This article focuses on the managerial accounting. Many textbooks which make some claim to the managerial approach are organized in much the same way as they have been for the past twenty years. The bookkeeping cycle and type of bookkeeping records are described in detail, the variations in the particular techniques applicable to different types of business situations are considered, and valuation and classification of different items for statement purposes are given considerable emphasis. The managerial aspects of the test are limited to some description of the use of ratios and comparative statements. Having attempted to describe managerial accounting and to indicate how it might be employed, the authors would like to offer some defense of accounting instruction as it has existed. Accounting instruction has been condemned in high circles because of its emphasis on techniques. The managerial approach, although described in rather vague terms, is offered as the innovation to cure the ills of accounting instruction. Certainly it can not be denied that frequently techniques have been over emphasized. Despite this over emphasis, however, the accounting profession has attained a position of importance in business, a stature that every one recognizes.

The effect of inflation on accounting procedures, and in particular the determination of income, has elicited voluminous literature concerned with the general aspects of the problem. Accountants, in general, have approached the problem with a measure of restraint caused by the confines of basic accounting principles, others have agreed to make the break from conventional accounting practices but have, for the most part, offered nothing more than theoretical considerations while admitting the need for experimentation with methods designed to reflect price level changes. The major emphasis of the problem of measuring real earnings as contrasted to book earnings has centered upon the accounting treatment of two types of assets, inventories and fixed assets. The experimental case study discussed in the article, concerned only with fixed assets, presents a method and indicates the need for adjusting the historical cost of land and depreciable assets and their corresponding depreciation reserve for price level changes. The objective of the presentation is not only to effect a methodology but also to show the significant difference between cost measured in historical dollars and cost measured in units of purchasing power.

Fundamental income tax concepts should be taught in the elementary accounting course. The important reasons for this contention are: (1) Students are interested in the subject of income tax, and they have a need for tax knowledge. (2) Some accounting topics are taught better through the comparison of income tax and conventional accounting treatment. (3) A benefit may accrue to the teaching of the income tax accounting courses since accounting students will bring a better grounding in tax fundamentals to the course. Greater depth of treatment may be possible than is presently the case in courses in income tax accounting. (4) Students majoring in business education will be better prepared for their teaching duties.