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Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
viii Contents

Loan Amortization Schedule 112 Chapter 7 Practice 180

What-If Analysis and the Payment Function 114 Questions 180
Names in a Worksheet 115 Assignments 180
Present Value and Bonds 117 Case Problem 1: Kelly’s Boutique 181
Bond Amortization Schedule 119 Case Problem 2: Wine Depot 183
What-If Analysis and Goal Seeking 121 Case Problem 3: Snick’s Board Shop 184
Scenario Manager 123 Case Problem 4: Rosey’s Roses 185
Monthly Periods 126
End Note 128
Chapter 5 Practice 129
Part 2 Access for Accounting 187
Questions 129 Chapter 8 Access Tour 189
Assignments 129
Case Problem 1: Kelly’s Boutique 130 Case: What SUP, Inc. 189
Case Problem 2: Wine Depot 131 Understanding Access’s Capabilities
Case Problem 3: Snick’s Board Shop 132 and New Features 189
Case Problem 4: Rosey’s Roses 133 Starting, Navigating, and Working
with Access Files 190
Chapter 6 Cash Budgeting 134 Getting Access Help 195
Examples of How Access Is Used
Case: What SUP, Inc. 134
in Accounting 196
Operating Activities Budget 134
End Note 199
Sales Budget 135
Chapter 8 Practice 200
Operating Cash Receipts Budget 137
Questions 200
Purchases Budget 139
Operating Cash Payments for Purchases 141 Chapter 9 Access Basics 201
Sales and Administrative Expenses Budget 143
Operating Cash Payments Budget 144 Case: What SUP, Inc. 201
Investing and Financing Activities Budgets 146 Tables 201
Finalizing and Formatting the Cash Budget 147 Creating the Product Table 202
Using What-If Analysis and Goal Seeking Creating the Supplier Table 204
with the Cash Budget 153 Creating a Category Table 205
End Note 154 Entering Data into Tables 206
Chapter 6 Practice 155 Establishing Table Relationships 207
Questions 155 Printing Tables 210
Assignments 155 Queries 211
Case Problem 1: Kelly’s Boutique 157 Creating a Query 211
Case Problem 2: Wine Depot 158 Printing a Query 213
Case Problem 3: Snick’s Board Shop 159 Forms 213
Case Problem 4: Rosey’s Roses 160 Creating a Form 214
Using a Form to View, Edit, or Add Information 215
Chapter 7 Other Topics: Present/ Printing a Form 216
Future Values, Predicting Reports 216
Costs, and Allowance for Creating a Report 217
Uncollectible Accounts 162 Editing a Report 219
Printing a Report 222
Case: What SUP, Inc. 162 End Note 223
Present/Future Value Analysis 162 Chapter 9 Practice 224
Predicting Future Costs 171 Questions 224
Calculating an Allowance for Uncollectible Assignments 224
Accounts 176 Case Problem 1: Kelly’s Boutique 226
End Note 179 Case Problem 2: Wine Depot 228

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 Contents ix

Case Problem 3: Snick’s Board Shop 230 Chapter 11 Practice 299

Case Problem 4: Rosey’s Roses 232 Questions 299
Assignments 299
Chapter 10 Tables 234
Case Problem 1: Kelly’s Boutique 301
Case: What SUP, Inc. 234 Case Problem 2: Wine Depot 304
Add, Change, and Delete Records 234 Case Problem 3: Snick’s Board Shop 305
Add Records 235 Case Problem 4: Rosey’s Roses 306
Change Records 236
Chapter 12 Forms 310
Delete Records 236
Add a Picture with an OLE Field 237 Case: What SUP, Inc. 310
Add an OLE Field to a Table 238 Labels and Text Box controls 310
Add Pictures to the Table 239 List Box and Combo Box Controls 313
Change the Structure of a Database 240 List Box Control 314
Change a Field Size, Row Height, Column Width, Combo Box Control 316
and Data Type 241 Calculated Controls 319
Create Validation Rules 244 Check Box Control 323
Create Default Values 247 Special Combo Box Control 326
Create Formats and Input Masks 248 Subforms 331
Referential Integrity 252 Printing a Form 334
Documenting a Database 255 Documenting a Form 335
End Note 258 End Note 336
Chapter 10 Practice 259 Chapter 12 Practice 337
Questions 259 Questions 337
Assignments 259 Assignments 337
Case Problem 1: Kelly’s Boutique 260 Case Problem 1: Kelly’s Boutique 338
Case Problem 2: Wine Depot 261 Case Problem 2: Wine Depot 340
Case Problem 3: Snick’s Board Shop 263 Case Problem 3: Snick’s Board Shop 341
Case Problem 4: Rosey’s Roses 264 Case Problem 4: Rosey’s Roses 343
Chapter 11 Queries 266 Chapter 13 Reports 345
Case: What SUP, Inc. 266
Case: What SUP, Inc. 345
Querying Selected Records 266
Use a Query to Create a Report 345
Using Character Data in a Select Query 267
Use Grouping and Summarizing in a Report 349
Using Wildcards in a Select Query 269
Grouping 349
Editing a Select Query 271
Summarizing 352
Using Comparison Operators and Sorting
Modify an Existing Report 358
in a Select Query 274
Counting and Summing in Report Sections 358
Using Compound Criteria and Limiting
Lines, Borders, and Formatting in Report
Output in a Select Query 278
Sections 362
Performing Calculations 281
End Note 364
Displaying the Results of Calculations in a Field 281
Chapter 13 Practice 365
Computing Statistics 283
Questions 365
Action Queries (Update, Parameter,
Assignments 365
and Delete) 288
Case Problem 1: Kelly’s Boutique 366
Update Queries 289
Case Problem 2: Wine Depot 367
Parameter Queries 294
Case Problem 3: Snick’s Board Shop 369
Delete Queries 296
Case Problem 4: Rosey’s Roses 370
Print a Query 298
End Note 298 Index 373

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 Preface
What if you could integrate two critical business software programs into your
accounting classroom without using confusing and complicated manuals? What
if your students could use these programs to reinforce basic accounting concepts
in an interactive case setting? What if you could do both without spending a
fortune and a vast amount of time preparing examples, cases, and illustrations?
Excel and Access for Accounting is a textbook that fulfills and expands upon all
three of these ‘‘what ifs.’’

