Credits from the Viewpoint of the Certified Public Accountant. Determination of the Net Profit of the Panama Canal. Francis 181 Dividends, May Premiums from Sales of Capital Stock be Used for? 357 English, Accountants and the Use of. A. L. Philbrick 260 366 Farm Accounting Methods, Income Tax Law and. W. B. Finlay 47 276 Financial Plan or Budget for the National Government. Harvey Getting the Office Work Done. Harold Dudley Greeley 13 342 156 Holding Companies, The Statement of Accounts of. Herbert C. Freeman .... 157 Income Tax Department, Edited by John B. Niven 57-130-214-305-377-465 .. PAGE Income Tax Law and Farm Accounting Methods. W. B. Finlay 47 B. Geijsbeek 30 Institute of Chartered Accountants of Manitoba 155 120 Inventories, Relation of the Auditor to Valuation of. W. Ernest Kansas City School of Accountancy, Law and Finance Louisiana State Board of Accountants .196-333 405 239 83 406 Office Work Done, Getting the. Harold Dudley Greeley 406 406 238 82 270 405 151 342 82 Panama Canal, Determination of the Net Profit of the. Francis Payroll Distribution on Construction Work. Leslie H. Allen President, Report of. Robert H. Montgomery Public Accountant and the Credit Man, The. Joel Hunter 181 38 357 241 I 357 Relation of the Auditor to Valuation of Inventories. W. Ernest ...196-333 Reorganization Plans for an Irrigation District, Bondholders'. Returnable Package in Accounts, Treatment of the. Wilhelm Jen- Statement of Accounts of Holding Companies, The. Herbert C. 157 Students' Department, Edited by Seymour Walton 64-134-220-316-380-471 109 Taxes as Deferred Debits. Oscar B. Thayer 114 Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants 238 PAGE Treatment of the Returnable Package in Accounts. Wilhelm Jen- sen 118 Tulane University, School of Commerce at 239 Valuation of Inventories, Relation of the Auditor to. W. Ernest ... 196-333 Value of an Audited Statement, The. A. G. Moss 455 470 The credit men of the United States constitute a large and important group of the business men of this country. The art of successfully extending credit is crystallizing into a profession. Public accountants believe that they can be of great service to credit men, and it is the purpose of this article to look into the matter informatively, to the end that the reader may perceive how best the public accountant may serve and generally assist credit men. In order to get a correct understanding of how credit men view the public accountants, the writer of this paper communicated with the president and secretary of each credit men's association of the United States- at least with all those reported in the Bulletin, the organ of the National Association of Credit Men. About 175 letters were sent out, of which the following is a copy: For the purpose of contributing to and probably creating additional sources of information for the credit man, THE JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTANCY of New York has requested the signer to write a paper on The Relation of the Public Accountant to the Credit Man. In order that the paper may be of much practical value, you are courteously requested to express your opinion briefly as to how best the accountant may assist and serve the credit man. The number of answers received was surprising and the tenor of these answers most interesting. To the 175 letters sent out, sixty-two replies have been received. About ten courteously excused themselves from answering on the ground that they were not competent to do so. The remaining fifty-two replies were carefully diagrammed and a digest made of them. Each opinion was treated as a unit. For example, if the credit man replied that in his opinion the accountant could best serve him by getting out a correct balance sheet of the firm desiring credit, this opinion is treated as a unit in this digest and the results incorporated herein. It so happened, as might be expected, that the consensus of opinion was in favor of a certified balance sheet; but there are other thoughts outlined by the credit men, and if we accountants have considered them before, we might well be reminded of them again, because they are not only interesting, but useful. The same general principles of business activities, business experience, or the lack of it, are applicable to all parts of the United States. Thus one man in South Dakota writes that, speaking from the experience of the firm with which he is associated, they have not found the services of a public accountant useful, because the individuals and firms with whom they do business are as a rule too small to need an accountant. Practically the same thing was written by a Tennessee credit man. It may be suggested, though, to both these gentlemen, that if some of our enterprising accountants had an opportunity to open up and examine this subject for such small merchants, they might view it differently. If, as has been well defined, "a public accountant is a person skilled in the affairs of commerce and finance and particularly in the accounts relating thereto," it would seem that he would be most helpful to the credit man. Whatever accountants themselves may think about their scope of usefulness to the credit man and what part of their duties would be most useful to him, the following list illustrates what credit men think: The representatives of twenty-four credit men's associations thought that the accountant's services could best be used by getting him to certify to the debtor's balance sheet. Next, the representatives of twenty-one credit men's associations thought that the accountant could best serve the credit man by devising appropriate systems of account. The others replied that the accountants would be of value for the following functions: Business advisor ΙΟ Ascertaining collectibility of notes and accounts |