Musical compositions, such as the one just heard , Thus Sprake Zarthurstra, by Strauss, present a picture of a natural situation as a pattern of notes through tone, vibration and tempo.

And painting, such as the one by Gaugin, describes a human situation through color, composition and perspective.

Organizations present a picture of their situation through accounting reports. After all, we have been told that accounting is the language of business.

The annual report provides information to outsiders. Internal accounting reports guide, measure progress and set the course of business activity. Like Strauss and Gaugin we want to answer the questions Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? However, accounting reports are expressed as a pattern of numbers representing revenues, costs and activities. This course is concerned with the production and interpretation of cost data.

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