Time or service?;

              ATLANTA
BALTIMORE HASKINS & SELLS PHILADELPHIA
PITTSBURGH
BOSTON CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS PORTLAND
BUFFALO PROVIDENCE
CHICAGO SAINT LOUIS
CINCINNATI SALT LAKE CITY
CLEVELAND BULLETIN SAN FRANCISCO
DALLAS SEATTLE
DENVER TULSA
DETROIT WATERTOWN
KANSAS CITY LOS ANGELES
MINNEAPOLIS
NEWARK HAVANA
LONDON
PARIS
NEW ORLEANS E X E C U T I V E OFFICES SHANGHAI
NEW YORK HASKINS & SELLS BUILDING
37 WEST 39TH ST., NEW YORK
VOL. VI NEW YORK, JULY, 1923 No. 7
Time or Service?
A DISCRIMINATING sense of value
might prompt any business man who
retains a public accountant to inquire with
due propriety as to what he may expect to
receive in exchange for the liability which
he incurs. The answer to the query is
likely to depend on the concept of accoun­tancy
held by the. public accountant to
whom the question might be put.
The claim is made for accountancy that
it is a profession. This being so, it is re­quired
of practitioners that they shall be
persons of education, training and experi­ence,
possess skill in the matter of account­ing,
and offer their services to the public.
Unlike some other professions, whose
members charge for what they do, the
compensation of public accountants has
come to be based largely on time and rates.
The future will doubtless see fees deter­mined
by the amount of knowledge and
judgment required, skill displayed, and the
importance of the service rendered in the
execution of an engagement. Today, un­fortunately,
time is accorded too much con­sideration
by both parties to the engage­ment.
Who will say that accountants' services,
of bona-fide high type, resulting in a gain
to a client of three-quarters of a million
dollars, are justly compensated by a fee
which, calculated on a time basis, amounts
to five or six thousand dollars? On the
other hand, who can fail to sympathize
with a client who is charged twenty thou­sand
dollars for time consumed in work
the judgment in doing which is open to
serious question?
The accountant who sells time is treading
on dangerous ground. He is getting out of
the professional field into the province of
trade, which makes scant distinction be­tween
time and commodities. Labor,
without casting any reflection thereon,
takes account largely of time and is actu­ated
by the motive of wage. The laborer
may be worthy of his hire, but it is not ex­pected
of him that he will possess or apply
the qualifications essential to the practice
of a profession.
The word service admittedly has been
overworked, but its significance applies
none the less to accountancy. The time-consuming
processes of verifying unim-