Knowledge that Transforms

Reviews the book "Advanced Public Accounting Practice," by Mary E. Murphy.

Reviews the book "CPA Review Manual," 3rd ed., edited by Herbert E. Miller.

Reviews the book "Basic Auditing Principles," 3rd ed., by Arthur W. Holmes.

For purposes of exposition and application, a linear programming formulation of the planning process was postulated. Recent application of the proposed approach indicates that this is a feasible approach to generation of control information. And, in fact, the application's results are highly encouraging. First, important deficiencies in the traditional accounting system were observed. Since this traditional model is not an opportunity cost system per se, the most it can be expected to do is to signal the existence of opportunities. In the period analyzed it did signal the existence of deviations although their source and effect were obscured. A second, and more subjective result, is that application has given every indication that this type of approach is indeed feasible (which should not be confused with an assertion that it is desirable from a cost and value viewpoint). Consequently, it is appropriate to suggest that additional research be done in an effort to examine such issues as the extent to which accounting variances should be aggregated, given a specific decision model, or the extent to which decisions made in response to certain deviations should be considered in the accounting system.

This article focuses on the theory of account and the principal deficiencies in this financial statement. These deficiencies are the basis of valuation of the marketable securities should be disclosed. If carried and reported at cost, the market value of such securities should be disclosed if significantly different from cost. The current value of such securities represents the approximate amount of cash obtainable from sale of the securities. The type of marketable securities against which the tax liability is offset is not disclosed. Because U.S. treasury bills may be used to pay income taxes owed to the U.S. government, it is considered acceptable to offset such bills against the income tax liability. The offsetting of other types of U.S. government securities against a tax liability has little theoretical justification although such a presentation may not require an exception. Finally, more adequate disclosure of the offsetting of U.S. treasury bills would be obtained by stating the full amount of accrued taxes payable less the taxpaying value of the securities in the current liability section of the balance sheet.

Reviews the book "A Guide to Management Accounting," 4th ed., by H.W. Broad and K.S. Carmichael.

This article focuses on the role of programmed instruction in managerial accounting course. The rate of experimentation and introduction of new techniques in the field of education has not been very spectacular. With programmed instruction in particular, most of the potential remains to be exploited. In school the students are not required to take more than one accounting course. In order, therefore, to cram more material in a one-semester course without arousing the wrath of the students, one has to find ways of reorganizing the material and presenting it in a more efficient way. The students feel that they somehow do not understand the purpose of education and especially the purpose of the required curriculum that teachers force upon them. Our educational system rests on the notion of integrated programs of study. The people who design curricula attempt to look at the total requirements toward a goal (the degree) and then proceed toward the description of specifications which will enable the student to reach it.

This article focuses on the development of new technological methods accelerates the expansion of knowledge. The methods used in making investigations determine the directions in which research proceeds and brings a strong influence on the final results. The accuracy of measuring devices, the sophistication of processing methods, and the stage of development of related technologies are decisive in the way in which problems are solved. Accounting, as well as other social sciences, is struggling to develop media of expression capable of communicating the complexities of modern society. Accounting theory has developed largely from empirical studies of business practice. Deductive systems have been difficult to reconcile with practice. The future development of accounting will probably require more creative and logical system building and a consequent testing of the system to determine its functional characteristics. The accounting flow graph offers some very apparent advantages as a model-building and testing method. As is often true, when the technology reaches a stage that requires a new approach, that approach is developed by independent researchers.

This article focuses on a study which discussed the implementation of a computer application in managerial accounting courses. THE growing importance of electronic data processing in the business world has made it necessary for accounting educators to consider means of incorporating instruction in the uses of computers and computer systems in the accounting curriculum. This paper discusses the classroom implementation of a computer application designed to use the computer to solve problems in managerial accounting courses. The application was used as classroom project at the University of Wisconsin throughout one semester of management accounting course designed for MBA candidates who had only principles course as background. It involved a computer accessible databank of accounting and operating data concerning eight years of operations of a fictional manufacturing company. The contents of the databank were derived from the output of a management game modified for use in this project.

Network characterizations are developed for effecting contacts between accounting and mathematical programming. En route to these objectives some of the customary uses of double entry accounting are altered and related to suitable generalizations of classical network ideas such as the Kirchhoff node conservation laws. Extensions of the usual node-link incidence relations provide a basis for effecting these contacts. Concrete illustrations are supplied including a goods-flow-funds-flow model which is preceded by a simpler example involving a PERT-Critical Path application. The latter is examined in the context of a physical flow of task or project times, while the former suggests haw double entry can be extended to flows that involve a variety of different dimensions. Issues of accounting in different dimensions are thus examined and further issues of accounting for multiple objectives in different and even non-commensurable measures are also indicated. A possibility for joint coordinated uses of programming and accounting in management planning is indicated and amplified and some of the implications for alterations in accounting practice are then examined. Suggestions for further extensions include probabilistic formulations and related risk considerations and evaluations. In an addendum the node-link incidences are further related to node-node incidences in the context of dyadic representations such as are encountered in the transportation type models of linear programming or the spread sheets and articulation statements of double-entry accounting.(n1)