The broad objectives of accounting are threefold: (1) To provide relevent and understandable data concerning the financial affairs of an enterprise to external parties such as investors and creditors; (2) To provide relevant data for decision making by the managers of the enterprise; and (3) To faciliate the broad socio-ecnomic operations of organized society such as taxation, labor management relations, regulation of commerce, environmental planning and control. This paper focuses primarily on the first objectives. The main purpose of this paper is to outline the underlying structure of financial accounting in the United States. Since accounting data are of such significance to investors, managements, employees, consumers, creditors, government administrators, and others, it is imperative that the accounting process be based on a sound theoretical foundation. Confidence in, and reliance on, accounting data are directly related to the usefulness, objectivity, feasibility, and accuracy of these data. To have confidence in financial statements, readers must have an unequivacal basis for assuming that such statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted standards and procedures consistent with the broad objectives of accounting. The broad structure of accounting theory is outlined below. Each of the four basic categories are defined followed by an exposition of each of the related subconcepts. 1. Fundamental underlying assumptions: (1) The separate-entity assumption (2) The continuity assumption (3) The unit-of-measure assumption (4) The time-period assumption 2. Fundamental theoretical concepts: (1) The entity theory (2) The proprietary theory (3) The funds theory 3. Generally accepted accounting principles: (1) The cost principle (2) The revenue principle (3) The matching principle (4) The objectivity principle (5) The consistency principle (6) The full-disclosure principle (7) The exception principle a. Materiality b. Conservatism c. Industry peculiarities 4. Accounting procedures (1) Those related to income determination (2) Those related to presentation of data (3) These not affecting eitherincome determination or the presentation of dataThe fundamental underlying assumptions are broad yet specific aspects of the total environment in which accounting normally operates, and they are of direct significance in relationship to the broad spectrum of the objectives of accounting. The underlying assumptions do not include all aspects of the environment but only those significant ones that directly affect and in large part determine the underlying theoretical concepts and foundations of generally accepted principles. The fundamental theoretical concepts are broad notions relating to the underlying financial structure of a business enterprise. They are concerned with the thecretical nature of the accounting entities that operate in free economy characterized by private ownership of properts. Thus these concepts-the entity theory, the proprietary theory, and the funds theory are concerned with a theoretical explanation of the equities currently organized in the business environment, and the manner in which the accounting therefore should be carried out fundamentally. They are not concerned with techniques but with the basic problem of defining accounting entities, thereby providing a phiosophical basis for the general prilnciples of accounting. The term generally accepted accounting principles is used widely in discussions of accounting theory and with considerable variation as to meaning. In this paper, the term is used very broadly and in a pragmatic sense rather than in a narrow theoretical sense. Accordingly, generally accepted accounting principles are defined for our considerations to include those broad rules of accounting action developed and accepted by the accounting profession in conformity with the objectives of accounting, the fundamental underlying assumpt