Many institutions may use identical outcome measures to test their goals and objectives, but this is not required. The number and nature of the outcome measures developed and used by an institution is constrained only by its creativity and its budget. In their accreditation manuals, the associations generally list the kinds of outcome measures that institutions might find useful, being sure to indicate that the list is not exhaustive. Regardless of the outcome measures that are used, two other issues must be recognized. First, it is not sufficient, and indeed may be misleading, for an accountancy program's self-evaluation to take measurements at graduation only, since such an approach ignores the improvement or lack thereof resulting from the specific aspects of the educational experiences provided.
High quality entering students tend to remain high quality when they graduate.
An accountancy program's measurement system must be able to determine if, and where, the accountancy program contributed to an increase in quality from entrance to exit. Second, measurements must be longitudinal. An accountancy program's measurement system should be designed to answer these questions. It is the intent of the associations that outcome measurement programs be ongoing and continuously improving, and, therefore, each institution is expected to design ways to monitor its outcome measurement process. Particular measures may not be working, more may be required, institutional goals and objectives may change, the process may have particular flaws.