More than 600,000 young men and women are expected to pursue programs in collegiate business education by 1970. This will double the present enrollment, according to the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. Unless drastic steps are taken there will be a shortage of 2,800 teachers in business schools and departments alone. Accounting departments will be among the first to feel the impact of this "impending tidal wave" of students. A round table discussion to consider what accounting departments could do to meet the many problems associated with increasing enrollments was conducted at the 1957 American Accounting Association Convention. In preparation for the session the chairmen undertook an analysis of present teaching practices in elementary accounting throughout the country in the hope that the information collected would be useful in evaluating the different solutions that might be proposed. At the same time, accounting teachers should be preparing themselves for the parts which they are to play in planning their participation in the education of young people in and out of college about the developments in the field of electronic data processing. The purpose of this article is to give accounting teachers a point of contact with electronic data processing, omitting specialized terms and techniques, with sufficient information, so that interest may be created and action may be taken in changing curricula in accounting.
Recent progress has outmoded many traditional standards of financial administration of governmental units. Among the more significant changes in concept are (1) greater recognition that financial management must be an integral part of total management at each level to be effective; (2) greater emphasis on the inter-relationships of programming, budgeting, accounting and reporting, and (3) greater awareness and acceptance of the need for variable patterns of accounting compatible with assignments of managerial responsibility and the type of operation being conducted. This proposed statement is an effort to express in broad terms the current accounting and related standards of governmental financial administration. Preparation of a budget for a governmental unit should begin with a determination of the work to be done and the expenses of doing it. Such a cost-based budget and the cash requirements stemming therefrom should be submitted to the legislative branch as a basis for appropriation action. After legislative action, cost-based budgets should be used to control work being done. The cost-based budget is the standard against which the actual costs incurred are to be measured. Responsibility for review, appraisal and action rests on supervision at every level. An independent financial examination and review of operations should be made.