Abstract Reviews the book "Auditing Performance in Government: Concepts and Cases," by Richard E. Brown, Meredith C. Williams, and Thomas P. Gallagher.

Abstract The article focuses on the influence accounting has had on the various elements of society. The significant roles those various elements have played on accounting should not be underestimated. For example, accounting, some writers say, had a considerable impact on the industrial revolution. Others have stated that the investment of great quantities of foreign capital in the U.S. after the Civil War had a consequential influence on what accounting is today. Accounting as a means for providing information for better government for the citizens of the U.S. is well accepted. But, the federal government also has played an essential role in providing an environment for the changing products of accounting. This influence, what the government has had on accounting and accounting on the government, can provide a perspective of accounting from a different viewpoint. In this paper, this perspective is seen from the standpoint of the many departments, agencies, and corporations of the federal government but with special reference to one agency, the U.S. General Accounting Office.

Reviews the book "Practical Controllership," by David R. Anderson and Leo A. Schmtdt.

Abstract The industrial revolution with its division of labor, its competition, and its profit motive demanded forms of measurement which could not be found in the conventional single-entry or simple double-entry bookkeeping system. Stockholders, workers, and management demanded reports of operations and financial information on a current basis which had not been available before then. Governmental accounting has a great many basic concepts found in industrial accounting, although some of the major principles are completely different. In industrial accounting the measurement of profits is the deciding factor for a great many of the basic principles. Matching of costs and revenues probably is considered the fundamental concept of industrial accounting. No such concept exists in governmental accounting. Usually, revenues and expenditures do not have a direct accounting relationship in governmental administration. Most governmental units have a great many operational activities. One set of combined records is not sufficient to analyze these activities. Governmental fund accounting for each of these various operational activities has no counterpart in industrial accounting.

Abstract Accounting for governmental and institutional bodies is a means to an end and is not the end by itself. Recent criticism of the field of governmental accounting has resulted because, as so often happens in commercial accounting, heads of accounting departments think that as a result of the control vested in them, their department is the final governing body. One authority states that it believes governmental administration does not require the use of involved accounting systems, procedures, or techniques except in occasional, special situations. In general accounting it is necessary to account for all costs and to allocate those costs to revenues for a particular period to determine net income. In governmental accounting the records kept are those of revenues and expenditures, and furthermore, the cost of a building, a bridge, or equipment is just as much an expenditure as the cost of labor or supplies. Generally speaking, the revenues are allocated to expenditures in governmental accounting rather than applying costs to revenues which is found in general accounting. Profit-making ordinarily is no concern of a governmental administrator, and almost all theory regarding accounting for profits is excluded from a governmental accounting system.

Reviews the book "Accounting in the Federal Government," by Eric L. Kohler and Howard W. Wright.

Abstract In the course of an audit, an auditor may analyze in detail each item in the books. However, in most instances, to arrive at a conclusive opinion in regard to the records, it is unnecessary to collect complete information on each item with which the auditor deals. To overcome the necessity of checking each item in every investigation, accountants and auditors have employed the method of test checking or sampling. From the test check or sample, a relatively small part of the records, the auditor draws a conclusion as to the general accuracy of the accounting details. To appreciate the auditor's problems of sampling, one must know about sampling theory as applied to data which an accountant will probably encounter. Sampling theory is basically related both to the theory of probability and to the likelihood of errors. Whenever each item chosen has the same probability of being chosen as any other item in the group, the relationship between the items may be worked out to a precise mathematical point.

Abstract As a service to the forty-eight states and four territories which use the examinations prepared by the American Institute of Accountants the Institute will grade the candidate's papers and recommend grades to be granted there on by the local boards involved. Papers from some fifty-five hundred candidates were graded by the Educational Director's office in connection with a recent examination. The very weight and volume of this number of papers is imposing. The significance of the resultant grades to the candidates and to the profession of public accounting makes the grading process most important. The methods used to secure uniform and reliable results in this work will be of interest to those concerned with methods of testing and passing upon the qualifications of candidates for the CPA certificate. Under the grading system used by the Institute in Auditing, Theory and Law, where the grading is on a positive basis, it is impossible for the candidate to receive all the points his knowledge might justify if his answer is too brief. Relevant points, assigned some credit in the grading, may easily be omitted in short answers.

Abstract The Committee on Professional Education in Accounting has been considering, for the past two years, the general area of educational preparation for a career in accounting. The committee believes that its primary problem was to establish a concept of professional education for a career in accounting. This report is a summary of the committee's discussions and deliberations concerning the nature, objectives and implementation of professional education in accounting. The Report of Standards Rating Committee of the American Accounting Association' contained the following statement on objectives of the education of the accountant: "Three ultimate objectives of education for professional accounting are educating the citizen, education in business and education in accounting. A program of professional education should provide the student with the theoretical background necessary to proper interpretation of practical problems. The major objective of technical accounting coverage in a professional program should be to provide the graduate with the foundation to recognize, interpret and analyze the complex and specialized problems to be faced in his future career.

Abstract This article presents the findings of the report of the committee, appointed by President Charles J. Gaa as a task committee operating under the Joint Committee on Education, to receive and review the Ford and Carnegie reports for the American Accounting Association. The two reports--"Higher Education for Business" by Gordon and Howell, and "The Education of American Businessmen" by Pierson were financed and sponsored by The Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York respectively. The authors of Ford and Carnegie reports, in their extensive surveys found glaring examples of bachelor's degrees given for programs of study, overloaded with business in general or with accounting in particular. The Committee urges that the faculty of each school should read the entire reports so that by carefully trying on each shoe of criticism they may find those, which fit their particular situations. It is also expected that the Ford and Carnegie reports will have an impact on collegiate education for business.