ABSTRACT
In attempting to draw a profile of the accountant in industry in the United States it seems desirable to first review briefly the development of industrial accounting and consider the place it occupies to-day in the American industrial enterprise. Against this background the accountant in industry takes on perspective and emerges in more definite form. The work of the cost accountant usually leaned more heavily on accounting than on engineering techniques and, as a result, the use of job order costs and allocated historical costs came into prominence. However, all during this period a limited but growing number of accountants continued the development of the standard cost or engineering approach to industrial accounting. With industry operating at high levels of output so essential to mass production enterprises and with competition ever present, the costing concepts of the accountant can have far-reaching effects on the successful operations of his company.
