We analytically study how the behaviour of accretion flows changes when the
flow model is varied. We study the transonic properties of the conical flo
w, a flow of constant height and a flow in vertical equilibrium, and show t
hat all these models are basically identical, provided that the polytropic
constant is suitably changed from one model to another. We show that this b
ehaviour is extendible even when standing shocks are produced in the flow.
The parameter space where shocks are produced remains roughly identical in
all these models when the same transformation among the polytropic indices
is used. We present applications of these findings.