Abstract Realization is a controlling concept in the measurement and reporting of enterprise income. In its broad meaning, it includes all of the possible points in the activity of the enterprise at which revenue may be viewed as having emerged or been realized. However, the broad meaning cannot he applied to specific situations. A specific point of realization must be selected from all of the possible points. This article suggests that there are several important points of realization that produce several different, significant and useful measure of income and that the selection of any single set of tests in the hope of producing the appropriate income measure unnecessarily restricts accounting to serving only those purposes which that single measure tends to accommodate. Realization should not be viewed as a restraint that requires an either point of recognition. It should be regarded as a useful device that permits accountants to observe, measure, and report on the enterprise from several points of interest.

Abstract The two levels of accounting, microaccounting on one hand and macroaccounting on the other, indicate not only that accounting is a rapidly expanding field but also that accounting plays an important role in today's complex economy. The purpose of this article is to explore the interrelationship between microaccounting and macroaccounting. More specifically, it attempts, firstly, to identify macroaccounting as a branch of accounting; secondly, to examine briefly the interrelationships among the four sub-areas of accounting and economics, i.e., microaccounting, macroaccounting, microeconomics, and macroeconomics; thirdly, to compare some of the basic similarities and dissimilarities between microaccounting and macroaccounting; and finally to explore potential influences of macroaccounting on microaccounting. The article concludes that the demand for additional information from accounting for managerial, investment, and analytical purposes points to the need for more constructive and creative thinking in accounting.

Abstract The tendency for one company to merge or combine with another is a common characteristic of American industry. The primary accounting development during the most recent merger movement has been the "pooling of interests" theory. It is the purpose of this article to explain the basis for the pooling theory and to support pooling as a useful, rational accounting practice when applied in the appropriate circumstances. In the foregoing discussion the view is taken that a business combination consummated on the basis of an exchange of shares does not create a new basis of accountability because the businesses are not affected in a substantive way. Because an accounting entity is largely defined by identification of its owners, who in this case have continued in business much as before, the constituent entities are deemed to have merged and become one without change except as to form and legal requirement. The so-called criteria other than exchange of shares which were originally expressed as necessities to a pooling have been tested and tried and in many cases have been found wanting because they represented unrealistic restrictions on reasonable and necessary activities of a business enterprise.

Abstract The article focuses on the use of joint-venture corporations which are described as corporations, the capital stocks of which are wholly owned by two or more other corporations. Although the emergence of the joint-venture corporation has been gradual and in several types of business, there is evidence of concentration in a few industries, like, the chemical, steel, and petroleum industries. The impact of joint-venture corporations on the financial positions of their parent companies is approached by first determining the types of relationship often existing between joint-venture corporations and their parents. It was found that in many cases joint-venture corporations depend on their parents for financial assistance, the parents actively manage the ventures, the products of many ventures are homogeneous with those of their parent companies, and contractual obligations often assure continuity of control by the parents. The article recommends that current accounting standards be revised to require that each parent's share of all its joint-venture corporations be combined with that parent's balance sheet.

Abstract The article presents the results of a recent survey conducted among schools which have made use of television in their accounting classes. The sole purpose of the survey was to provide a useful guide in deciding what course of action to recommend in regard to television instruction in accounting at schools. The report is designed to provide a general impression of the effectiveness of televised instruction, and a starting point for those who wish to investigate further in this regard. A majority of the schools surveyed were favorably impressed. Television for the instruction in accounting appears most applicable to the first-year course. With the use of student assistants during TV lecture periods and lab sessions, the student-teacher relationship appeared adequate. The use of uniform examinations for all TV course sections was overwhelmingly preferred to other examination methods. Some amount of released time is necessary for those preparing and conducting TV classes. Some additional types of visual aids, such as a VuGraph, are necessary and desirable. Maintaining normal class size as opposed to the lecture hall type of class was generally preferred.

