Today's accounting students must know how to develop, audit, and use accounting systems so information can be used by managers and decision makers. Designed for the first accounting system course, primarily taught at four-year schools that prefer a relational database approach, this textbook teaches students how to perform this role with Microsoft Access as the database tool. Once students are comfortable with the Windows '95 operating system, they receive a solid introduction to database principles and theory with valuable hands-on experience in constructing accounting systems.