According to a significant European school of accounting thought, accounts better fulfil the purposes of accountability if they are grounded in organizational or administrative viewpoints. When accounting is seen as a subfield of the organizational-administrative (managerial) framework, then accounts can be examined in the light of various theories that date back almost a century. Some administrative and organizational theories of accounts are concisely analysed here after a short presentation of their original ideas, since they have been mostly unknown in the Anglo-American accounting world.