Reviews the book "Budgeting, Principles and Practice," by Herman C. Heiser.

Reviews the book "Evolution of Cost Accounting to 1925," by S. Paul Garner.

This article focuses on the funds statement as an internal report to management. making financial decisions. Sixty-four per cent of the companies using the funds statement as an internal report, or 123 companies, stated that they have used funds statements of past periods as aids in making current financial decisions. Sixty-eight per cent of the companies using the funds statement as an internal report, or 131 companies, have used projected funds statements as aids to decision-making. Of these companies, 94 stated that they have used both historical and projected funds statements. The majority of the companies using the funds statement as an internal statement and tool for decision-making regard it as strictly a short-term tool. Companies using the funds statement as an internal tool of management attempted to reconcile it with the various budgets or other anticipatory statements in many cases. Seventy-five per cent of the companies that reported that they used the funds statement for making financial decisions tied the funds statements in with one or more of their budgets.

The article focuses on fund statement practices in the context of the U.S. and Canada. Textbooks almost unanimously have adopted the concept of funds as synonymous with working capital. The funds concept has been variously conceived as encompassing cash, marketable securities, quick assets, net free cash, current assets, net working capital, or all balance sheet changes. The funds statement is the only major accounting report that is not predicated on the income approach. Conventions of permanence of the accounting entity, or of a static monetary measurement device do little harm to its basic framework. The funds statement is predicated on the funds basis with income considerations essentially alien to it. The funds basis is concerned with the availability and use of current purchasing potential by the company. Differences of opinion as to what best represents this current purchasing power have led to the use of various concepts of funds. Differences in objectives have been partially responsible for the extensive use of alternative concepts, since the funds concept used must be consistent with the objectives of reporting.

Reviews the book "Accounting and Auditing: Thoughts on Forty Years in Practice and Education," by William D. Hall.

Reviews the book "Proposed Funds Statement for Managers and Investors," by Harold B. Arnett.

Reviews the book "The Mathematical Dimension of Accountancy," Thomas H. Williams and Charles H. Griffin.

Reviews the book "Essays in Accounting Theory," by Carl T. Devine.