The Joint Financial Management Improvement Program is a cooperative and constructive effort of Federal agencies to bring about needed improvements in budgeting, accounting, and other financial management practices in the Federal Government. The broad overall objective of this program is to promote better management and greater efficiency and economy in Federal Government operations and better financial information for the public as to those operations. The existence of a program with such far-reaching objectives is a matter of interest and concern not only to administrators, officials, and employees of Government agencies, but to all segments of the public who are affected by Government operations. Such a program may be assumed also to be of direct interest to the various segments of the accounting profession public accountants, industrial accountants, government accountants, and educators-all of whom have a stake in the contributions that accounting and related financial management functions can make to the biggest enterprise of all-the United States Government.

The article presents information on essential subject matter for a one-year basic accounting course offered to non-accounting students. Accounting principles, as topics should be included in the course under consideration for understanding and interpreting with technical proficiency. Significantly among the topics not included were many which are traditionally covered in elementary texts. Work Sheets, Voucher System, Practice Set, Reversing and Alternative Adjusting Entries, Ruling and Balancing Journals and Ledgers, Admission of a Partner by Purchase of an Investment or an Investment Considering Goodwill or Bonus, Defaulted Subscriptions of Capital Stock, Treasury Stock Transactions, and Sale of Registered and Coupon Bonds: Determining Interest on Bonds Issued Between Interest Dates, Amortizing Premium or Discount. Additional research is needed to indicate the degree of coverage, chapter division, number of hours, and other pertinent details concerning the topics favored for inclusion in a basic course for non-accounting majors.

In the fast moving world, every segment of the society, government, industry, labor, etc., in the U.S. has been forced to find ways to meet the challenges of a period of unprecedented change. Education is no exception. However, this general preoccupation with the status of education in the U.S. is certainly not without benefits and should not obscure the continuing need for sound improvements in U.S. educational program. The Ford and Carnegie reports represent the kind of basic analysis most useful to the approach of any program of change or improvement. The author opines that any study of such broad scope, objections or disagreements with the analytical techniques used and, in certain cases, the conclusions drawn, are raised but there seems to be little reason to doubt the validity of the basic conclusions reached. He considers the report from a business point of view and discusses three basic facets of the report--The question of over-specialization, the area of instructional approach and the problem of academic standards.

The article presents several problems related to accounting, which were prepared by the Board of Examiners of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and were presented as the second half of the C.P.A. examination in accounting practice on May 18, 1961. One of the problem focuses on matters related to the purchase of property by a certain corporation. It discusses the issue of appraised value of a property, depreciation accounting, interest rates, and profit and loss analysis in the deal. Another problem focuses on a company ABC, who has acquired all of the outstanding stock of XYZ Corp. Now ABC gave the stockholders of XYZ certain amount of cash and shares of previously unissued common stock in exchange for all the outstanding stock of XYZ. Students have been asked to prepare the journal entry of ABC to record its investment in XYZ, and explain the basis for the value assigned to the investment. A question has been presented which discusses issues related to partnerships. students have been assigned to prepare statement which contains a detailed explanation of the difference between actual costs and standard costs.

The comparative studies of accounting and other fields of knowledge have so far been rather rare. It seems odd that in accounting which by its very nature is concerned with monetary, therefore measurable, values, the concept of scientific measurement has been slow in developing. Since ancient times, accounting has been primarily concerned with the recording of the facts of a transaction, such as receipts or disbursements, and the value placed on the transaction was of only incidental significance. Only since the industrial revolution has the measurement of accounting values, as compared to recording techniques, received increased attention. The development and gradual refinement of cost accounting methods involved not only the determination of costs, but also analytical processes and comparisons between cost items which made scientific measurement of the primary data a logical prerequisite. The expansion of the corporate form of business and the resulting necessity of making financial data available to a broader public, on the other hand, led to comparative statements and the establishment of various kinds of ratios which required a refinement of tools in measuring primary balance sheet data.

