Reviews the book "Management Accounting," by Robert N. Anthony.

The article focuses on current challenges to accounting principles. These accounting problems are raised by build-sale-leaseback agreements, various forms of accelerated depreciation and last-in, first-out method. The author explores the development of these techniques and their development to present generally accepted principles of accounting. Over the years there is a trend towards long-term leasing of property as opposed to direct ownership. The motivating factors in many of these leasing arrangements, particularly in the case of build-sale-leaseback contracts, have been to permit the corporation to free its capital from fixed asset investment and to permit its use in operational areas in which the company is more experienced or to channel it into further capital expansion cycles of a like nature. It is doubtful whether these are the primary factors in lease financing. A more direct factor in many instances appears to be the securing of a higher charge against operations than is possible through annual depreciation charges based upon historical cost.

The article focuses on the evolution of accounting functions. During the last hundred years the roles of accounting have undergone changes as startling as the developments in methods and techniques of production. These changes in accounting functions, however, are less obvious to the untrained observer than the giant industrial strides which have made The U.S., the economic envy of the world. Yet the evolution of the two are closely related. The roles which accounting has played at various times have been directly related to the needs of the businessman. It is this thesis which will be explored in the following paragraphs. Unquestionably, many ideas and procedures in accounting have developed fortuitously or have been the result of theorizing which was entirely independent of any pressing requirement of the moment. It is also readily apparent that the pressure of government upon accounting development has been significant. With the current public regulation of many business activities, the administration of economic affairs has transcended the management of the individual enterprise. When this change has taken place, accounting has followed management into the broader area with the development of a social control function of accounts.