Compares the accounting education with the practice of public accounting. Description of the working environment of practitioners; Information on the academic environment of professors and students; Factors that complicate the student's transition from school to practice; Contents of a professional education; Directions for accounting education.
The article reports that the question of selecting among financial reporting alternatives is viewed in the same manner as any other information choice problem. That is, one moves from the system, to the signal, to the actions induced by the signal, to the consequences that stem from the actions, to--ultimately--the evaluation of these consequences. Two difficulties, however, emerge. First, the consequences affect a number of individuals. As a result, developing a model of these consequences becomes a nontrivial task. This problem was approached by focusing on a general equilibrium setting and assumed that interequilibria movements would not only occur, but would occur without cost. Second, evaluation of consequences ultimately must entail trading off one person's gains for another's. One cannot collapse the evaluation, question into a generally usable, straightforward preference relation without imposing how these trade-offs are to be accomplished. This imposition may take the form of a direct and obvious imposition or selection of some institutional method of choice, such as reliance on information markets, voting, or social control agencies.
Discusses how computer simulation could be used to provide management with a measure of the risk on a capital investment project. Simulation procedure; Details on the computer program used by managerial accounting students.
Reports on the concept of a doctoral seminar that is developing out of a fundamental reappraisal of prevalent education methods. Details on the doctoral program in accounting at the Ohio State University in Columbus. Number of doctoral level accounting courses that are offered in the university; Framework for critical queries in accounting.
The article presents the text of the 1972-73 report of the American Accounting Association Committee on federal income taxes. The most dynamic use of tax research is in the area of advance tax planning, to achieve the most advantageous treatment for a particular transaction. Another use of tax research is in post-event tax planning to properly handle a transaction which has already occurred; this technique is used principally in compliance matters. Tax return preparation or review refers to the previously mentioned post-event or closed fact situation. Likewise, tax minimization and deferral refers to the advanced tax planning situations which may be considered open facts (or controllable facts) situations. Timeliness in tax research has two facets; it can be associated with the amount of time used in researching a problem as well as the chronological passage of time before the problem can be resolved. If research takes too long to complete so that the economics of relativity or materiality are factors, or goes past certain constraints or deadlines, it may be virtually useless.
The primary purpose of this study is to present client-industry concentration images for the larger public accounting firms in the United States. The data are broadly suggestive of the substance of audit work done for large corporate clients by these accounting firms and reflect only the sample of client-concentrations examined. The data presented, however, inadequately indicate how public accounting firms achieve their success and develop distinctive personalities. Which events, planned or accidental, cause firms to specialize in or avoid particular industries? Why has the leadership of industry concentrations among Big Eight firms remained remarkably constant from 1964 to 1971? What is the reason behind changes in auditors when a company switches from one Big Eight firm to another? Why have some Big Eight firms gained more New York and American Stock Exchange clients during the 7-year period than other firms? When firm histories are written by scholars from outside the firm, some of these answers may be forthcoming. There exists, then, considerable potential for deeper explorations into the development of public accounting firms, explorations which might provide answers to these questions.
This article is a report from president Robert N. Anthony of the American Accounting Association (AAA), focusing on the activities and achievements of the AAA in the year 1973-74. The association has embarked on a number of continuing education programs, the largest of which is a program to be conducted at approximately 10 universities and designed for teachers of first-year accounting courses, especially in junior and community colleges. A book, "Accounting Education: Problems and Prospects," containing papers by 65 members, has been completed. Its general editor is James Don Edwards. Financed by a grant from the Price Waterhouse Foundation, a broad study of the accounting curriculum beyond the first course has been started. The AAA and the American Institute of CPAs are cooperating in programs aimed at providing financial support for the education of black and other minority accounting faculty members and in aiding accounting instruction in black and other minority schools. Substantial financial support from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare for these programs is being sought.
The article reports that the effect of inflation on the value of the firm, in the case of monetary items, can be analyzed at three levels. First, the price-level increase gain or loss measures the real losses to income and principal based upon the change in the general level of prices. General price-level accounting methodology presently measures this effect, with exceptions as noted below. Second, the net holding gain or loss measures the net effect of holding monetary items, considering the price-level increase gain or loss and the absolute income or costs of the monetary items. The possibilities of normal gains and losses offsetting or magnifying price-level increase gains and losses make this second consideration important. The third consideration, that of anticipated price-level increases, affects the accuracy of the conclusions reached in the first two levels of analysis. The first two levels assume that inflation is unanticipated and thus ignore the fact that prior adjustments in return could compensate for the gains or losses as found in those analyses.