You have formed a new sole proprietorship and your primary business is buying and selling fine art. Your business is not publicly traded so you can choose to use the cash basis method or the accrual method for your business. Which would you use and why? Since your business is not publicly traded, is it important for you to prepare journal entries and financial statements? Explain why or why not. Research computer systems methods you can use to record your transactions and create your financial statements.

MSN Money offers information about companies, industries, and related news items. For researching a company, the website is a good place to start gathering basic information. Go to http://moneycentral.msn.com. Pick a large company that does business in your community and view their financial results. For the most recent year list the amounts reported for sales, cost of goods sold, and total net income. Does the amount reported for revenue represent cash received from customers during the year? If not, what does it represent? What does the amount reported for cost of goods sold represent? Is your company a profitable company? How can you tell? Does your company use accrual-based or cash-based accounting? How can you tell?