Excerpt from The Fundamentals of Accounting What the Accountant Edits. Just as the editor must get into the hands Of the public at frequent intervals information with regard to the news Of the world or with regard to some special field Of activity or learning, SO the accountant must get into the hands of the business man at reasonably frequent intervals such informa tion as has: been 'enumerated. Usually there are several persons in the employ Of a business whose task 15 in part to prepare informa tion for the general manager, but usually such information 15 either not in the particular shape most useful for the manager or is not SO correlated with other information as to bring out the larger facts that the manager needs to know. It is the task Of the accountant to put the information in the desired Shape and to correlate various kinds Of information, or, as we commonly say, edit the informa tion. Because the accountant must prepare information for the general manager or other Officer, he usually occupies a more or less confidential position, and Often is a vice-president of a corporation. He must have the knack Of preparing information in shape for use by others, he must have sufficient imagination to see what sort Of information the various officials will desire, and he must have sufficient power Of analysis to see how to get the sort Of information that will enable the operating Officers Of the business to tie up the various parts Of the business with each other and with the outside business world and he should provide them with such information even if they have not realized the need Of such par ticular information. It is his task, in a sense, to foresee what information about the business will be later required and to see that such information will be available at the proper time. He must anticipate the need for information, SO that he may have his lines laid before the occurrence Of the event, for the procurement Of that information as soon as the event happens. This is just the task Of the editor Of a newspaper or a magazine, for he not only tells people what they already wish to know, but he gives them what they are glad to know, though they had not previously known that they needed to know it. 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.