The eminent scholar Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Badrān (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

“It is a religious duty upon the instructor, when he wishes to teach beginners, to start by having them study either Akhsar al-Mukhtaṣarāt or al-ʿUmda by Shaykh Manṣūr, provided the teacher is Ḥanbalī.”

Al-Madkhal ilā Madhhab al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, p. 488