Why Is This Textbook Needed?

Many accounting educators are looking for ways to incorporate more business
software into their accounting curriculum without displacing basic accounting
instruction. They have tried to accomplish this by creating a stand-alone com-
puter-based course, a lab component course, or by adding business computer
software to their regular accounting curriculum. Current texts in this field are
very generic in nature, spending little if any time on accounting-specific issues.
Those that do address accounting issues address only worksheet or database
issues but not both. Some texts that have a worksheet focus deliver a wide array
of financial and managerial topics but lack a natural case flow. Some with a
database focus emphasize the creation of accounting systems but do not address
how databases are used to support the accounting function.
Moreover, employers expect today’s college student to be computer literate
in commercial accounting, worksheet, and database software. The demand for
this type of training is growing daily as more and more businesses employ busi-
ness software to solve real-world problems.
Instructors often want to incorporate business software into the first course
but are reluctant to invest the time and effort necessary to accomplish this goal.
Existing materials are often ‘‘preparer’’ driven in that they focus on the creation
of worksheets and databases without addressing the effective use of these tools.
Students are often discouraged in their use of computers because of the compli-
cated and confusing manuals that concentrate on using the software without any
business or accounting context.
This text responds to all of those needs. It provides a self-paced, step-by-step
environment in which the students use a worksheet (Excelâ) and a database
(Accessâ) to solve real accounting and business problems. The text is designed
to reinforce the concepts students learn in their first accounting courses and to
show how worksheets and databases can help users make better and more
informed business decisions.

xi

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xii Preface

What Are the Goals of This Textbook?

This textbook takes a user perspective by illustrating how worksheets and data-
bases are used and created. Both Excel and Access are user friendly, with
extensive help features and helpful toolbars to aid in accessing commonly used
functions. The textbook uses a proven and successful pedagogy to demonstrate
the features of both software programs and to elicit student interaction.
The textbook’s first goal is to help students apply the accounting concepts
they’ve learned to real-world problems, aided by the use of a worksheet and/or
database. The content complements the first course in accounting and therefore
should be used either as a supplement to that course or as the primary textbook
in a stand-alone course that follows the first course in accounting. Some instruc-
tors have found this textbook and the QuickBooks for Accounting textbook or
the Peachtree for Accounting textbook ideal matches for a stand-alone ‘‘Com-
puters in Accounting’’ course.
The second goal is to motivate students to become more familiar with and
more at ease using a worksheet and/or database to solve accounting and busi-
ness problems. Using this software application in an accounting context main-
tains student interest and provides additional incentive for pursuing an
accounting degree or emphasis.
The third goal of this text is to reduce the administrative burdens of account-
ing faculty by providing a self-paced environment for their students to learn
how important software applications are used in business. Accounting faculty
must manage different learning styles of students as well as teach accounting
concepts and practice techniques. The additional task of integrating computer
applications into the classroom will be made simpler by using this text.

What’s New in Excel 2016 and Access 2016?

Excel 2016
Visualizations are critical to effective data analysis as well as compelling story-
telling. In Excel 2016, Microsoft added six new charts—with the same rich for-
matting options that you are familiar with—to help you create some of the most
commonly used data visualizations of financial or hierarchal information or for
revealing statistical properties in your data.
Before analysis can begin, you must be able to bring in the data relevant to
the business question you are trying to answer. Excel 2016 now comes with
built-in functionality that brings ease and speed to getting and transforming your
data—allowing you to find and bring all the data you need into one place.
These new capabilities, previously only available as a separate add-in called
Power Query, can be found natively within Excel. Access them from the Get &
Transform group on the Data tab.
In previous versions of Excel, only linear forecasting was available. In Excel
2016, the FORECAST function has been extended to allow forecasting based
on Exponential Smoothing (such as, FORECAST.ETS() . . .). This functionality
is also available as a new one-click forecasting button. On the Data tab, click

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 Preface xiii

the Forecast Sheet button to quickly create a forecast visualization of your data
series. From the wizard, you can also find options to adjust common forecast
parameters, like seasonality, which is automatically detected by default and con-
fidence intervals.
Excel is known for its flexible and powerful analysis experiences, through
the familiar PivotTable authoring environment. With Excel 2010 and Excel
2013, this experience was significantly enhanced with the introduction of Power
Pivot and the Data Model, bringing the ability to easily build sophisticated
models across your data, augment them with measures and KPIs, and then cal-
culate over millions of rows with high speed. Here are some of the enhance-
ments Microsoft made in Excel 2016, so that you can focus less on managing
your data and more on uncovering the insights that matter.
• Automatic relationship detection discovers and creates relationships among
the tables used for your workbook’s data model, so you don’t have to.
Excel 2016 knows when your analysis requires two or more tables to be
linked together and notifies you. With one click, it does the work to build
the relationships, so you can take advantage of them immediately.
• Creating, editing, and deleting custom measures can now be done directly
from the PivotTable fields list, saving you a lot of time when you need to
add additional calculations for your analysis.
• Automatic time grouping helps you to use your time-related fields (year,
quarter, month) in your PivotTable more powerfully by auto-detecting and
grouping them on your behalf. Once they are grouped together, simply drag
the group to your PivotTable in one action and immediately begin your
analysis across the different levels of time with drill-down capabilities.
• PivotChart drill-down buttons allow you to zoom in and out across group-
ings of time and other hierarchical structures within your data.
• Search in the PivotTable field list helps you get to the fields that are impor-
tant to you across your entire data set.
• Smart rename gives you the ability to rename tables and columns in your
workbook’s data model. With each change, Excel 2016 automatically
updates any related tables and calculations across your workbook, including
all worksheets and DAX formulas.
Multiple usability improvements have also been made. For example, delayed
updating allows you to perform multiple changes in Power Pivot without the
need to wait until each is propagated across the workbook. The changes will be
propagated at one time, once the Power Pivot window is closed.

