Abstract The modern business-oriented computer is an adaptation, with minor modifications, of the earlier and more general notion of a stored-program, digital computer. Business-oriented computers have been developed largely as a result of a concerted effort on the part of computer manufacturers to develop equipment, which would be suitable to the requirements of business data processing. For the most part, however, accountants have had very little to say about the kind of equipment which has been made available to the business firms. Consequently, each installation has been approached on an ad hoc basis, and there appears to be a wide divergence in accomplishment. Business-oriented computer should be taken as a frame of reference, and instead of superimposing the computer on the business information system of the firm, that the systems designer should build or rebuild the entire system based upon the theoretical concepts inherent in the computer itself. Business-oriented computer becomes an adequate frame of reference for exploring the possibilities and ramifications of a normative business information system for the firm.

Abstract This article focuses on the implementation of uniform standards of reporting for national voluntary agencies. The purpose of this article is to point out some of the pitfalls that may be encountered in the development and implementation of uniform standards of reporting in voluntary agencies. Since the lack of adequate funds for accounting data is very apparent, a pooling of resources is necessary. This pooling, in the instant case, involved a research study and a development of a computer program, which, after the initial cost of the study and the development of the computer program, allows each individual agency to obtain the cost data it so desperately needs for a relatively low cost. It appears that the approach taken in this article may also be relevant to the study about to be undertaken by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and would allow them to develop a workable program which could be implemented without disturbing the underlying accounting records of each voluntary agency for which adequate, uniform data is required.