Abstract This article focuses on the accounting criteria for judging the economic realities and the intent of the parties to a business combination. The present accounting criteria for judging the economic realities and the intent of the parties to a business combination are inadequate. The reduced importance of the relative-size criterion has resulted in an indiscriminate use of the pooling concept. Effective control over the assets, management, and ownership of the succeeding entity is more important in the determination of economic reality than is a theory based upon a proportional continuation of the former interests. The purchase concept adequately conforms to the requirements of accounting regarding asset realization and objectivity. A merger proposal is merely a specialized form of capital-budgeting decision. Consequently, all alternatives to the merger proposal should be considered. If a firm wishes to maximize conventionally reported earnings, the pooling basis may be misleading and result in the acceptance of undesirable investment proposals.

Abstract Investors, creditors, and managers are all interested in financial analysis. While they may have different goals in mind and may utilize a number of different methods, the most important methods used have one element in common. This is comparison. The actual data for the firm under analysis are compared to some standard in an attempt to measure the desirability of the results for this company. These standards may be from internal sources, such as a budget or past data concerning operations or external sources, such as results of other companies, in the same industry. One of the most common forms of comparative financial analysis involves the use of various ratios drawn from the financial statements. Many accountants discount the value of ratios used in comparative financial analysis. However, the fact remains that a great number of analysts do utilize such ratios. The purpose of the article is to examine the effect which the last-in, first-out method of inventory valuation may have on the uniformity of financial statements and thus the comparability of the ratios which may be drawn from these statements.

Abstract In the article, the author focuses on stockholders, considered to be the minority group in business enterprises in the U.S. Stockholders are minor capitalists whose livelihood depends largely on the prudent and profitable investment of their limited savings. This group has now shrunk in numbers and diminished in importance. This group enjoys neither the security of a liberally-financed corporate pension plan, nor the beneficence of social-welfare hand-outs to the indigent. The author presents his thesis that the individual saver or the private accumulator of small amounts of capital is unduly disadvantaged by present-day conditions in the business sector. A stockholder faces a task of extraordinary difficulty in selecting and safeguarding his investments which stems from the neglect of his interests by those best situated to keep him properly informed namely, the independent accountants who certify to the financial statements of enterprises to which he commits his funds. For them, he is in truth the forgotten man.

Abstract Any one who has been closely associated with accounting employment during the past two or more decades readily senses that the internship as a basic program has lost vitality. One of the reasons given for this loss of interest is the demand for accounting-trained graduates has created a situation whereby undergraduate students no longer need the contact provided by the internship to secure a permanent position. Many of the students are married and thus find it inconvenient to shift families from classroom to field and back to classroom. Many universities are on the semester plan which may not be conducive to an internship program. Many accounting firms for reasons best known to themselves are less responsive to accepting undergraduate students for organized internship programs today than in earlier years. Visual educational techniques and other improvements in teaching methods and materials may tend to reduce the necessity for field experience. On the assumption therefore, that the accounting internship is not dead or even moribund, this article tries to bring it up to date and implement it definite working rules.

Abstract One hundred years ago the Parliament of the Great Britain enacted the Companies Act of 1862. This Act was to be, for nearly half a century, the main statute for the regulation of British companies; and in the Act's provisions, or in what was lacking in those provisions, the strong individualism and laissez-faire spirit of latter 19th century Great Britain were manifest. For the Act contained no mandatory provisions with respect to accounts or audit: these were matters of private contract, to be left to the stockholders. Major reforms related to company Act took place in Great Britain. In the year 1962, Jenkins Report was presented. Much of the Report is concerned with the general law. Generally, the accounting recommendations of this Report can be regarded as an attempt to add marginal improvements to existing legislation, rather than as a plan of radical change. Many of the improvements will be valuable. The general impression that the Report gives is of a Committee that, as a whole, possessed a high technical competence in law and accounting, but a substantially lower one in economic policy.