The New Youth Entrepreneur: Records and Books. Did You Make Any Money? Module 9.

The New Youth Entrepreneur curriculum is a series of 12 youth-oriented educational modules containing instructional materials, learning activities, and checkup exercises designed to teach students key elements of entrepreneurship. This document is the ninth module, and introduces students to recordkeeping and bookkeeping strategies essential for maintaining a business and for determining if the business is making a profit. The first section explains the importance of maintaining complete records showing the purchase and sale of items and inventories of items to be sold, while the second section focuses on the use of a checkbook as a simple system for tracking the flow of money into and out of a firm, reviewing reasons for keeping a checking account, procedures for using one, and comparing its use to a file card system to record cash disbursements. The third and fourth sections discuss the uses of inventory cards for tracking the amount of money owed to and by the firm, highlighting the importance of maintaining accounts receivable and accounts payable cards and describing the relationship of purchases and sales receipts to inventory cards. The fifth section discusses the use of a simple shoe box to keep records together, while the final section describes the use of the accrual method and cash method for determining if an annual profit was made. (CELCEE, an Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse on Entrepreneurship Education) (MAB)