Uniform system of accounts for mutual service companies and subsidiary service companies
Originally published by: United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Abstract
The accompanying "Uniform System of Accounts" for mutual service and subsidiary service companies represents the first step in the development of uniformity in accounting in a field where quite diverse practices have prevailed. In approaching the problem of standardizing accounting procedure among the group of companies for which this system is designed, it is observed that there arc important differences in the types of and the extent to which service is rendered, in the form of the operating organization that has been developed in the several systems, in the departmentalization of such organizations and in the functions to which the activities of the departments are directed. It has been the Commission's task to provide a system comprehensive enough to cover the field, yet elastic enough to permit adaptation to varying requirements; a system which, faithfully applied, will provide information essential in the administration of section 13 of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, will be workable and reasonably simple from an operating viewpoint, and free from unnecessary complexities or burdensome requirements which might render it incompatible with the interests of investors and consumers.