The article discusses methodological preconditions and problems of a general theory of accounting. The last fifteen years of accounting history seem to be part of a transition period replacing the loose traditional approach by more rigorous methods. Although spanning over considerable time this transition continues, most likely transgressing into the eighties, and promises to cause a major break in the evolution of our discipline. From time to time, the need arises to look at past research activity from the bird's perspective with the aim of an overall survey. Such is the intent of the following investigation which tries to fit recent research efforts into this five-point pattern, and which examines major methodological and related problems still to be solved before this phase of transition is completed. Prior to such an investigation it may be opportune to avoid some misunderstandings. The ultimate purpose of accounting is to provide managerial information systems satisfactory or even optimal for specific needs. That this should be done through systematic testing and by means of an instrumental theory commensurate to needs as well as scientific means at our disposal, hardly appears to be an unreasonable quest.

Reviews the book "Linear Programming and the Theory of the Firm," by Kenneth E. Boulding and W. Allen Spivey.

Periodic budgeting, as practiced in industry and taught in the accounting curriculum, combines estimates by individual departments in a process of coordinative aggregation. The purpose is to supply management with a financial plan for future operations. Frequently, budgeting is charged with the more ambitious task of finding the most profitable course for an enterprise. If this means selecting a combination of managerial policies which optimizes the long-term profit of the enterprise, the above definition of the purpose of this discipline seems to overstate the potential of traditional budgeting activity. It makes the layman believe that this area of accounting is in a position to determine optimal solutions. Undoubtedly this is not the case since budgeting traditionally neither applies any algorism to optimize the long term profit function nor provides any means for determining and comparing all the alternatives resulting from the innumerable factor and policy combinations feasible for an enterprise.

Reviews the book "The Annual Income of an Enterprise and Its Determination," by Jaakko Honko.

Reviews the book "On National Accounting," by Ingvar Ohlsson.

This paper draws attention to the increasing use of the concept of "model" in accounting literature. It distinguishes between economic models and accounting models, defines the latter, demonstrates the presentation of a whole accounting cycle in the mathematically formal way of an accounting model, discusses by way of a practical example the independent and dependent variables in such a system and shows how the structure of accounting models is graphically presentable. It finally gives, with the aid of some balance-sheet-ratios, an example of combining accounting models with economic models and indicates the application of this approach to a prospective area which still can be considered to be the accountant's. The paper, however, intends to be nothing more than an experiment. There is no denial that the conscious and systematic application of mathematical models to certain branches of economic science opened new paths and perspectives, not without enriching our insight into many a problem. It therefore seems to be comprehensible if accountants try to dabble and experiment in this apparently promising field.

Accountancy and economics have the same objectives of cognition. Both branches examine the individual economic cell as well as the entire economic body of a country. In the center of these studies are the administration of scarce resources and the determination of income and production volume. It is often emphasized that the economist assumes the national, community or social point of view while the accountant is limited to the individual enterprise. But actually both branches have sections which deal with the national economy, that is, with the economic organism as an entity, or with the link between two or more national economies and both have sections dealing with firms, that is, with the ultimate bricks of this more highly organized structure. Business accounting can be regarded as that part of accountancy which is engaged in the studies of the firm, and microeconomics is its counterpart in economic analysis, while national accounting on one side, and macro-economics on the other, are dealing with the over-all picture of the economy.

Reviews the book, "Input-Output Analysis," by Shawki M. Farag.

The article focuses on recommendations made by the 1964 American Accounting Association Committee on Courses and Curricula--Electronic Data Processing. The committee recommended that at the undergraduate level, accounting students should be exposed to electronic data processing in stages. Added emphasis should be placed in the accounting systems course on logical information flows and on multi-dimensional information requirements rather than on the form and content of specific accounting records. At the master's degree level, the student must have at least the same proficiency as an undergraduate, but hopefully it will be at a more sophisticated level. At the doctoral level, accounting systems instruction is a distinct subject-matter area, as are accounting theory, internal accounting, taxes and auditing. A doctoral degree presumes at least a sound foundation knowledge in each of the broad accounting areas, with a high degree of expertise in the candidate's specialist area. The committee also recommended that substantial attention should be given both by individual schools and by the American Accounting Association, to the need for a re-orientation of accounting toward an analytical approach rather than one which is mainly descriptive.