Access 2016
The first thing you’ll see when you open Access 2016 is that it has the familiar
look of 2013 with a more colorful border.
You’ll notice a text box on the ribbon in Access 2016 that says Tell me what
you want to do. This is a text field where you can enter words and phrases
related to what you want to do next and quickly get to features you want to use

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
xiv Preface

or actions you want to perform. You can also choose to get help related to what
you’re looking for.
Can’t find a button? Click inside the Tell Me box (it’s the box at the top,
with the light bulb). Type a button or command, like ‘‘filter,’’ and you’ll see all
of your filter-related options listed for you.
There are now two Office themes that you can apply to the Access program:
Colorful and White. To access these themes, go to File > Options > General,
and then click the drop-down menu next to Office Theme.
Have you ever wanted to get a nice list of all the linked data sources from
your Access database application into Excel? If you are working on a complex
Access application, for example, that includes links to many different data sour-
ces, it can be helpful to have a nice list of all the various data sources and their
types. This exported list can be especially helpful if you are working on an
Access application you did not originally design. Now with Access 2016, you’ll
find this task much easier using new functionality built into the Linked Table
Manager dialog.
Open the Linked Table Manager dialog by clicking External Data > Linked
Table Manager. Select the linked data sources you want to list and then click
Export to Excel.

What’s New in This Edition?

The fifth edition of Using Excel and Access for Accounting includes many
modified and updated assignments and cases. Also, a major addition to Chapter
4 now addresses partial year depreciation.
In our previous edition, calculating depreciation was done using full-year
depreciation, assuming companies purchased their long-term assets on January 1
of the year of acquisition. That, of course, is rarely the case. Usually assets are
acquired throughout the year; thus depreciation schedules should factor in a pro-
vision to account for this fact.
One key piece of information already included in the depreciation schedule is
the date of acquisition. From that you can calculate the number of days of
depreciation to be calculated for the first year. An additional year needs to be
added to the schedule to account for the depreciation not recorded in the initial
year of acquisition.
This major addition to Chapter 4 addresses partial year depreciation for the
straight-line, double-declining, and sum-of-the-year’s digits methods.

What Are the Key Features of This

Textbook?
• The chapters incorporate a continuing, interesting, realistic case—What
SUP, Inc.—that helps students apply Excel and Access features.
• A tested, proven, step-by-step methodology keeps students on track. Stu-
dents enter data, analyze information, and make decisions all within the
context of the case. The text constantly guides students, letting them know
where they are in the course of completing their accounting tasks.

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 Preface xv

• Numerous screenshots include callouts that direct students’ attention to

where they should look on the screen. On almost every page in the book,
you will find examples of how steps, screenshots, and callouts work
together.
• T r o u b l e ? paragraphs anticipate the mistakes that students are likely
to make (or problems they are likely to encounter) and help them recover
and continue with the chapter. This feature facilitates independent learning
and frees the instructor to focus on accounting concepts rather than on com-
puter skills.
• The end-of-chapter material begins with questions intended to test students’
recall of what they learned in the chapter.
• Chapter Assignments follow the Questions and provide students additional
hands-on practice with Excel and Access skills.
• Four continuing Case Problems—Kelly’s Boutique (a bookstore). Wine
Depot (a wine distributor), Snick’s Board Shop (a skateboard shop), and
Rosey’s Roses (a retail rose plant store)—conclude each chapter. These
cases have approximately the same scope as the What SUP chapter case.
• The Instructor’s Package contains an Instructor’s Manual that includes solu-
tions to end-of-chapter materials, and a link to a companion Web site with
completed files for instructor use only.

Using This Text Effectively

Before you begin, note that this textbook assumes you are familiar with the
basics of the Windows operating system: how to control windows, how to choose
menu commands, how to complete dialog boxes, and how to select directories,
drives, and files. If you do not understand these concepts, please consult your in-
structor.
The best way to work through this textbook is to read the text carefully and
complete the numbered steps, which appear on a shaded background, as you work
at your computer. Read each step carefully and completely before you try it.
As you work, compare your screen with the figures in the chapter to verify
your results. You can use Excel 2016 and Access 2016 with either Windows
10, Windows 8 or Windows 7. The screen shots you see in this book were cap-
tured in a Windows 7 environment. If you are using Windows 10 or 8 you
might see some minor differences between your screen and the screens in this
book. Any significant differences that result from using the different operating
systems with Excel or Access will be explained.
Don’t worry about making mistakes—that is part of the learning process.
The T r o u b l e ? paragraphs identify common problems and explain how to
correct them or get back on track. Follow the suggestions given only if you are
having the specific problem described.
After you complete a chapter, you can answer the Questions, Assignments,
and Case Problems found at the end of each chapter. They are carefully

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
xvi Preface

structured so that you will review what you have learned and then apply your
knowledge to new situations. Feel free to page back through the text to clarify
how each task should be accomplished.

Student Data Files

To complete the chapter and exercises in this book, you must first download
the student data files from the text’s companion site. They include practice files
you need for the chapters, the Assignments, and the Case Problems. Your in-
structor or lab manager may provide you with a link to these files in their labs.
See your instructor for specific details. In any case, this text will assume you
have already downloaded these practice files.

Excel and Access Versions

The text and related data files created for this text were constructed using Excel
2016 16.0.6001.1034 and Access 2016 16.0.6001.1034. To check your version
and release number, click the File tab, and then click Account. Under the Prod-
uct Information section for your Office product find the version number and
product ID number. All references to Excel and Access throughout the rest of
this textbook are to Excel 2016 or Access 2016.

Excel and Access Options

Excel and Access have many options that can be altered by the user. In a lab
environment, or in an environment where different people use the same com-
puter, these options may have been altered from the default settings set when
the software was first installed.

