a Proprietorship
- Recording Closing Entries and Preparing a Post-Closing Trial Balance for a Service Business
- Accounting for Purchases and Cash Payments
- Accounting for Sales and Cash Receipts
- Accounting for Transactions Using a General Journal
- Preparing Payroll Records
- Accounting for Payroll and Payroll Taxes
- Accounting for Uncollectible Accounts Receivable
- Preparing Adjusting Entries and a Trial Balance
- Financial Statements and Closing Entries for a Corporation
- Financial Statement Analysis
- Acquiring Capital for Growth and Development
- Accounting for Plant Assets, Depreciation, and Intangible Assets
- Accounting for Inventory
- Accounting for Accruals, Deferrals, and Reversing Entries
- End-of-Fiscal-Period Work for a Corporation
- Accounting for Partnerships
- Recording International and Internet Sales
Because it’s designed exclusively for a high school audience, Century 21 Accounting doesn’t go into as much depth as some of the other textbooks on this list. But if you’re teaching an introductory course, that could be a good thing.
Teachers who want to spend more time on fundamental concepts in their accounting lesson plans will do well when teaching from this textbook. However, if you’re looking for more advanced material, consider a more recent text that covers advanced accounting concepts.
Choose the Right Accounting Resources for Your Students
Finding the right textbook for your high school students can be difficult. On the one hand, you want learners to understand accounting basics so they’re ready for more advanced coursework and future job opportunities. On the other hand, they need up-to-date information to be prepared for whatever accounting scenarios they encounter in the real world.
Sometimes it can feel like you’re forced to choose between the most up-to-date and the most appropriate content for high schoolers. But this isn’t a choice you have to make!
When you consider a continually updated resource for your high school accounting course, you receive the latest accounting information for your students as part of a comprehensive high school business curriculum.
With the accounting curriculum from iCEV, you’ll be able to cover the basics of high school accounting while gaining access to an entire business curriculum that’s continually updated.
To learn more about the iCEV accounting resources to decide if they’re appropriate for your students, visit the business curriculum page:
