INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNTING

BY

JOHN A POWELSON, A.B., C.P.A.

AUTHOR OF AUDITING CASES AND QUESTIONS (WITH BELL'S "AUDITING")

KNOWLEDGE
Is BACK
OF ALL
ACHIEVEMENT

PRENTICE-HALL

NEW YORK
PRENTICE-HALL, INC.

7-18-27 13252

FOREWORD

The purpose of this book is to present the introductory principles of accounting and to furnish working material in the form of questions and problems and practice sets which require the application of the theory outlined in the text.

The opening chapter is devoted to illustrating and explaining the use of a simple balance sheet, statement of capital, and profit and loss statement. In subsequent chapters are taught the methods of keeping the accounts so that the ledger may supply properly the detail for financial statements.

Four chapters are given to a detailed discussion of business procedure and forms, including the handling of cash, the purchasing, receiving, storing, and shipping of merchandise, the preparation of sales orders and invoices, and collection methods, as background for the accounting instruction.

The work is carried through the accounting for sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations, and concludes with explanations of how the balance sheet, supplemented with other data, may be used to interpret certain phases of financial condition. A better idea of the scope of this book than can be given here may be obtained from the Outline of Chapters and Practical Work which immediately precedes Chapter I, or from the Table of Contents.

Detailed information in regard to the practical work follows this foreword.

It is a well recognized fact that the one who reads inquisitively learns more rapidly and with greater understanding than the one who accepts what he reads passively and attempts only to store knowledge away. For that reason the narrative is interrupted from time to time with questions such as any student who is giving careful attention to the instruction in a class room might reasonably be expected to ask. The reader will find it interesting to see if the same questions have arisen in his mind.