About the Author

Glenn Owen is a 21 year professor of accounting in Allan Hancock College’s
Business Department, where he teaches accounting and until recently served as
the College’s Academic Senate President. He recently retired as a lecturer at the
University of California at Santa Barbara, where he taught accounting and infor-
mation systems courses since 1980. His professional experience includes five
years at Deloitte & Touche and seven years as vice-president of finance posi-
tions at Westpac Resources, Inc., and ExperTelligence, Inc. He has authored
many accounting related texts including his latest QuickBooks Onine for
Accounting. He is the author of the popular QuickBooks for Accounting and
Peachtree for Accounting texts and teaches both on campus and online courses
in financial and managerial accounting. He joined Dale Klooster and Warren
Allen as an author of the popular Integrated Accounting, eighth edition, general
ledger accounting software and text. His innovative teaching style emphasizes

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 Preface xvii

the decision maker’s perspective and encourages students to think creatively.

His graduate studies in educational psychology and 41 years of business experi-
ence combine to yield a balanced blend of theory and practice.

Dedication
I would like to thank my family for all of their support over the years. I’d also
like to thank my Dad, who at 93, still does his best at beating me at cribbage.
His problem-solving mind-set is what drove me to the accounting profession
and what prompted me to ask ‘‘why not’’ more often than I probably should
have. Thanks Dad.

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 part
Excel for Accounting

Chapter 1
Excel Tour
Chapter 2
Excel Basics
Chapter 3
Financial Statement Analysis
22

58
3
1
Chapter 4
Depreciation 83
Chapter 5
Loan and Bond Amortization 111
Chapter 6
Cash Budgeting 134
Chapter 7
Other Topics: Present/Future Values,
Predicting Costs, and Allowance for
Uncollectible Accounts 162

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 chapter
Excel Tour

In this chapter you will learn:

1
• Excel’s capabilities and new features
• How to start, navigate, and work with Excel files
• How to use Excel help
• How Excel is used in accounting

Case: What SUP, Inc.

Nathan Peters and Meagan Lopez own What SUP, Inc., located in Seattle,
Washington. They’ve been in business for five years and have developed a
number of online customers. The fast-growing sport of stand up paddleboarding
(SUP) is a fun, easy way for their customers to go play on the water. With a
minimum of equipment, their customers can paddle anything from ocean surf to
lakes and rivers—no waves required. They are eager to expand their customer
base and their supplier pool. Their local C.P.A., Kyle Ski, has suggested hiring
a local college student to help them computerize their operations. He suggests
they use QuickBooks to keep their accounting records but also encourages them
to use a worksheet software application to help them analyze their business sit-
uation and support their accounting operations. Nathan, excited to get started,
places an ad in the local college paper.
As an accounting student at the local college, you’ve become fairly adept at
using computers to complete homework assignments but you’re eager to
broaden your horizons. You’d like to combine your accounting and computer
skills with some practical experience. Lucky for you, an ad in the college paper
for part-time computer and accounting help falls on your desk one afternoon.
After an intense interview and background check, you’re hired!
Your initial meeting with Nathan, Meagan, and Kyle reveals some unfami-
liarity with the software application Kyle has suggested you use. Kyle has
agreed to coach you through the basic use of the worksheet program after
Nathan and Meagan reluctantly agree to pay his fees. They’re hoping, of course,
that you can learn the worksheet application quickly and help them use it to fur-
ther their business expansion.
First off, Kyle introduces you to Excel, a powerful worksheet application he
has been using since the mid-eighties. Kyle explains that this most recent incar-
nation of Excel is far more than a simple calculation program.

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
4 Part 1 Excel for Accounting

Understanding Excel’s Capabilities

You have often used paper worksheets in your accounting courses and ask Kyle
if Excel is just an electronic version of that same worksheet. He explains that,
in essence, you are correct. In your beginning accounting courses, a worksheet
might have been used to adjust a trial balance for accrual accounting and to cre-
ate financial statements like the income statement, balance sheet, and statement
of cash flows. You added columns of numbers, subtotaled them in places, drew
lines, created titles, and so forth.
Excel is, however, much more than an expensive calculator or place to put
information. Built-in functions can help an accountant create financial state-
ments, pivot table reports, analyses, depreciation schedules, loan amortization
schedules, cash flow budgets, cost-volume-profit analyses with charts, and
more. But first, you need to become familiar with the multitude of Excel com-
mands and procedures.

Starting, Navigating, and Working

Video Demonstration
with Excel Files
To begin, Kyle asks you if you are familiar with starting programs in Windows 7.
Since Nathan and Meagan admit to very little knowledge of computers, you offer
to demonstrate. First you explain that some of the company’s computers use the
DEMO 1A Exploring Windows 10, Windows 8, or XP operating system but that the one you are most
the Excel window
familiar with uses the Windows 7 operating system. In either case, you explain
that starting Excel is the same in either operating system. You then offer to dem-
onstrate the process for starting Excel in Windows 7.

To start Excel:
1 Click the Start button.
2 Select All Programs and then locate Excel 2016 from your list of pro-
grams. Your window may look like Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1
Starting Excel

3 Click Microsoft Office Excel 2016 to start the application.

T r o u b l e ? Your start menu may be completely different from
that shown in Figure 1.1. See your instructor or lab personnel for
instructions on starting Excel.

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 Excel Tour Chapter 1 5

Kyle explains that Excel always opens a list of recent worksheets and thumb-
nail pictures of built-in Excel templates. In this text, you’ll be building your
own worksheets or modify existing spreadsheets to solve accounting-related
problems. To begin you’ll often begin by double-clicking a blank worksheet.
Your window should look like Figure 1.2. A worksheet is a grid of rows and
columns into which you enter information. You can add additional sheets to a
workbook if necessary.

