Principles of Accountancy (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Principles of Accountancy

Several considerations prompted in the publication of this book. To begin with, it has long appeared that the governing principles of accountancy - which in most bookkeeping texts are scattered about with other matter in various parts of the books - could be gathered in one volume, and topically labeled and indexed, for the convenience both of the student and of the bookkeeper. To thus arrange the essential principles within the limits of a book of less than two hundred pages, has been a lengthy and perplexing, but on the whole, a satisfactory task. It is believed, with this book, that a student may refer as readily to any governing principle of accountancy, as a bookkeeper may refer to a ledger account.

Again, the study of bookkeeping - though of great practical importance under any conditions - can be made much more direct in its application, by the selection of practical sets, based upon the kinds of business or industry prevalent in the locality where the subject is taught, or that may be of personal interest to the student.

Having placed the principles of accountancy in a small separate volume, we are enabled to prepare, by the unit plan, practice sets that severally afford a business routine which will directly familiarize the student with the commodities, processes, and trade conditions prevailing in any one of the hundred or more classified lines of business or organized interests. These units are graded, and can be selected from "The American Bookkeeping Series," for which this book is the reference in accountancy matters.

The division of bookkeeping sets into graded units, based on the principles of accountancy, has another advantage. Under some local conditions, or at certain stages of progress in the same class-room, problem work, without business papers, is preferable. Under other conditions or at other times, work with outgoing and incoming papers is better.