With the publication last fall of its Uniform Accounting Manual, the California Hospital Association had completed years of preparation and had developed a statewide program of uniform accounting for its hospitals—the first in the United States. It is, then, to California that those states which are planning similar programs or that have limited-scale accounting programs now will look with an observant and careful eye. California's future experience with the system will doubtlessly have heavy influence on whether other states emulate—or reject—the uniform accounting concept.Meanwhile, with the program just getting underway, CHA accounting consultant G. Harvey Long explains below to TOPICS readers the development of the system and what it's expected to do.