PRESTO
CALENDAR YEAR
VS. FISCAL YEAR
Argument in Favor of Changing from the
Ancient Custom of Stocktaking in the Busy
Season to the Dull Summer Months.
ARTHUR A. FRIESTEDT'S PLAN
Proposition Is Spreading Throughout Business World
and Not a Word of Dissent Has Been
Heard jn Music Trade.
A great deal of interest is being evinced in the
fiscal year plan proposed by President Arthur A.
Friestedt of the United States Music Company of
Chicago. An outline of the proposition that the time
for closing the annual records of business be changed
from January to June, presents so many arguments
favorable that the industry and trade have been pretty
well aroused and the discussion has become nation-
wide.
Mr. Friestedt has put his views into concise form
and has issued a folder setting forth his plan and
he has caused copies of the folder to be mailed to the
entire music industry. What he says is of so much
importance and of such general interest, that it is
' here reproduced in its entirety.
. Calendar vs. Fiscal Year.
In pursuing the ancient custom of taking inventory
and closing the business year on December 31st, I
believe members of the Music Industries are not only
ignorant of the fact that the U. S. Internal Revenue
permits taxpayers to choose a more convenient time,
but they also have failed to consider the unnecessary
expense entailed, or the adverse economic effect of
paralyzing trade at the height of the best business
season.
There are no plausible reasons for closing the busi-
ness year on December 31st, other than tradition, or
the fact that so and so, prominent in other trades, do
it. We of the Music Industries must think for our-
selves and the first consideration, the most funda-
mental condition of all, is that we cannot administer
our business in defiance of the seasons.
We all agree the Summer months are dullest in a
trade way; that all music stocks are abnormally low
and that it is the ideal season for vacations, but it
seemingly has not occurred to most of us, that this
period is the most propitious for taking inventory and
terminating the business year, too.
An Archaic Custom.
We have unwittingly preferred to disturb and
disrupt the period about New Years, by turning from
productive pursuits to the profitless occupations of
closing books, taking and cutting down stocks, can-
celling orders that will be needed and generally mis-
directing our energies, to accomplish nothing short
of artificially creating a trade condition, that should
exist during no other season but the Summer. Think
of the cost of this archaic custom. Imagine the ex-
pense of diverting the productive help of this big
industry into unproductive channels—the losses sus-
tained by manufacturers, whose travelers are forced
to take vacations when trade conditions should be
most prosperous.
Abolish this antiquated, costly practice; consign it
to oblivion—it never has served a useful purpose.
The economic waste entailed is appalling. Change
your accounting period from the calendar year to a
fiscal year. If you don't like June 30th, which our
company has used for four years and are proposing,
as a uniform date for adoption by the entire trade,
QUALITY
in Name and in Fact
TONE, MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTION,
WORKMANSHIP, DESIGN—all in ac-
cord with the broadest experience—are
the elements which give character to
Bush & Lane Products.
BUSH&LANE PIANOS
BUSH & LANE CECILIAN PLAYER PIANOS
take high place, therefore, in any com-
parison of high grade pianos because of
the individuality of character which dis-
tinguishes them in all essentials of merit
and value.
BUSH ft LANE PIANO CO.
Holland, Mich.
select your own date in one of the Summer months
when your stocks are lowest and business is dullest.
Slaves of Tradition.
I want to see the entire industry abandon the cal-
endar year basis of accounting, for then the maximum
advantages and benefits can be attained.
Everyone doesn't have to adopt a fiscal year; how-
ever, I can assure those who do that they'll not only
have a decided trade advantage over the slaves to
tradition, especially about New Years when their pro-
ductive efforts will be unfettered, but that they'll
never resume a calendar business year, after they
have experienced the convenience of taking inventory
during a dull Summer month when their stocks are
lowest.
When the United States Music Company accounted
on the calendar year basis, we not only had to para-
lyze our operations, so that everything would be more
susceptible of inventorying, but convert our sales
force and everyone productively engaged into clerks,
to minimize the agony as much as possible.
