ABSTRACT
The subject is 'The Development of Cost Accounting towards Budgetary Control'. We are going to get straight away on to business, and ask these three gentlemen to say what they wish to say, and then the discussion will be open for as many as possible to take part. The title would suggest that cost accounting has been, and possibly is still, in the process of development and in that process has moved, or been attracted, from the original position it occupied, towards budgetary control. If you will permit an analogy of the tenses-past, present and future-the old-fashioned accounts showed what had actually happened, the modern cost accounts should show what is really happening, and budget accounts should show what is likely to happen. The Cost Accountant cannot be said to control a business from his cost accounts, as usually the control is vested in others, and his job finishes when he has presented his picture.
