Description
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. They are structured in four central parts, addressing: * Historical context and background considerations. * The most important perceptions and concepts that govern the main functions of accountants. * The constraints of current orthodox accounting endeavour, including an examination of the tripodal cluster of expressions of current orthodox accounting behaviour: the fundamental accounting equation, the procedure of double entry and the balance sheet. * The extent to which advances in recent decades can be applied to the search for answers to the problems that have arisen, and the future challenges which face accounting. The work concludes by posing a challenge to future accountants: the author suggests the possibility of developing a structure of accounting with the requisite strength and flexibility to face whatever changes lie ahead. Essential reading for scholars or historians of accounting, this work will also interest philosophers and practicing accountants.