Quick Access Toolbar Tabs Commands

Ribbon

Groups
File Tab
Vertical
Formulas
Scroll Bar

Horizontal
Scroll Bar

Sheet Tabs View Toolbar

Figure 1.2
The Excel Window

Nathan has been replicating Kyle’s actions on his own laptop, which has
Excel installed as well. He notes that his screen does not exactly match Kyle’s,
whose Quick Access toolbar and Ribbon seem different than Nathan’s. Kyle
explains that screen size can change the appearance of the Ribbon and that both
the Ribbon and Quick Access toolbar can be customized.
To illustrate, Kyle has captured his Excel window in Figure 1.2 and provided
callouts and an explanation of the Excel window characteristics.
File – This is where you manage your files and the data about them — creating,
saving, inspecting for hidden metadata or personal information, and setting
options. In short, it is everything that you do to a file that you don’t do in the file.
Quick Access Toolbar – At the top of the Excel window is the Quick Access
Toolbar, which is designed to give you an easy way to execute the commands
used most often. The default setting in Excel provides access to the Save, Undo,
and Redo commands. The Quick Access toolbar can be modified to include the
Print Preview, Open, Quick Print, and other commands as well. This is accom-
plished by right-clicking the Quick Access Toolbar and selecting Customize

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
6 Part 1 Excel for Accounting

Quick Access Toolbar (or by right-clicking any command on the Ribbon and
selecting Add to Quick Access Toolbar). Don’t adjust your Quick Access Tool-
bar yet; we’ll get to that shortly.
Ribbon – There are three basic components of the Ribbon, as follows.

1 Tabs: There are several of them across the top depending on whether you
have added any add-ins to Excel. Each represents core tasks you do in Excel.

2 Groups: Each tab has groups that show related items together.

3 Commands: A command is a button, a box to enter information, or a

menu. The principal commands in Excel are gathered on the first and
second tabs, the File and Home tabs.

The commands on this tab are those that Microsoft has identified as the most
commonly used when people do basic tasks with worksheets. For example, the
Paste, Cut, and Copy commands are arranged first on the Home tab, in the
Clipboard group. Font formatting commands are next, in the Font group. Com-
mands to center text or align text to the left or right are in the Alignment group,
and commands to insert and delete cells, rows, columns, and worksheets are in
the Cells group. Groups pull together all the commands you’re likely to need
for a particular type of task, and throughout the task they remain on display and
readily available instead of being hidden within menus. These vital commands
are visible above your work space.
The commands on the Ribbon are the ones you use the most. Instead of
showing every command all the time, Excel 2016 shows some commands in
response to an action you take. When you see an arrow (called the Dialog Box
Launcher) in the lower right corner of a group, there are more options available
for the group. Click the arrow, and you’ll see a dialog box or a task pane.
Other Excel Window Items – As with all Windows screens, scroll bars control
your view of the worksheet (horizontal and vertical). Formulas contained in
each cell are displayed in the Formula Bar. The View Toolbar gives you quick
access to viewing your worksheet in Normal layout (shown in Figure 1.2), Page
layout (shown in Figure 1.5), or Page Break preview layout.

To demonstrate some of Excel’s features, Kyle suggests you

follow along while he opens an old Excel file:
1 Open Excel, if you closed it previously.
2 Click on the right of the Quick Access Toolbar and then place a check
next to the Open command. This will add the Open command to your
Quick Access Toolbar if it is not already there.
3 Click your newly created Open icon in the Quick Access Toolbar to
open a new file. (Note: if you are using Excel in a computer lab envi-
ronment, your changes to the Quick Access Toolbar may not reappear
the next time you start Excel.)

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 Excel Tour Chapter 1 7

4 Navigate the Open window to the location of this text’s student files.
(The location would be wherever you downloaded the student data
files from the text’s companion web site as explained on page xi of
the Preface to this text or from your computer lab’s server.)
5 Double-click the file ch1-01, which should be located in a Ch 01
folder. The workbook shown in Figure 1.3 should appear.

Figure 1.3
Sample Workbook

6 Click the File menu and then click Save As. (This is done to keep
your original student file available in case you need it again and also
to provide a unique name for your file.) Click Computer and then
click Browse to navigate yourself to the location where you want to
save your file.
7 Add your name to the file name using the underscore key as shown in
Figure 1.4. In this example, the file will be saved as ch1-01_student_
name (replace student_name with your name). To a removable flash
drive called Removable Disk (L:) in a folder called Excel Files as seen
in Figure 1.4. Your file location may be different but it is recom-
mended that if you are working in a lab environment that you save
your files to a removable disk or online location.
8 Click Save.
9 Click in cell A1. This is now the active cell.
10 Hold the Shift key down and then click in cell F1. This should then
highlight cells A1:F1. Alternatively, you could click in cell A1 and,
with the mouse button down, drag the cursor to cell F1.

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
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 CHAPTER II
BETTY WALES, “M. A.”

