Abstract This article presents information the teaching methods of accounting. Beyond the first few weeks of the elementary course, too little emphasis is placed on the fundamental accounting equation. As a result the student threads his way through the first year of accounting at best understanding certain relationships in vacuo but probably in most cases accepting them on faith. He then proceeds to memorize these relationships and hopes that the examination situation will be sufficiently similar to the one he learned by rote so that he can cope with it. Perhaps the ideal solution to this difficulty is one which places greater stress on the equation in the first course in accounting, but this probably would require a fundamental revision of course structure with the concomitant sacrifice of other worth-while materials. One result that follows from this lack of stress on the equation is the necessity to spend the first part of the second course in accounting on a general review of the basic accounting process.

Abstract The present Standards Rating Committee of American Accounting Association was appointed in 1949 for a period of five years upon the authorization of the Executive Committee of the Association Committee. The present committee was officially constituted and began functioning on January 1, 1949. Meetings of the committee have been held at intervals throughout the last five years. After extended discussion and rewriting over a period of two years this committee published an interim report in the January 1951, issue of Accounting Review. Full publicity was given to this interim report; suggestions, comments, and criticisms were solicited. Several members of the Association and other interested persons responded to the invitation. This committee appreciates the excellent suggestions made by correspondents. Their recommendations have been reviewed carefully along with the further thinking of the committee members themselves. After further weighing for about a year the problems confronting the committee, it was decided in early 1953 to prepare a final report in order to bring its current activities to a conclusion. Following this decision the committee has quite actively pursued its objectives and the present report represents the culmination of its efforts for the past five years.

Abstract The article presents devices and techniques developed by the member of accounting profession for the presentation of the knotty aspects of accounting. The first method presented focuses on the accounting problems related to business income and the cash basis. Money profits are basic to the management of a business. The cash basis, where properly applied, involves considerably more than receipts and disbursements. Accounting on the cash basis means that net income is determined by including income and gains actually or constructively received and deducting those expenses actually or constructively paid, losses sustained, and allowable depreciation or amortization for the period. Cash includes not only money but also commercial paper redeemable in money on demand such as money orders, bank drafts or checks. It does not include notes or similar promises to pay money at some future time. The general rule is that a bank check received constitutes an actual or conditional receipt, even though the holder refrains from depositing or cashing the check until a later date. Transactions near the end of the year call for decision as to the exact time receipt occurs.