Reviews the book "Principles of Accounting," by Rufus Wixon and Robert G. Cox.

This article raises one of the top problems of present-day accounting; this is the purpose of the accountant's work. The question is whether the accountant will continue to operate within a system of his own design with little attention to the effects of the results attained; this reflects the widely held opinion that the accountant's job is to prepare statements and that it is up to those receiving the statements to interpret them in a manner suitable from their point of view. the other approach to the accountants work is to consider it as a vital part of the information system of the enterprise; then it is up to the accountant to integrate his specific system into the broader one and attempt to develop data which should be of greatest value to operating management in its task of making the best possible decisions. The author of this article apparently shares the first point of view. He pays no attention to managerial requirements but proposes a technique which, although consistent in itself, is bound to confuse rather than to clarify the essential issues. His model is interesting from a purely theoretical point of view in the sense that it emphasizes one particular approach to the problem. It was suggested earlier in this paper that there is nothing wrong with this type of model as long as it is used in the realm of theory only. But to apply it to the solution of practical situations without carefully considering the practical needs of management could he very harmful. There is an urgent need to reduce the gap between the task of accounting to serve managerial decision making and the somewhat narrow and self-centered attitude of many accounting practitioners who are in danger of losing sight of those really important tasks of the profession.

This article presents financial report of American Accounting Association for the year ended December 31, 1960. The income includes member's dues, associate members' dues, subscription to the "The Accounting Review," advertising, interest, sales of membership lists and sales of other publications. Expense includes printing and mailing expense, officers, travel, meetings, and administrative expense, committee expenses, salaries and others. The article also includes Statement of Income, Life Fund for the year ended December 31, 1960.

This article focuses on the theory tax planning. Tax planning can be defined as the tax-payer's capacity to arrange his financial activities in such a manner as to suffer a minimum expenditure for taxes. When the designation tax planning is used, it really means effective tax planning. All tax planning does not reduce the tax liability to the desired minimum level. The tax planning that is not cut properly to suit the individual taxpayer may have the ultimately adverse effect of maximizing the tax. Tax planning involves the use of foresight and consequently it is concerned with future matters. Unfortunately, tax planning is often the product of a certain amount of hindsight. The taxpayer who learns, much to his distress, too late about the six-months holding requirement for securing the long-term capital-gains advantage is apt to profit by his mistakes in his future activities. Having been burned once, he is ready and willing to engage in the tax planning process. Tax evasion and tax avoidance should be distinguished. All too often these terms have become interchangeable with each other in the minds of the taxpayer. The failure to make any distinction between these separate concepts works to the discredit of the tax planning process and may lead to serious legal consequences.

The article presents information on problems that were prepared by the Board of Examiners of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and were presented as the first halt of the C.P.A. examination in accounting practice on May 17, 1961. The candidates were required to solve all problems. One of the problems that was there in Accounting practice is discussed here. A company has hypothecated its accounts receivable with the bank under an agreement whereby the bank lends the company 80% on the hypothecated accounts receivable. Accounting for and collection of the accounts are performed by the company, and adjustments of the loan are made from daily sales reports and daily deposits. The bank credits the Distributors, Inc. account and increases the amount of till loan for 80% of the reported sales. The loan agreement states specifically that the sales report must be accepted by the bank before Distributors, Inc. is credited Sales reports are forwarded by Distributors, Inc. to the bank on the first day following the date of sales. The bank allocates each deposit 80% to the payment of the loan and 20% to Distributors, Inc. account. Thus, only 80% of each day's sales and 20% of each collection deposit are altered on the bank statement. Distributors, Inc. accountant records the hypothecation of new account to receivable value (80% of sales) as a debit to cash and a credit to the bank loan as of the date of sales. One hundred per cent of the collections on accounts receivable to recorded as a cash receipt; 80% of the collections is recorded in the cash disburse