Knowledge that Transforms

Abstract The education of a public accountant can be divided into four stages: undergraduate education, graduate education, staff training programs conducted by the firms, and continuing professional education through direct and indirect participation in the broad activities of professional organizations. While the majority of persons who have entered the profession in the past twenty-five years have not had the benefit of formal graduate study, an ever-increasing number feel the need or desire for more advanced formal education. The successful public accountant has had to continue to apply himself both to meet the rapidly changing conditions in the world's economy and to keep up with the increasing and expanding demands for his services. As the economy continues to grow and become more complex, the demands on, and for, trained accountants, both public and private will become more critical. The accountant in the future will have to be better trained than his counterpart of today. The need for specialization will become more apparent than it is now.

Abstract The article presents information on material cost of production. Materials to be manufactured must also be purchased, received, stored and delivered to the production centers; none of these expenditures are "manufacturing" costs, regardless of the fact that some manufacturers include them as part of manufacturing expense or burden. The latter practice is, decidedly, an improper incidence of expense. In this manner, the inventories of raw materials and stores would always remain at delivered cost, as Goods in Process account was charged at that cost. The costs of purchasing, receiving and storage would then be charged to Goods in Process, as an additional material cost. The procedure means that the costs of purchasing, receiving and storage, as these occurred each month, would be charged to an account but labeled as "Unapplied Material Burden." These costs, obviously, would be absorbed into Goods in Process each month on the basis of the value of the materials used.

Abstract Systems design should be founded on at least five more or less fundamental considerations, each of them in turn supported by subsidiary factors which have been stated here in the form of maxims or principles. A concise statement of the five basic considerations follows. The designer of an accounting system should constantly bear in mind that his system should: 1. Satisfy the information needs of those associated with the particular entity. 2. Provide the information when needed and at relatively low cost. 3. Incorporate features of check and control insuring fidelity of recording and protection of assets. 4. Be uniformly and consistently implemented. 5. Be capable of accommodating changes with a minimum of redesign.

Abstract The article reports on the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association (AAA) that was held on August 26-28 at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. Major subjects covered at the sessions of the convention were accounting in industry, accounting theory and training for an accounting career. The round table topics discussed were techniques for handling increased enrollments, relationships and responsibilities of teaching staffs to executive department programs and short courses, reconsideration of the report of the Commission on Standards of Education and Experience, role of AAA to further the development of accounting theory, problems of students internships in public accounting, concepts and standards of income for taxation, the ideal course in elementary cost accounting and graduate programs in accounting. Special activities for the ladies included tours of the Cave of the Mounds, Little Norway, Oscar Mayer Packing Co. and a luncheon at the Nakoma Country Club. Activities for children consisted of a visit to Vilas Park Zoo, a fish hatchery and the Golden G. Ranch of the Bowman Dairy Co.

Abstract The article discusses some changes introduced in the masters of business administration degree (MBA) course at the University of Washington at Seattle in Washington D.C. Some of these changes include that the MBA degree aspirant will be given a choice of a thesis or non-thesis program. The Master of Arts student, who is more likely to aim toward teaching and hence toward the doctorate will, still require writing a thesis. The non-thesis program requires the student to take three special research courses of three quarter-credits each. This total of nine credits corresponds to the nine allowed for an accepted thesis under the thesis program. The classes customarily will meet one day a week for two or more hours. The first count will be taken in the first or second quarter of enrollment as an MBA student. In it the student will be taught research methodology, including statistical, survey, analytical, market research, and operations research methods. During this quarter the student in the non-thesis program will select a topic on which he will write a major paper during the next two quarters. He will begin his research at this time. A student under the thesis program also may enroll in and receive credit for this course, but not the other two courses in the series.

Abstract The article says that accounting profession includes the practitioner, the accountant in private employment and the accountant who teaches, provided he has measured up to professional standards of proficiency, attitude, and conduct. Thus, the article presents an educational program for communicating to potential accountants the body of professional knowledge and techniques and for instilling in them the attitudes and sense of values found in a professional accountant. It says that the renaissance of the decade is the reaction from overspecialization, the rediscovery that a man with an extremely narrow background of education and experience is at a disadvantage, in many ways, with a competitor having a broader understanding of human experience and culture. The evolution of educational system, however, has set the model of a pyramid, with the early years devoted to the general cultural inheritance, later years to the pursuit of more specialized knowledge in limited areas, and a final topping of concentrated study in a narrow field. Professional training in accounting cannot escape the effects of this pattern. The five-year program described in the article is a first stage program subject to modifications indicated by experience.

Reviews the book "An Approach to Executive Controls Through Programming and Budgeting," by William O. Reeder.

Reviews the book "Business Looks at Banks," by George Katona.

Abstract A report of the activities of the American Accounting Association for 1957 offers problems similar to those encountered in accounting for inventories and for cost of goods finished in a manufacturing concern. The purpose of this report is to furnish the membership with a brief description of what the Association is doing and some of its plans for the future. The primary emphasis by the Association over its life has been on accounting education and accounting research although other accounting areas are not neglected. This continuing emphasis on education and research is quite apparent in the description which follows. The Committee on Accounting Concepts and Standards completed its revision of the 1948 version of Accounting Concepts and Standards Underlying Corporate Financial Statements. The quarterly publication "The Accounting Review," has continued to expand and improve over the years, and has become recognized throughout the world as a leading accounting periodical. During the year hundreds of individuals who receive it, including many not engaged in teaching, have complimented the Association on the quality of the content of this publication.

Abstract The article presents information on the rise of management services provided by Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). Perhaps the most significant development in the accounting profession during the last half decade has been the rapid growth of interest in management services. This is evident in the literature of the profession, by the frequency and manner in which so many accounting firms have expanded their organizations to render this type of specialized service to their clients. As recently as the fall of 1953 the president of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants appointed the Institute's first committee on management services by CPAs. The question may well be asked why, after all these years, the accounting profession is suddenly so much interested in management services. Basically the author believe the reason is that business organizations have problems of a nature and a magnitude never encountered before. This condition is the result of many causes, all adding up to the one simple fact that many of the accountant's clients need help in areas not normally served by the certified public accountant and yet the CPA is probably better equipped to provide these services than anyone else.