Abstract The purpose of this article is to describe a method of reducing the time required for preparing a statement of source and application of funds. It consists of substituting two T-accounts for the formal working papers commonly used in source and application of funds preparation. The method is especially useful in examinations because of the great saving of time effected in organizing the information required for the statement. Of the two T-accounts, one is used to accumulate information for determining and explaining the amount of funds provided by operations. The second T-account is used to list funds provided and funds applied, the balance, of course, representing the change in working capital as shown in detail by the statement of working capital changes or determined in some other manner. In preparation of the formal statement of source and application of funds, if time is limited, the student may be allowed to show funds provided by operations as a single figure, since he has already shown the details in his T-account.

Abstract In this article the author discusses notable strides in the field of accounting for public funds during the past fifteen years, as of July 1947. A logical inference is that a large measure of this improvement is an outgrowth of the taxpayers' genuine concern over the expenditure of vast sums of public funds and a widespread belief that substantial retrenchments on a voluntary basis may not be expected from the offices and agencies concerned, in some quarters expansion continues to be the order of the day. Recent budget requests of many state and local governments in the U.S. have assumed proportions of surprising magnitude, resulting largely, it must be admitted, from withdrawals of financial aid by the U.S. government and from insistent public demands for more or better service, and from public-employee demands for standards of remuneration comparable to those enjoyed by persons in non-governmental employment. The law-making body of one midwestern state, sitting in the first quarter of 1947, found itself figuratively engulfed in a flood of bills calling for more public money, the requests covering practically the whole range of governmental activity from the township justice of the peace on one hand to departments and agencies of the state on the other.

Abstract Recent progress has outmoded many traditional standards of financial administration of governmental units. Among the more significant changes in concept are (1) greater recognition that financial management must be an integral part of total management at each level to be effective; (2) greater emphasis on the inter-relationships of programming, budgeting, accounting and reporting, and (3) greater awareness and acceptance of the need for variable patterns of accounting compatible with assignments of managerial responsibility and the type of operation being conducted. This proposed statement is an effort to express in broad terms the current accounting and related standards of governmental financial administration. Preparation of a budget for a governmental unit should begin with a determination of the work to be done and the expenses of doing it. Such a cost-based budget and the cash requirements stemming therefrom should be submitted to the legislative branch as a basis for appropriation action. After legislative action, cost-based budgets should be used to control work being done. The cost-based budget is the standard against which the actual costs incurred are to be measured. Responsibility for review, appraisal and action rests on supervision at every level. An independent financial examination and review of operations should be made.

Abstract This article presents a report of the Task Committee, American Accounting Association on the standards of accounting instruction. From its inception, the American Accounting Association has been concerned with accounting education. This interest has been manifested in various projects and special committee activities undertaken by the Association, alone and jointly with other groups. One of the Association's special task committee in the area of education is the Committee on Standards of Accounting Instruction. It operates in cooperation with, and as a task force of, the Joint Committee on Education. The first project of the Committee on Standards of Accounting Instruction was a questionnaire study of the undergraduate courses taken by accounting majors. The questionnaire was carefully prepared and tested before being released. It was sent to most of the colleges and universities in the U.S. , which offered a major or concentration in accounting in an undergraduate program. The study indicated that the largest school in the sample graduated 837 students in 1954 with bachelor degrees in business. It was notable that 1954 saw less than half as many accounting majors graduating as in 1950. The decline in degrees in business was considerably sharper than for all bachelor degrees. The Committee felt that course work in cost accounting is properly required by nearly all schools