This article presents a comment on the study of the audit staff assignment problem in the U.S. The use of quantitative models in the solution of accounting problems has been criticized for their simplistic objective functions, e.g. maximize profit, minimize cost. Goal programming provides an obvious improvement for those problems previously solved via other linear optimizing models. One would expect it to replace linear programming formulations in a short time as it will accommodate each of the prior formulations with the added potential of multiple ranked goals.

This paper provides a brief review of the salient economic, behavioral and quantitative literature in accounting and transfer pricing. Further, it relates this review to a relatively new programming formulation, suggesting the greater descriptive implications potential inherent in the new technique generalized goal decomposition programming. The paper does not develop new ideas, but attempts to relate existing material in a manner that will bring the reader's attention to the potential of the mathematical programming models in hierarchical organizations. The expanding literature in this area clearly is deserving of attention as it provides a means by which the behavioral and algorithmic approaches to resource transfer problems may be integrated. It is a step in the direction of models integration and thus, a step toward more realistic mathematical formulation of the decision-making environment. One rely on the scholar T. Ruefli model in this presentation as it provided a relatively easily explained formulation. Interested readers will find on pursuing this literature, that certain of the Ruefli limitations have been overcome in alternative algorithms.