Things did look different in the morning. Betty sighed a little as

she considered her last winter’s suit, which she had relegated to the
position of a rainy day stand-by, in the light of a “general utility,”—K.’s
delightful name for her one street costume. K. and Rachel had
managed very well with a new suit once in two or three years. Well,
then, so could she, Betty told herself sternly. Just then Mary Hooper
telephoned to know about the Saturday rides.
“I’m afraid you can’t count on me,” Betty explained to her. “No,
I’m not too busy, Mary, but riding horses are very expensive, and I
don’t believe I can afford it.”
Mary’s curt, “Oh, very well, I didn’t suppose you had to consider
that. Good-bye, then,” stung a hot blush into Betty’s cheeks. She
didn’t care what Mary Hooper thought of her—yes, she did—well,
she wouldn’t any more.
That night at dinner mother looked worried, in her turn.
“My new cook has given notice,” she told the assembled family
the first time the waitress went out of the room, “and I thought she
was going to be such a treasure!”
“What’s her trouble?” demanded Will gaily.
“She doesn’t like living where they keep only two maids. Of
course it is difficult to manage, especially with such a big house.
Maggie is too busy sweeping and dusting and answering the bell to
help at all in the kitchen. Yesterday the cook absolutely refused to
clean the silver, and to-night she grumbled about wiping the dishes.”
“Then have the third maid back, Alice. It was only to be an
experiment, this cutting down household expenses. I simply won’t
have you worried.” Father’s voice sounded impatient, because he
felt so very unhappy.
“I don’t know how I can help worrying when everything goes
wrong, and I understood that it was absolutely necessary to cut
down expenses.” Mother’s voice sounded stiff and unsympathetic,
because father didn’t realize how glad she had been to do her part.
Then in a flash everything came out. “If it wasn’t absolutely
necessary to retrench when we talked things over, it certainly is
now,” father began abruptly; “my New York broker has disappeared.
It seems he’s been on the wrong side of the market lately, and to
help himself out he’s been borrowing the securities that his
customers had left on deposit with him. That means that a good
many thousands of my money have gone, with practically no hope of
recovery. I’d been holding that stock as a last reserve. I’m afraid this
spells ruin.” Father pushed back his plate, and got up from the table.
“Please don’t go, father,” begged little Dorothy solemnly, catching
at his coat tails. “Are we going to be really and truly poor? Because if
we aren’t going to have enough to eat by and by, we ought not to
waste to-night’s dinner, that’s all cooked.”
Mr. Wales laughed in spite of himself; and then, because Maggie
was coming back with the salad, he sat down again, and somehow,
between silence and conversation about the weather, dinner was
finished.
Afterward Betty got Will and Dorothy down in the furthest corner
of the lawn with the gray kitten, so that mother and father, up on the
piazza, could talk things over and come to an understanding.
“Tell me, Betty, are we going to be really and truly poor?” little
Dorothy demanded. But when Betty kissed her and said no, not
really hungry and ragged, she was quite ready to forget all about it
and devote herself to teaching the gray kitten to climb trees. That left
Will and Betty free to discuss the family crisis.
“I shall take that job Cousin Joe West offered me out at his
shops,” Will declared. “He’s awfully fussy, and father says he works
his men to death. That’s why I didn’t go last June. Father thought he
could certainly get me something better by fall, but nothing has
turned up yet, and if I go with Joe that will be one thing off father’s
mind.”
Betty sighed. “It’s so easy to be poor if you’re a boy. You’ll be
earning your own living——”
“I suppose a fellow can live on what I’ll earn, if he has to,”
interrupted Will, making a wry face.
“And I shall have to spend father’s money just as usual, only not
so much of it. Oh, dear, I wish I was bright enough to teach, like
Nan!”
“A penny saved is a penny earned,” quoted Will sagely. “Nan will
never save a penny, that’s one thing sure. I say, didn’t we promise
the Benson girls that we’d be over to-night?”
When the Benson girls accused Betty of being quiet and absent-
minded she laughed at them and asked if she generally monopolized
the entire conversation. But on the way home she confided to Will
that she hadn’t heard a word Sallie Benson had said about the plans
for her coming-out cotillion. For almost the first time in her life,
except the night after her famous runaway in senior year, Betty did
not fall asleep the minute her head touched the pillow. She had
promised father to help and she meant to, as much as ever she
could. The hard question was how to keep her word.
Next morning she put her plans into action. After breakfast she
hunted up Mrs. Wales, who was in the sewing-room with a huge pile
of mending on the table beside her. Betty heroically helped herself to
one of Will’s stockings, and led up to her errand.
“When does the cook leave, mother?”
“This evening, I believe. She’s packing now. I haven’t dared ask
her what she means to do about the breakfast dishes.” Mother
laughed happily. “We had such a nice talk last night, your father and
I. I feel as if I were back in the days when we were first married, and
had to count all the pennies we spent. After all, being poor isn’t so
bad as long as we have each other.”
 Betty nodded sagely. She didn’t want mother to find out that any
one else had been confided in first. “I knew you’d feel so—I mean I
think it’s a lot nicer to know the worst. But are you going to get
another cook?”
Mrs. Wales nodded. “I told your father that we could get on
beautifully with a general maid, but he insists upon two. He thinks we
must keep up appearances as far as possible, as a sort of business
asset.”
“But a cook doesn’t appear,” Betty suggested. “She’s behind the
scenes.”
“Exactly, and that gives the second maid a chance to be in front
of them. A good many business acquaintances of your father’s come
through the city, and he wants to be able to bring them up to dinner
without worrying about its being properly served.”
“It would have to be properly cooked too, wouldn’t it?” Betty
reflected solemnly. “Well, anyhow, there’s no harm in telling you what
I want. I want to do the cooking. I hate sweeping and dusting and
mending, and the things I mend are frights. But I love to mess in the
kitchen, and I’ve always wanted a chance to do it without a fussy old
cook to glare at me and make remarks about its being her kitchen,
and a lot too full of people. I don’t know how to make very many
things, except salads and chafing-dish ‘eats,’ but I’m wild to learn.
Please let me, mother. How much does a cook cost?”
“Eight dollars a week, unless she’s a particularly good cook and
gets ten,” laughed Mrs. Wales. “But you’re absurd, Betty. You don’t
realize how much work it is to cook for a big family like ours.
Besides, how would you manage when we had guests? It would be
very awkward.”
“Oh, I’ve thought that all out,” began Betty eagerly. “I’d wait till the
last minute and then just turn things over to the waitress,—we’d have
to find a very accommodating waitress, of course,—whisk off my
laboratory apron, and appear in the bosom of my family arrayed in
my best dress.”
 Mrs. Wales shook her head. “That sounds very simple, but I’m
