Abstract The article comments on a manuscript "The Accretion Concept of Income," by professor G. Edward Phillips. The Philips article demonstrates quite well that progress in accounting theory should begin with developing a single income concept, rather than a variety of income concepts, and that this single income concept should also aid various interested parties in making a variety of decisions. His point that simply because accountants must supply varied data for many different uses, does not imply a need for more than one concept of income is well taken. He says, agreement on a meaningful concept of income is essential to improvement of the financial reporting function of accountants, and there is no inherent reason for this concept to interfere with the collection, analysis and interpretation of data relevant to particular decisions. Philips does not ignore the price-level problem in his paper, but concludes that even a severe inflation or deflation would not necessitate eliminating unreal gains or losses from income statements. He also states that his suggested accretion concept eliminates the bunching effect of realizing periodic accretion gains all at one time, as is presently done.

Abstract It is becoming increasingly popular, in first-year accounting courses, to emphasize the use of accounting information for management purposes. To accomplish this in a first-year course it is necessary to eliminate or de-emphasize certain phases of accounting that traditionally have been considered an integral part of first-year accounting. There is not time to cover everything and include an introduction to managerial accounting. The new emphasis represents the first significant change in accounting since accounting became differentiated from bookkeeping. It is a healthy sign, and it means that first- year accounting will be a more dynamic and useful experience. An accountant needs to have a firm foundation in techniques as well as principles and therefore it is the duty of the teachers to provide them with basic education an accounting major requires. Deficiencies in accounting techniques can be overcome by assigning a practice set at the beginning of the study of intermediate accounting.

Abstract The article presents the application of the Monte Carlo method to inventory problems involving uncertainty of demand and or lead-time. A general statement defining the Monte Carlo technique would be that it is a process whereby data are generated by the use of some random number generator, such as a random number table. In essence, the Monte Carlo method consists of simulating the real world to determine some probabilistic property of a population of events by the use of random sampling applied to the various components of the events. All inventory situations have certain general characteristics, each involving some aspects of cost, service and usage. One characteristic is that as an inventory increases, the cost of storing those goods will also increase but the cost resulting from an inability to fill orders will decrease. Hence, one aspect of the inventory problem is to find an inventory level, which minimizes the sum of the expected holding and shortage costs. The objective of the article is to consider a set of decisions, which will minimize total cost and provide an acceptable level of goods to satisfy the anticipated or expected demand rate.

Abstract The article focuses on the differences between commercial and institutional accounting. Increasing importance of the role of higher education in the economy have provided a challenge to all members of the accounting profession. Much of the theoretical knowledge relative to commercial accounting practice must be reassessed when accounting for institutions of higher education. There is truly a separate and distinct set of generally accepted accounting principles for colleges and universities. At the same time, it is interesting to conjecture that as more emphasis is placed on the idea of dollar's worth for each dollar spent by colleges and universities, and with such measurement devices as performance budgeting, these non-profit organizations may be moving toward profit and loss applications. Meanwhile, as large business enterprises become more service oriented, they appear to be assuming trusteeship aspects similar to those in institutional accounting. Just as it may be true that institutional accounting can benefit from commercial accounting, the reverse is equally likely.