Knowledge that Transforms

Reviews the book "Intercollegiate Bibliography (of) Cases in Business Administration," vol. 5, compiled by Grace V. Lindfors.

Reviews the book "Principles of Accounting," by Rufus Wixon and Robert G. Cox.

The article presents several problems related to accounting, which were prepared by the Board of Examiners of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and were presented as the second half of the C.P.A. examination in accounting practice on May 18, 1961. One of the problem focuses on matters related to the purchase of property by a certain corporation. It discusses the issue of appraised value of a property, depreciation accounting, interest rates, and profit and loss analysis in the deal. Another problem focuses on a company ABC, who has acquired all of the outstanding stock of XYZ Corp. Now ABC gave the stockholders of XYZ certain amount of cash and shares of previously unissued common stock in exchange for all the outstanding stock of XYZ. Students have been asked to prepare the journal entry of ABC to record its investment in XYZ, and explain the basis for the value assigned to the investment. A question has been presented which discusses issues related to partnerships. students have been assigned to prepare statement which contains a detailed explanation of the difference between actual costs and standard costs.

Reviews the book "Executive Action Simulation," by Lowell W. Harron.

Reviews the book "The AICPA Injunction Case."

As business operations become more complicated, the decisions of managers have greater impact upon people and conditions, and it would be expected the added demands upon management would be met by increasing search for more objective, dependable, and positive data upon which to base decisions. Quantitative methods have proved effective in the natural and applied sciences, and the use of accounting and statistical data in business would again lead one to expect that these two fields would feel some pressure for additional help in providing data for decisions. All this means a greater opportunity for those who gather, analyze, and prepare such data for the information of decision-makers, an opportunity that will not be overlooked. The purpose of the article is to explore the relation between accounting and statistics; how independent are these methodologies, with respect to the functions they really should serve, in the collection and use of managerial information. The answer to the question of interdependence of these disciplines may have much to do with the adequacy of service to be rendered by either the statistician or the accountant. Whether or not an accountant, or a statistician, regards his field as separate is largely a question of attitude. There are problems of importance on which both techniques should be used together.

The Eighth International Congress of Accountants will be held during late summer or early fall of 1962 in New York City. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants will be the host organization. It will be the first time since 1929 that this international body will convene in the U.S., and the third time since its genesis at St. Louis in 1904. It was felt that the organization cannot emphasize enough the international responsibilities which collectively accountants must either face or squarely admit that they are unwilling to bear. The organization is confronted with different sets of accounting standards and practices in nearly every country outside the Soviet Sphere. Regardless of any explanations for this phenomenon, the practical situation simply is that just by virtue of the different national accounting practices one and the same economic or business condition is reflected in a number of different ways in accounting reports. The U.S. subsidiaries or affiliates domiciled in foreign countries have to meet local accounting standards for purposes of company registration, local management, business comparability, or what not. Private international investment has soared in the last decade; and so has the United States' dependence on international raw material sources. Many firms in the U.S. derive sizable amounts of revenue from business outside the United States.

The Joint Financial Management Improvement Program is a cooperative and constructive effort of Federal agencies to bring about needed improvements in budgeting, accounting, and other financial management practices in the Federal Government. The broad overall objective of this program is to promote better management and greater efficiency and economy in Federal Government operations and better financial information for the public as to those operations. The existence of a program with such far-reaching objectives is a matter of interest and concern not only to administrators, officials, and employees of Government agencies, but to all segments of the public who are affected by Government operations. Such a program may be assumed also to be of direct interest to the various segments of the accounting profession public accountants, industrial accountants, government accountants, and educators-all of whom have a stake in the contributions that accounting and related financial management functions can make to the biggest enterprise of all-the United States Government.

The National Association of Accountants (NAA) plans to continue its program of supplying copies of the technical sections of the NAA Bulletin to students. The practice was authorized on October 10, 1959, when the Executive Committee of NAA established a Student Bulletin Service in order that students of accounting would be able to obtain the technical section of the NAA Bulletin for use in conjunction with their classroom work. A three week program in Public School Fund Accounting was offered at the Michigan College of Mining and Technology, Michigan in July. It was designed to serve those connected with public school fund accounting in any capacity and included guest lecturers from the Michigan Department of Public Instruction, the Association of School Business Officials of the U.S. and Canada, the Michigan School Business Officials, the Michigan Association of Certified Professional Accountants, the Michigan Association of School Administrators, and the Office of Education, Washington, D.C. The Eleventh Annual Tulane Tax Institute will be held in New Orleans between October 25 and 27 at the University Center, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.

This article summarizes the information provided by 95% of the living accounting graduates of Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa who responded to a written questionnaire during the winter of 1959-60. This survey resulted in considerable data on occupation by function, job titles, geographical location, and income of accounting graduates. Approximately sixty-two per cent of all accounting graduates over this 38 year span are currently engaged in accounting work of some type. An additional twenty six percent are in some phase of management, including many who are doing accounting work at that level. The next largest group, totaling six per cent is engaged in sales or sales management. The remaining six per cent of the graduates are in other occupations. Income statistics were reported for over 90% of the 544 graduates covered. Although statistics were compiled for each graduating class, only the classes of 1929, 1939, 1949, and 1959 are presented here. Analysis of income data for all graduating classes would seem to indicate that accounting graduates employed in public accounting receive considerably greater income on the average both ten years and twenty years after graduation than those in other types of jobs.