The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Greece was founded in 1955 by Law No. 3329, which established it not only as a professional association, but also as a practicing firm of Public Accountants. The constitution was formed thus in order to raise the standing of the profession in the face of many adverse conditions. The problems of getting the profession started in Greece may be similar to those in various other countries in which the accounting and auditing profession needs a status lift. The purpose of this paper is to give an account of the rather unique manner in which the profession in Greece has been developed. In the opinion of the author of this article, the manner in which the accounting profession in Greece has been developed has many good practical merits. The regulation of the profession in its early stages of growth helps considerably to ensure that high standards of work are maintained. The strength of the profession is obviously enhanced during this period by a Supervisory Council of prominent citizens whose appointment stems from legal decrees. Theoretical education in auditing needs some considerable development.

It is true, of course, that accountants have been concerned with the problem area of fixed assets for a long time. Yet, many significant questions are unresolved. This article suggests a new look and solution to certain of these problems. This is done by extending fundamental ideas of financial accounting to areas now ignored. The suggested extension of accounting reflects the managerial function of planning and controlling plant and equipment assets. It does this by developing the essential characteristics and the unique contribution to the firm of plant and equipment assets over their lives. It is important for the reader to realize that the suggestion is not a plea for external reporting of capital budgets as they now exist. Instead, the impact of this idea has a bearing on conventional accounting practices. The general role of managers and financial accounting relative to fixed assets will be reviewed initially in this article. The overall management activity of planning and control will be expressed in terms of an asset's life cycle as outlined below.

Accounting is a great profession being dedicated to integrity, independence, objectivity, high personal performance, and service. It tends to bring out the best in an individual. Since education is central to the accounting profession, as it is to all of the professions, accounting educators must give the educational aspects serious and continuing attention if they are to meet their responsibilities to the students and to the accounting profession generally. Within the context of a rapidly expanding social and economic complex, question has been raised as to whether accounting can meet an implicit challenge that will be ever-expanding. Hopefully, accounting will be commanded by highly educated men of vision and ingenuity, so that it will be transformed into an even greater force through expanding services. Accounting educators have a singular responsibility to both recognize and surmount the challenges facing accountancy and accounting education. These challenges have short and long-run implications, the latter clearly being more fundamental, and unfortunately less demanding at any given moment.

This article is a discussion which is a continuation of the article entitled, Working Paper for Preparation of Cash-Flow Statement, published in the January 1963 issue of the journal, the Accounting Review. The same comparative data, operating detail, and supplementary data has been used for illustrative purposes. In addition, the funds statement and cash-flow statement will be compared to show the relationships between the components of the two statements. The funds statement, known by other titles such as the source and application of funds statement and statement of application of funds, as conventionally prepared, is an analysis of working capital. It is generally accompanied by a schedule of the items making up the working capital, which by definition is the difference between current assets and current liabilities. Current assets and current liabilities are regarded as the funds, that is, working capital, and it is the purpose of the funds statement to describe the causes for the total change in the working capital for the reporting period such as a month, a year, and so on.