This article focuses on the role of programmed instruction in managerial accounting course. The rate of experimentation and introduction of new techniques in the field of education has not been very spectacular. With programmed instruction in particular, most of the potential remains to be exploited. In school the students are not required to take more than one accounting course. In order, therefore, to cram more material in a one-semester course without arousing the wrath of the students, one has to find ways of reorganizing the material and presenting it in a more efficient way. The students feel that they somehow do not understand the purpose of education and especially the purpose of the required curriculum that teachers force upon them. Our educational system rests on the notion of integrated programs of study. The people who design curricula attempt to look at the total requirements toward a goal (the degree) and then proceed toward the description of specifications which will enable the student to reach it.

One of the most important advances in the field of managerial accounting has been the development of the notion of the standard cost system. The use of such a system, however, has thus far been limited not because of any limitations inherent in the system itself, but because accountants have failed to appreciate its versatility and exploit it for managerial control and decision making. By definition costs that are not quantitatively traceable to products or operations for every unit of service used at a particular moment of time, are some type of joint costs. This implies complementarities between products and operations at any moment of time and over lime, and a lot of uncertainty in planning and control. The longer the time span over which such complementarities exist the greater the difficulty not only because one cannot predict as well, which is a great impediment to decision making, but also because the statistical population from which one needs to draw for generalizations is small. Furthermore, to the extent that these decisions are made discontinuously and infrequently, one cannot depend on the manager's memory for all the relevant inputs to subsequent decisions of similar nature.

To summarize, we have initially examined the implications and short-comings of two important deterministic models, that of the classical theory of the firm and Taylor's model of rationalization of operations. We have shown that under theft assumptions, neither one necessitates any internal control systems, because the individuals are unconsciously influenced to allocate their efforts optimally. Then we have examined an alternative model that emphasizes conscious co-ordination of activities for the accomplishment of common objectives. The firm according to this model is viewed as a group of resources (people usually) that are brought together for the accomplishment of a common goal or an array of goals. These people are considered as willful agents with different degrees of rationality and capable of making value judgments. Consequently one cannot automatically assume that theft behavior is "optimizing," but must find ways of guaranteeing that the behavior of each and every one of these willful agents is consistent with the overall objective or objectives. That is one important place where the necessity of conscious co-ordination and control of activities enters. If people are left alone they will attempt to maximize what they perceive to be in their own best interest. If this happened to coincide with the interests of the firm well and good, otherwise the objectives of the firm are superseded by the interests of the individuals which may in themselves be conflicting. No one can honestly claim that a firm will succeed in enforcing an absolute identity between its goals and those of its employees. This problem is not unlike the one that has been plaguing the economists in their efforts toward maximizing social welfare. There is no doubt, however, that the firm can influence the direction as well as the magnitude of its employee's efforts. It would be quite disappointing, not only to managers but also to us as educators of managers, if we were to find out that managerial skills as well as complicated control systems can do nothing to change the particular behavior and range of rationality of an individual.

It is very difficult as well as unsatisfying to speak on the uses of mathematics in accounting for two main reasons. Firstly, because discussions of this nature convey the somewhat false impression that the only impetus toward changes, if any progress is evident in the use of mathematics in accounting instruction and research, has originated from without rather than from within the accounting profession, and that progress has been forced upon the accounting discipline by outsiders. Secondly, because the potential uses of mathematics in accounting are so many, within the time limitations of a meeting one can at best only survey the area. The author in this article did not attempt to explore fully the reasons accountants have not taken advantage of the existing body of mathematical knowledge earlier, but, according to him, he cannot help speculating briefly on this issue. It appears to him that the demands of management for new quantitative criteria of efficiency of operations and decisions both aggregative and partial, are presenting opportunities and pressures that accounting cannot ignore. Mathematical simulation, which has grown to maturity in the last few years, has had a pronounced influence on the design of feedback-control systems.

This article focuses on the "mathematics" of accounting variance analysis. It seems that the managerial significance of accounting data is a rather controversial matter and consequently it should not be left completely to the imagination of the reader. The purpose of this note is to suggest an alternative, and what is believed to be a simpler way of getting the overhead variances and then point out some of the significance of the results. One of the most striking features of present accounting literature may be said to lie in the growing interest paid to the mathematics of variance analysis. This development began in 1953 when Gilbert Amerman published his very famous article on the subject. The variation analysis may be easily tied to an effective budgetary control system by comparing the standard and actual costs of a period with the corresponding budgeted costs. On these lines it is possible to discern the influence that important activity and production mix variations had on the direct materials and labor costs. The budget variance is defined by the difference between the actual costs of the period under investigation and the flexible budget allowance for the actual hours worked.

A lot of the arguments concerning the relationship between depreciation and "funds" are due to definitional rather than substantive differences. This article attempts to clarify some major sources of either misconception or trouble that arise in discussions concerning fund statements. Some people wish to use the word "funds" in such a way as to include not only ready cash but also all the classifications included in net working capital, while others use the terms funds and cash as synonymous. There are cases, however, where the difficulty is caused by erroneous assumptions. One of such assumptions is that the undepreciated cost of assets sold is not a source of funds. The author shows that depreciation does not generate funds at the point of sale, no matter how "funds" are defined. However, at the point of production, depreciation generates working capital if it is incorporated into the inventorial product. Since most of the confusion involves issues associated with depreciation, it suggests that a definition of "funds" limited to "cash and cash equivalent" will eliminate a lot of the temptation to elevate mechanics to the status of principles.

The article discusses the benefits of the statistical attributes of group depreciation. It has been argued in the article that the benefits of group depreciation go far beyond the bookkeeping simplification and its concomitant cost savings. Far more important are the statistical attributes of group depreciation that yield reliable information on the economic life of the assets included in the group. By means of finite Markov chains one can derive empirical probabilistic distributions of the age of the various assets, which should provide management with better data not only for asset depreciation, but also for maintenance, utilization and replacement of capital equipment. Once the transition probability-matrix is established and the initial aging of assets accomplished, data can be generated automatically for forecasts of retirements of assets, balances in the asset accounts and allowance for depreciation, as well as depreciation charges for each year over the forecasting horizon. The information generated can then be introduced and aid in the development of capital and cash budgets and forecasts.

Reviews the book "The Analysis of Business Systems," edited by George fisk.

Reviews the book " On Measurement and Analysis of Standard Costs," by Albert Danielsson.