Abstract This article discusses the use of accounting in daily life. In its simplest form, the need for clearing an account is most commonly encountered where the accounting entity has two or more bank accounts, and there is a remittance from one to the other. A much more interesting and far-reaching application of the clearing account occurs where there are transfers of assets or services between two units of the same business. By its very nature the asset most amenable to overage or shortage is cash. But other vulnerable assets are accounts receivable, inventories, and even certain equipment such as small tools. Presumably today's accounting student, about to enter the world of business or government, is long since the master of these sometimes mischievous accounts. If not, he should be. Although these accounts occupy but a small nook in the spacious firmament of accounting, they are often of great practical value, if not indispensable. And, despite their minor rank, they illustrate that, like the chemical elements, they nevertheless have their own peculiar functions, structures, limits, and idiosyncrasies. They are not just "data."

Abstract The attractive qualities of accounting as a study and as an applied art greatly appeal to many people. It follows that the student about to decide on a career should be told about some of accounting's often overlooked attractions and some of the seldom-mentioned personal characteristics of the men and women who professionally practice it. In the realm of intellectual endeavor, the same thing is true of accounting to a far greater degree than the uninitiated ever realize. In almost all fields of performance, successively greater achievement is closely inter-related with measurement. Mount Everest was climbed because it was there as a challenge. In a sense, records are broken because the measurements are there. Man is the animal that measures and compares. Although professional accountants and professional management are mindful of it, the laity has little conception of the fact that without accounting the nation's business could not possibly be organized on its present scale. Like athletes or teachers or doctors or ministers, no two accountants are alike. They differ in their grasp, their depth, their approach, their thinking, theft mode of expression.

Abstract The article discusses the ways of viewing in perspective, the practice of accountancy. The practice of accountancy can mean far more than a mere livelihood if, as far as possible, all tendencies to take a dull, prosaic, jaundiced slant on one's work are discarded and instead meaning and inspiration in professional activities are looked for. To fulfil this goal the written word in accountancy should be clearly and interestingly conveyed, striving always to make communications compact models of useful intelligence. Varied reading should be done, thus drawing on the thinking of men of other times and places, and thereby enlarging one's own horizons and ventilating minds. Teaching, in the broadest sense, should mean creating true illumination by explaining principles. One should observe more alertly and broadly explore his professional environment, and then apply this chosen science, so that all may better adapt themselves to their limitations and likewise to their highest potentialities.

Abstract The article focuses on personal accounting. The principles, procedures and mechanics involved in accounting for individuals are basically the same as in business accounting. Their immediate objective, the preparation of meaningful financial and operating statements, is also the same. In pointing up the financial benefits to be derived from personal accounting, attention will therefore be centered on the personal financial statements as instruments for reflecting the underlying economics of an individual's affairs. To be of the utmost benefit, an individual's accounts should therefore be designed to produce financial statements that will clearly portray net results in terms of basic factors which includes earning power, saving power, and investment sagacity. The sources of personal earnings are practically unlimited and vary with each individual's land, labor, capital and enterprise. A detailed operating statement of the principal source of business or professional income is essential. Since a successful man's holdings will normally expand year by year, this supplementary investment income is of constantly increasing importance and for that reason the rate of return on his earning assets should be emphasized in his statements of earnings.