Reviews the book "Fundamental Accounting Principles," by William E. Pyle

Public finance has been characterized as political economics. Its overall problem must be considered not only in the context of general economics, but also that of political science, public administration, accounting, and management. Among the most neglected of these fields is that of governmental accounting and financial control at the state and local level. As public authority in a democracy must stem from the people upward, the author of this article believes that there is a positive correlation between the availability of information about governmental operations and the quality of government performance. The citizens of a particular government should be able to ascertain where their public dollar comes from, how their officials handle it, and where it goes. They should be able to know how their municipality compares with others. Not only is it advantageous to compare cities, but also it is also beneficial to observe the total outlay of all municipalities for each of the significant functions of government.

This article focuses on the responsibility of the internal auditor for procedures. Internal Auditing is the independent appraisal activity within an organization for the review of the accounting, financial, and other operations as a basis for protective and constructive service to management. It is a type of control which functions by measuring and evaluating the effectiveness of other types of control. It deals primarily with accounting and financial matters, but it may also properly deal with matters of an operating nature. The article also says that Internal Auditing should not include responsibilities for procedures which are essentially a part of the regular operations of a complete and adequate system or of a properly organized operating department. If the internal auditor is to do a satisfactory job in the matter of auditing procedures, he is presumed to know as much about the design and installation of procedures as do the systems and procedures experts. This calls for proper relations with the latter.

In the November, 1945, issue of the "Journal of Accountancy," Emanuel Sax described "An Improved Form of Summary Statement for Fiduciaries." In that article Dr. Saxe pointed out many deficiencies in the charge and discharge form of executors' account in use in the Surrogate's Court of the County of New York. Although the charge and discharge statement has been presented to three generations of accounting students by almost every text published in the United States in the last six decades as the "customary" form or the "most suitable" form of executors' report, Dr. Saxe is one of the few writers who has devoted any critical attention to it or to other forms of executors' reports. Every state has certain statutory provisions pertaining to reports of executors and administrators. Additionally, statutes are usually implemented by rules and orders of the courts of jurisdiction. No matter how peculiar some of these legal restrictions may seem to an accountant and no matter how superior he may feel another form of report to be, he must prepare executor's reports in the form required by the statutes and court of jurisdiction.