We used to look forward to December 31st as
nothing short of an annual calamity. No one could
really enjoy the Holidays—everybody had to help
close our business year. Since we adopted our fiscal
year ending June 30th, the situation has been noth-
ing short of paradise by comparison. Any proposal
to go back to a calendar business year would incite
rebellion in our institution.
U. S. Revenue Form.
On the back of this pamphlet there appears a fac-
simile reproduction of both sides of U. S. Internal
Revenue Form No. 1128, entitled "Application for
Change in Accounting Period," which fully explains
all steps necessary to change from a calendar to a
fiscal year. Your local Collector of Internal Revenue
will supply these on request.
I have had four years' personal experience with a
fiscal business year and fourteen years with the cal-
endar variety in the Music Industries. I heartily com-
mend the former to your serious consideration. I
know it will prove of inestimable value individually
and an economic boon to the entire industry, if uni-
versally adopted.
My sole aspiration is to help and improve condi-
tions in our industry, through advocating a method
that has proven 100 per cent efficient in four years of
practical application. I will be pleased to answer any
questions or make clearer whatever may be in doubt.
Economic Advantages.
No one will deny the substantial advantage to
business in Mr. Friestedt's plan of a fiscal year. It
is self-evident. The waste of time and consequent
loss of business, by the old way, to the music trade,
in all of its departments, must have been impressed
upon every house that has done business enough to
create value for time at all. It interferes with piano
shipments because, at the very busiest time of the
year, the factories must slow down, or even shut
down, while the unprofitable routine of stock taking
proceeds. And to a greater or less extent the same
thing applies to the retailers.
"We have got to hammer the trade persistently
with the advantages of this fiscal year plan," said
Mr. Friestedt to a Presto representative "and we are
going so far as to appropriate all of our advertising
spaces in the trade papers to its exploitation. We
have already undertaken considerable expense to
promote it, however, in digressing from the custom
of using such space for selfish interests, that, besides
establishing a precedent, we will not only shock the
entire trade with its economic importance, but em-
phasize our sincerity, too."
This very substantial proof of the earnestness with
which Mr. Friestedt is pursuing the matter of a
change from calendar to fiscal year, is seen in the
fact to which he refers—that the trade paper ad-
vertising of the U. S. Music Company is for the time
being devoted to the advantages of a fiscal business
year and will continue so for several months. The
present is the most opportune time to stimulate in-
terest in it, for if June 30th, or another date in a dull
Summer month is chosen, action must be taken by
the taxpayer, not later than thirty days previous to
the date contemplated.
No Argument Against It.
Mr. Friestedt adds that he has yet to hear an ar-
gument against the fiscal year plan. Everyone agrees
it is ideal and, then again, its adoption entails neither
investment, expense nor inconvenience of any kind.
"We have got to combat an archaic custom," he said,
"and advantageous as the plan appears, I neverthe-
ness feel that the subject has got to be persistently
stressed in order to get this industry to abandon the
calendar year accounting period. We are creatures
of habit, but with so many advantages to recom-
mend its adoption, I feel sure that our efforts will be
rewarded."
All who have.commented .upon Mr. Friestedt's plan
are high in praise of the fiscal year proposal and the
method of drawing attention to it, in the advertising
pages, is so radically different from conventional cus-
tom as to attract more attention than if the publicity
was solely confined to the bodies of the trade papers.
All of the trade papers have expressed an unusu-
ally cordial interest in Mr. Friestedt's efforts to ad-
vance his plan and it is certain that with consistent
co-operation real headway can be made with a view
to having an appreciable percentage of the trade
February 16, 1924.
Cincinnati Factories of The Baldwin Piano Company
SUCCESS
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Incorporated
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HEPPE PIANO COMPANY
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When in doubt refer to
PRESTO BUYERS GUIDE
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