Turning toward the peak;

              ATLANTA HASKINS & SELLS PHILADELPHIA
BBOASLTTOIMNO RE CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS PPOITRTSTLBAUNRDG H
BUFFALO SAINT LOUIS
CHICAGO SALT LAKE CITY
CINCINNATI SAN FRANCISCO
CLEVELAND BULLETIN SEATTLE
DALLAS TULSA
DENVER WATERTOWN
DETROIT KANSAS CITY
LOS ANGELES
MINNEAPOLIS HAVANA
LONDON
PARIS
NEW ORLEANS EXECUTIVE OFFICES SHANGHAI
NEW YORK HASKINS & SELLS BUILDING
37 WEST 39TH ST.. NEW YORK
VOL. V NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 15, 1922 No. 2
Turning Toward the Peak
THE graphist pictures the course of a
movement with a line which shows
the ups and downs. The high points he
calls peaks; the low points, valleys.
Accountancy practice is described by a
line of peaks and valleys. The movement
downward is accentuated during the
summer months. The high point is
reached in the winter around the latter
part of February or the early part of
March.
It would be an inestimable boon to pub­lic
accountants were the volume of prac­tice
to be so distributed throughout the
year that comparatively speaking there
would be no pronounced peaks and valleys.
Much in this direction could be accom­plished
if some plan were to be devised
which would cause certain business con­cerns
to adopt a fiscal year more in keeping
with their business operations, or what
has been called the natural business year.
It would help some if certain clients
whose work may be done in summer as
well as in winter would only elect to have
their work done during the less busy
season. It has even been suggested that
accountants might advantageously offer
some inducement in the form of lower
rates to clients who could see the advan­tage
of such procedure.
At the present time, however, the ac­countant
is confronted with a condition,
not a theory. For various reasons, en­gagements
pile up one on top of the other
from now until the latter part of April.
The stress and strain become more acute
as the season advances. By the middle
of February it is scarcely safe to ask an
accountant the simplest question and
expect to receive a pleasant reply. And
every year the situation seems, if possible,
to grow worse.
There appears to be but one way to
meet the situation as long as it cannot be
changed and has to be met, namely, to
enlarge one's psychological viewpoint and
prepare to endure what one apparently
cannot cure; to endure it and meet it by
a process of training as it were: by getting
into good physical as well as mental trim
for the work of the busy season; by con­centrating
on one's professional work to
the exclusion, for the time being, of other
things; by studying ways and means of
increasing efficiency and doing two things
in the time which one ordinarily should
take.