Since 1948, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants has published an annual edition of Accounting Trends and Techniques. This has been a most useful indicator of current accounting practices. Although the practicing accountant can thus be well aware of what others are doing, the accounting educator as a rule is aware of the current practices in accounting education at only a small handful of other educational institutions. Because of the rather limited information currently available about accounting educational practices in the nation's colleges and universities, it was felt that additional information on these subjects would be of value and interest not only to accounting educators because of their direct concern with these subjects but also to employers and training directors because of their interest in the formal accounting education which their new employees have received. There was no single elementary textbook which has had many more adoptions than others. Even the three most widely adopted texts are in use in slightly less than half of the schools surveyed.

This article presents an account of the examination of the auditing section of the November, 1962 Uniform C.P.A. examination that was given on November 8, 1962 from 8:30 to 12:00 noon, and included seven questions, all of which were to be attempted. One of the question stated that If a person is auditing the Alaska Branch of Far Distributing Co. This branch has substantial annual sales which are billed and collected locally. As a part of the audit it is found that the procedures for handling cash receipts are as follows: Cash collections on over-the-counter sales and C.O.D. sales are received from the customer or delivery service by the cashier. Upon receipt of cash the cashier stamps the sales ticket "paid" and files a copy for future reference. The only record of C.O.D. sales is a copy of the sales ticket which is given to the cashier to hold until the cash is received from the delivery service. Mail is opened by the secretary to the credit manager and remittances are given to the credit manager for his review. The credit manager then places the remittances in a tray on the cashier's desk. Finally the examinee had to describe the irregularities in the cash handling system.

Reviews the book "Memoirs and Accounting Thought of George O. May," edited by Paul Grady.

Accounting is a useful art which probably needs to be used more than it is, but it is possible to do too much accounting and thus waste resources. An example of what appears to be accounting for accounting's sake is the prescription for the world-wide accounting and reporting in the Department of Defense of Departmental Census of Housing constructed with the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) foreign currencies. It should be eliminated along with its attendant intricate accounting and reimbursement procedures by the Department of Defense (DOD). A simple reimbursement procedure at Departmental level would provide an inexpensive way of doing business. In order that the U.S. military departments retain trained and skilled personnel, important consideration must be given to morale. A significant facet of maintaining this morale factor among military personnel is the provision of adequate and suitable family housing. This is especially true in overseas areas where dependents are authorized to accompany the military member.

Much has been said about the importance of the science of statistical sampling in the work of accountants, auditors and financial managers. There is no longer any doubt that statistical sampling must become an integral part of the financial manager's, accountant's or auditor's kit of tools, and management can no longer afford to exclude this vital subject from managerial training programs. There are many executive development courses being given both in and outside the Federal Government on such subjects as "automatic data processing," "human relations," "public relations" and "decision making." What is disconcerting, however, is the continued absence from the management training programs of the equally important subject of statistical sampling. This article describes a course recently given on this subject and points out possible ways of spreading successful training programs along this line. Courses in Statistical Sampling have become an integral part of the formal curriculum of a limited number of colleges and universities. It is conceivable that in the not too distant future many more schools will add sampling courses to their curricula. From a financial manager's viewpoint, one of the difficulties with, most of these courses is that they are pitched too high and are not geared to management's needs both in content and instruction.

The auditing section of the May,1964 Uniform Certified Public Accountants (CPA) examination was given May 14, 1964 and included seven questions. Answers which follow are intended to typify those submitted by well-prepared candidates writing within approximately the time limits prescribed. They do not necessarily include all elements for which credit might be given by the Advisory Grading Service of the American Institute of CPA's or by the various state accountancy boards charged with responsibility of issuing CPA certificates. Some of the questions were, When no audit has been performed, any financial statements with which a CPA's name is associated should be conspicuously marked on each page as audited. When such statements are accompanied by his explanatory comments, the CPA must, five options were been provided. Another question was, when a CPA is examining the consolidated financial statements of a parent company and is utilizing the unqualified report of another CPA for a domestic subsidiary of material importance, the principal CPA, again five options were provided for correct answer.

The article presents information on accounting curriculum. In the past several years, reform of the collegiate curriculum in business administration has developed into a modern Crusade. The acknowledged enemy is stultifying specialization; the sanctioned goal, a liberal education. Unfortunately, as in most such movements, the participants have often disagreed over just what or who the enemy is, as well as the shortest and safest route to the objective, which is only vaguely defined. As a result, more than a little confusion has attended our deliberations on a worth-while cause. Due to the necessary lack of precision in the sciences dealing with human conduct, an inductive, empirical approach to the problem is impossible. Instead, proposals for changing the old order have had to make the best of fragmentary factual data and theories from educational psychology. In a few cases ethical considerations have been introduced, despite the extreme hazards involved. The arguments of the innovators often fail to carry their conclusions. Only time can finally clarify all the issues involved and judge the adequacy and wisdom of the many changes which have been frequently proposed and occasionally adopted.

Reviews the book "The Theory and Management of Systems," by Richard A. Johnson, Fremont E. Kast and James E. Rosenzweig.

To stimulate economic growth by the encouragement of investment in productive facilities, the 1962 tax law gives a credit against the tax liability of a company. Broadly speaking, the deduction is 7 per cent of qualified investment in new, and to a limited extent used, depreciable property. The 1.3 billion annual tax break has been hailed as a major aid to the U. S. industry in its battle with foreign producers, but it presents some significant accounting problems. The investment credit is not elective. If the business qualifies for the credit, the basis of the property will reduced by the credit which was due. This is true regardless of whether the business claims or does not claim the credit or was unable to use the credit because of operating at a loss. Property qualifies in the year that it is put in service even though depreciation under the taxpayers method of depreciation does not start until the following year. There is no proration required of the credit. For tax purposes all of the investment in facilities and related investment credit is taken into account in the year of initial service even though the property is put into service the last day of the taxable year.

The task assigned the 1962 Courses and Curricula Committee of the American Accounting Association was "to develop criteria for selecting the content and quality of collegiate accounting educational materials to provide adequate instruction in the body of knowledge that is accounting." The 1961 Committee, which was kept intact for a second year, decided that this task was possible after it discarded other more limited objectives because they involved too many restrictive assumptions to produce useful conclusions. To reduce its task to manageable proportions, the Committee decided to exclude so-called "service" courses, in which accounting is taught primarily to students who are preparing for careers other than accounting careers. For example, the first course in accounting is not considered, since it is offered primarily for those students who do not plan to go on in accounting. As a result, these recommendations apply only to schools which have as one of their objectives educating college students who intend to enter the business world as accountants in industrial, governmental, or public accounting organizations.