afraid it wouldn’t work. You’d be red in the face from bending over
the fire, and your hands would be spoiled. I’m sorry, dear,” as she
noticed Betty’s expression of disappointment, “but I’m afraid you’ll
have to think of some other more practical ways of saving money.”
Betty stabbed viciously at the biggest hole in her second
stocking. “All right, mother,” she said at last. “But please don’t say no
to my being cook just until you can find one. You haven’t found one
yet, have you?”
Mrs. Wales shook her head. “A friend of Maggie’s is coming to
see me this afternoon, but I don’t imagine she’ll do.”
“Don’t engage her unless she sounds perfectly splendid,” urged
Betty, folding up Will’s stockings and tossing them on top of the pile
of finished mending.
A few minutes later she danced back, enveloped in a long,
checked gingham apron. “The new cook, mem,” she announced,
curtseying gravely. “And the ould wan is gone, mem, so wad yuz
plaze be so kind as to lave me have the ordhers for the dinner.”
Betty’s first dinner was a great success. It was agreed not to tell
father and Will who cooked it; and when father praised the roast, and
Will loudly lamented the imminent departure of a cook who could
make such “dandy” lemon ice, Betty blushed pink with pride and
pleasure. Next morning it was only fun to get up early and dress in a
hurry. But the first relay of toast burned up, and the eggs were done
too hard, because the coffee wouldn’t boil at all and then boiled over.
Will grumbled, father read his paper in gloomy silence, and though
mother tried to smooth things over, she wore an “I-told-you-so”
expression, and Betty felt sure she would be on hand to help with the
next breakfast.
But before that there was luncheon, and Will, who was going out
to see about his new position, announced that he would come home
for it. Just as Betty was putting on her big apron to begin operations,
Mary Hooper rang the bell. Betty discovered that Maggie had said
she was at home, so she slipped off the big apron, and went down.
Mary was chairman of the play committee, and she wanted to get
Betty’s ideas about the cast and the costumes before she called the
rest of her committee together.
“College girls are so clever at plays,” she explained. “I thought
you and I could save a lot of time if we got everything decided
beforehand.”
This wasn’t exactly Betty’s idea of good committee work, but
Mary hadn’t asked her advice on that point, so they set to work. At
half-past twelve Mary discovered that it was raining.
“How jolly!” she exclaimed. “That lets me out of a tennis match
with the Bensons and Ted Farnum, and we can have the afternoon
clear for this.”
“Then will you excuse me for a few minutes, Mary?” Betty asked
anxiously. “Our cook has gone, and I’m taking her place. I want to be
sure that you’ll have some luncheon.”
Mary lifted haughty eyebrows. “Can’t one of the second maids
see to that?” she asked, getting up and going over to the window.
“Oh, well, if it’s going to put you out, I won’t stay. Besides, it looks
clearer already, so we may play tennis after all. Oh, no, thank you, I
shouldn’t think of staying if you’re going to make company of me, as
they say in the country. I remember at my aunt’s in New Hampshire,
they never could have any one for Monday dinner, because it was
wash-day. Well, we’ve got a good deal done. I’ll drop in at Milly’s,
perhaps, on my way home, and see what she thinks about our cast.”
Without waiting to find her apron, Betty rushed to the kitchen,
fully expecting to find Mrs. Wales and Maggie there, and lunch well
under way,—which would have been rather a disgrace to the young
lady who had begged to be allowed to act as cook, but on the whole
a comfortable arrangement. Instead, however, the kitchen was
deserted.
“Oh, dear!” soliloquized Betty sadly. “I wonder what mother meant
to have. I remember now that she went out. I wonder what there is to
have. Maggie might know—but she probably wouldn’t. I’ll ask her,
though, if she’s down setting the table.”
 Maggie was laying the table, but she had no ideas on the subject
of possible luncheon dishes. So Betty found some eggs, got a
chafing-dish ready, and had all her preparations made for a delicious
omelette, when Will came in, exasperated at Cousin Joe’s fussiness,
and very hungry, and reminded her that he hated eggs.
“Oh, Will! I’m so sorry! Well, anyhow you love strawberry jam.”
“Bread and jam aren’t specially filling,” grumbled Will.
“Couldn’t you begin on that?” suggested Betty bravely. “And in
the meantime I’ll find you something else that is filling.”
“When are we going to have a cook, anyhow?” demanded Will,
when Betty had taken her seat again, having instructed Maggie to
slice some cold roast beef.
“When are we going to have an experienced cook, you mean,
monsieur,” Betty corrected him gaily. In the pantry she had decided
that she should probably be cross herself in Will’s place, and had
therefore resolved to take all his faultfinding in good part. “Because
at present you’ve got me, such as I am. Suppose you give me a list
of all your favorite dishes, Will, and I’ll make them, if they aren’t too
hard. And just to relieve your mind I’ll confide to you that mother is
hunting cooks this very morning.”
That afternoon Betty got a note from Roberta Lewis.
“I’m considering working for an M. A. at Bryn Mawr,”
she wrote. “Father is away all day, and I don’t know
enough people here in Philadelphia to keep me from
getting lonely. Of course in some ways I should lots prefer
going to Harding, but father wouldn’t consent to that. He
wants me here whenever he is at home. We’re getting to
be regular chums. We go to the theatre together, and he
always takes me for supper afterward, because he’s heard
that debutantes prefer theatre-suppers to almost anything.
He wanted to have Aunt Nell come down from New York
to help him give a big party for me; but I made him see
how absurd it would be for a staid old lawyer like him and
a quiet, stay-at-home, ’fraid-of-a-man like me, to bother
about big fussy parties. So we just have nice little dinners
for father’s old friends, and next summer he is going to
teach me to ride horseback—I shudder whenever I think of
it!—and to play golf, so that we can enjoy more things
together. Write me what you think about the M. A.
“Roberta.”
Betty scribbled her answer at once.
“I’m doing an M. A. myself, Roberta dearest. It
surprises you to hear that, doesn’t it? Well, in my case M.
A. stands for Mother’s Assistant, and so far it’s the hardest
course I ever took. But if mother ever finds a good cook—
I’m the cook at present, and I should love it if everything
didn’t go wrong—why, perhaps it will be easier. The other
topics in my M. A. are mending and dusting and
housekeeping odds and ends.
“If I am ever married and have any children, I shall
bring them up to eat whatever there is on the table. Will
hates eggs, and loves apple-pie. Dorothy hates pie and
adores ice-cream. Father never eats ice-cream and likes
his steak rare. Mother wants her steak actually burned,
and nothing but crackers and cheese and coffee for
desert; and father loves coffee, but mustn’t drink it. I am
just as fussy as any of them, but I never shall be again. I
must stop and get dinner. Pity the poor cook of this hard-
to-suit family!
“I think it would be grand to be able to write M. A. after
your name, but if you want to really and truly learn
something take my kind.
“Yours, with her sleeves rolled up,
“Betty.”
 CHAPTER III
THAT TEA-ROOM AGAIN

