This article introduces a computer application designed to help accomplish in managerial accounting. An understanding of computer-based information systems and of quantitative methods is becoming increasingly important to accountants. Basic skills in these areas can and should be obtained through specialized courses offered either within the accounting area or by related areas. The application is intended to provide a vehicle by which students can be meaningfully exposed to the use of computer and quantitative techniques in connection with managerial planning and control processes and encouraged to explore more fully and creatively certain types of managerial accounting problems in order to improve their problem-solving and interpretive skills. In addition to the nature of the application, a description of its use in a classroom situation is included. The application involves a machine accessible database containing a variety of historical accounting and operating data concerning a hypothetical manufacturing company. Associated with this database is a management information system which permits easy access to the database and to a set of analytic programs which operate either on that data or on other data provided by the student.

This article focuses on a study which discussed the implementation of a computer application in managerial accounting courses. THE growing importance of electronic data processing in the business world has made it necessary for accounting educators to consider means of incorporating instruction in the uses of computers and computer systems in the accounting curriculum. This paper discusses the classroom implementation of a computer application designed to use the computer to solve problems in managerial accounting courses. The application was used as classroom project at the University of Wisconsin throughout one semester of management accounting course designed for MBA candidates who had only principles course as background. It involved a computer accessible databank of accounting and operating data concerning eight years of operations of a fictional manufacturing company. The contents of the databank were derived from the output of a management game modified for use in this project.

Reviews the book "Computers in Business: A Fortran Introduction," by Robert E. Malcom and Malcolm H. Gotterer.