Business accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Business accounting - Essay Example Methodologies Used A preliminary literature study enables a research to get a feel of the topic to be covered (Goddard & Melville 2007: 19). Thus, secondary research has been undertaken after the identification of the research topic and the specific industry to focus on. The researcher has utilised textbooks written by renowned experts in the field of accounting for the purpose of gathering information that would be confirmed or negated in the later part of the research when the interviews with selected parties have been concluded and the results thereof have been orderly put together. After doing some secondary research, the particulars of the enterprise to be made subject of the research were next planned out. Finding the right enterprise was, indeed, a challenge that had to be dealt with. After all, managers or owners of business enterprises are usually the kind of people who are busy and are keen on never wasting their time on unimportant things. They also are likely to turn down the proposition to have their enterprises covered in a research paper such as this, especially if they see that it offers them no personal or commercial advantage. (Saunders, etc. 2007: 5) Requests that interviews be granted were sent and upon obtaining such permission, the researcher next worked on composing the questions to be asked. It has been established that in the conduct of interviews, a researcher must keep in mind what it is like to be in the shoes of the subjects interviewed (Andrews 2003: 1). Doing this would serve as an effective way to check on the quality of questions asked and the manner in which they are asked. Only relevant questions must be asked and a polite manner must be consistently adopted throughout the interview. These inputs from relevant sources have served to guide the researcher throughout the interviewing processes that had to be carried out as an integral part of this research. Interview answers - which represent data gathered from primary sources - then had to be compared with the information gathered from the textbooks - which, in turn, represent data from secondary sources. Similarities and differences were processed to get to findings and to deliver the results of this research. Results The subject of the research is one of the small-sized diners of London that is called "Sunday Diners." Located in the busy district of the city, it caters to college students and young professionals who drop by for quick meals or drinks on their way to school or to work. The diner's accountant and owner both graciously consented to be interviewed as their unique way to contribute to an important school project of one of their regular customers - the researcher. The latter undertook the interview procedures by visiting the diner during its less hectic hours for a week. The accountant, Miss Elizabeth Jones, maintains the books all by herself. She does the cash register, the cash disbursement register, the journal voucher, the general ledger an d summarizes them all monthly through the generated financial statements - the balance sheet, the income statement and the statement of changes in cash position. As if she does not yet have her hands full, Miss Jones also takes care of the subsidiary ledgers for both the accounts receivable and accounts payable of the diner. It is a good thing that the bank reconciliation statement does not anymore have to get in the way of adjusted cash balances. This is