Standard Form For Reporting The Financial Statistics Of Public Schools Classic Reprint PDF Download

Excerpt from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Vol. 3: Standard Forms for Financial Reports of Colleges, Universities, and Technical Schools The present bulletin is the result of a prolonged inquiry concerning the practice of universities and colleges in the United States in the rendering of public financial statements of their receipts and of their expenditures. It represents also the results of many conferences with the financial officers of colleges and universities, as well as with public accountants and others familiar with the object which such financial statements should serve. Tax-supported institutions are required by law to print an annual detailed statement of their receipts and expenditures. These reports in some cases simply give the list of separate vouchers. While this may have a value in complying with the state law, such reports serve only a limited purpose in showing the actual operations of the institutions concerned. Nevertheless, it is true that the tax-supported institutions have had a real source of strength by reason of this enforced publicity. Among endowed institutions only a small minority publish annual financial statements. The great mass of institutions of higher learning in the United States bearing the name college or university make no public accounting of the disposition of the moneys which they receive. It seems clear that both from the standpoint of its own efficiency no less than from the standpoint of its obligation to the public, every public institution like a college should print annually a report as to the use of the moneys which it has received. It is in the hope of facilitating this public duty, and with the hope further of bringing about some uniformity in these reports, that the present study was undertaken. In its prosecution the effort has continually been made to avoid the complexities of too great detail and to reduce the information which ought to be given to the simplest and most intelligible form. In order to do this it is necessary to know with some definiteness two things:(1) Who are the persons who make use of financial reports from colleges; and(2) What do those who examine such reports wish to ascertain from them.? From the somewhat extended inquiry which has been made it may be stated with definiteness that the reports of the financial officers of colleges are read by very few people, and these may be classified in the following three groups: 1. Trustees, alumni, and friends of the institution who are directly interested in its welfare; 2. Men of means who contemplate gifts to colleges or who have made such gifts; 3. Individuals and agencies like the United States Bureau of Education engaged in a study of educational methods and cost. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.