This book explores the role of accountants in business and society. The final work of Louis Goldberg, Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne, it aims to raise awareness of the existence and importance of fundamental issues that are often ignored or by-passed in contemporary discussion of accounting. The sixteen chapters assess exactly what accountants do in carrying out their work.This work will make essential reading for scholars or historians of accounting, and will also interest philosophers and practicing accountants.
Author(s): Louis Goldberg
Edition: 1
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 352
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
Editor's foreword......Page 8
Background......Page 10
Introductory overview......Page 12
'Accounting' and the activities of accountants......Page 17
Approaches......Page 37
Classification......Page 47
Accounting as a field of knowledge......Page 55
Perceptions and concepts......Page 70
The unit of experience......Page 72
Communication......Page 79
Units of activity occurrences and ventures......Page 103
Relationships......Page 126
The unit of operation and the notion of command......Page 141
A dissection of decisions......Page 156
Relevance and reason in decision-making......Page 180
Constraints......Page 210
The accounting equation reconsidered......Page 212
Double entry an assessment......Page 224
The overworked balance sheet......Page 271
Loosening shackles......Page 312
Which way? Challenges and the task ahead......Page 314
Bibliography......Page 334
Index......Page 340
