In the October 1964, issue of the journal "The Accounting Review," professor Neil Churchill presented four applications of matrix algebra in cost allocation situations. Where functional relationships between allocation sources and destinations are determinable and stable, linear algebra is shown to be a convenient tool for getting the cost allocation job done. Churchill presents a technique that is finding increasing use as accountants become more experienced with formulative methods. However, the artful economy of wording and symbolism that makes his presentation compact is also a source of frustration for one who bootstraps his way to an understanding of such matters. As long as the allocating relationships and proportions remain stable, Churchill's foreshortened approach works very well. The same matrix approach can be expanded to allocations of larger dimension, and of more than one layer. While the problem appears frightening when viewed in its entirety, a step-by-step venture through it will lead eventually to placement of all costs in the service using departments. The utility of such allocations, from a cost-control viewpoint, can be questioned, but that is an entirely different question with which researchers do not propose to engage here.

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.