The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-08-09
HE most important part of

H9Ng1 business, large or small,
lNNy is its system of book
keeping. This statement, unquali-
fed as it is, may seem trife radi-
cal. One says: Without sales there
is no business; therefore the sales
organization is the most important
part of the entire business. Anoth-
er may say: Without the purchase
or manufacture of the products
dealt in there would be no sales
force; therefore the buying end of
the business is the most important.
Still third party may say: With
out finances goods cannot be
bought nor manufactured; neither
can sales be made; therefore the
financing of the business is the
most important part of its opera
ton.
Throughout the operation of the
entire business, the financing is
relatively the most important of
the three phases named. 1t re-
quires capital to launch business
project, to buy its wares and to
make its sales. Without initial
capital we can have no business
and state of no business elimin-
ates the necessity of keeping books
for the very reason that there is no
bookkeeping to be done. Yet, after
the inception of a business, the
bookkeeping leads the financing
and therefore all the other phases
of the business in importance.
In going business no new fnan-
cling can be done safely without the
books of the business having been
kept up to date and thoroughly
authentic. The fnancier cannot
turn wheel safely until be has
the reports of the business in hand.
He cannot safely make move be-
cause he does not know the best
move to make, how far to 60 nor in
what direction to exert his energy
until he has the complete statement
of the business at a given time and
statement of its activity during
given period. These he can obtain
only from the properly kept rec
ords of the business.
Bookkeeping is, briefly, the SCI
ence of recording the transactions
of a business in systematic, his
torical form. The word ''histori-
cal'' is used in broad way for the
reason that, while good accounting
results in the making of a complete
history of the business as whole,
the very nature Of the science is
such that a history of each trans
action, complete in its part, goes
into the compilation of the history
of the business as a whole: and
inasmuch as reference must be
made to the various transactions
at unexpected times the record
must be so made as to permit of
easy access to the particular trans
action under discussion. So the
history of any business is primari-
ly disjointed but these facts
can be so brought together, and
tabulated that statement of the
activity of the business over any
given length of time will comprise
history of the business as whole
covering that time. These state.
ments, taken from the books OF
the business, consecutively and al
various times, can be merged into
one with the result that this last
statement will be a summary OF
the detailed history of the business
since its beginning.
The salesman has an appoint
ment at specified time. The buy.
er and the financier each has the
same. To meet their respective
appointments on time a time piece
is necessary. Just as the clock
tells the time of day so does the
accounting of a business tell its
condition.