Salient features of an ideal accounting system for a retail bookstore

The amount of business done by a retail book store is generally sufficient to warrant the expenditure of the time required to keep the books by the double entry system as explained in all books on bookkeeping. This system furnishes a means of analyzing the business transactions not possessed by any other system. In order that the proprietor may know just where he stands financially at the end of each month he should prepare or have prepared for him a balance sheet. This statement shows the assets, liabilities and capital as at the close of business on the last day of the month. When the books are properly kept an increase or decrease in the proprietorship or capital account as compared with the preceding month will reflect the profitableness or unprofitableness on the undertaking for the month. If the results shown indicate that the present policy is yielding a good profit, the proprietor has nothing to worry about on the one hand, but if the results obtained from operations are not what they should be, the proprietor knows that he should look around for ways and means with which to make a better showing