Betty Wales, arrayed in her cook’s regalia, sat by the kitchen

table, one eye on the range, the other on the fly-leaf of the new
cook-book that Will had given her. It was scribbled full of figures,
which Betty added and subtracted and multiplied laboriously, with
sighs and incredulous stares at the distinctly unpleasant results.
“Three weeks’ hard work, and so far as I can see I’ve saved the
family exactly five dollars and sixty-four cents. And that Vermont
maple sugar is boiling over again!” Betty made a dive for the
saucepan in which she was cooking maple frosting for father’s
birthday cake. “If it tastes burned, what’s left of it, I shall just give up!”
she declared plaintively.
“Oh, Betty dear!” Dorothy’s shrill voice and pattering footsteps
sounded down the hall. “You aren’t forgetting the kitten’s birthday,
are you?”
“Of course not,” Betty assured her, tasting the frosting critically.
“She’s to have oysters and whipped cream. By and by you can whip
the cream, dearie, but it’s too soon now, and I’m very busy, so you’d
better run and find mother.”
“All right. I’m busy too. I’ve got to tie on my kitten’s new neck-
bow, and she wiggles so that it’s awfully hard work. And then I’m
going to give her her box of corks that I bought for her.”
Betty tasted the frosting again, decided that it was done, put it
away to cool, and went back to her figures.
“Burned steak, two dollars,” she murmured; “salty ice-cream, a
dollar and twenty cents; boiled-over coffee, thirty cents. I don’t
believe I’ve forgotten anything important that I spoiled.” Then her
smile flashed out suddenly. “But real cooks spoil things—why, of
course they do! Not so many, maybe, but some.” She began stirring
the frosting vigorously. “You always hear that figures lie. I suppose
the reason is because it’s so hard to put down all about real cooks
and other real things in figures. Anyway, I’ve tried to help hard
enough. After this I shall always be sorry for cooks. I suppose there
may be worse ways of earning your living, but I shouldn’t want to try
them.”
“Here’s a letter for you, Betty!” The smallest sister was back
again, having evidently intercepted the postman. “And the kitten has
got a post-card that says ‘Birthday greetings.’ Isn’t it pretty? My
chum at school sent it to her.”
Betty declared hastily that the kitten’s post-card was perfectly
lovely, and asked Dorothy to put her letter, with the address in
Madeline’s fascinating scrawling hand, and a foreign stamp, into the
table drawer; for the cook’s fingers were sticky, the frosting
obstinately refused to thicken, and dinner-time was approaching with
alarming rapidity.
The day after Mary Hooper’s ill-timed call Betty had delivered an
ultimatum: “You’ve either got to tend up to things or leave them
alone. Hereafter, when I’m busy in the kitchen I can’t stop, no matter
what happens. Just tell people the truth, please.”
It was trying that the first thing to happen should have been an
invitation to go automobiling by moonlight; and missing the second—
an impromptu tally-ho party, with a corn-roast and a barn-dance to
follow—would have plunged Betty into the depths of woe if she had
not sternly resolved to “smile and smile and go on cooking,” as
Katherine had picturesquely advised her, no matter what happened.
It was worth the cost too, when father called her into the library to tell
her, in confidence, that he was proud of her, and that she was setting
Will a splendid example.
Will was finding Cousin Joe quite as trying as he had been led to
expect, and as he had gone through life hitherto on the easy theory
that it is foolish to put yourself out much, because the people who
expect the most of you are always cranks, nobody had thought that
he would stay long with Cousin Joe, who was certainly an ideal
instance of the theory. But though he came home every evening tired
and discouraged, and grumbled a good deal about Cousin Joe’s
unfairness and silly notions, he refused to give up his position.
“I’m no quitter. I can stick it out if the girls can,” he announced
doggedly, and on his very first pay-day he bought Betty a cook-book
inscribed “With deep respect, from a sympathetic fellow laborer,”
which meant a great deal from reserved, undemonstrative Will.
Betty suspected that Will’s admiration was at the bottom of her
mother’s tacit consent to her keeping on as cook. They had never
discussed the matter after the first interview, but Mrs. Wales had
gradually stopped visiting agencies and looking up advertisements,
and Betty was beginning to feel that she was accepted as
“permanent.” And now some bad fairy had put it into her head to see
how much she had saved father, and all she could see was five
dollars and sixty-four cents!
But that didn’t prevent the birthday dinner from being a great
success. Three weeks’ experience had wrought a wonderful change
in the new cook’s methods. Not only did she “tend up” to the
business in hand, herself, but she could plan work for Maggie, and
she was no longer too proud to call on mother or Dorothy for help if
she needed it. So things went smoothly, not by happy accident, as
things had always had a fashion of doing for Betty Wales, but
because she had planned them to go that way. The cream soup did
not curdle, the roast came on hot and done just as mother liked it at
one end and as father liked it in the middle. The salad was crisp and
deliciously flavored. The pineapple ice was not salty, and if the
maple frosting was a little inclined to drip off the edges of the
birthday cake, that was due, as Will pompously explained, to “the
extreme age of the distinguished person whose semi-centennial we
celebrate, and to the consequent over-heating of his cake by fifty
burning candles.”
After dinner they went into the library to taste a wonderful cereal
coffee, which Betty felt sure father would like just as well as the real
thing that he mustn’t drink.
 “Let me see, Betty,” said Will sipping his share reflectively. “This
is the sixth near-coffee that glib-tongued salesmen have palmed off
on you in three weeks.”
“It’s only the fifth,” returned Betty indignantly, “and besides they
were all free samples.”
“In that case suppose you see if you can’t discover some more
brands before we settle on one for family use,” suggested father
gaily.
Betty made a wry face as she emptied her cup. “The trouble is
the directions always say ‘the whole secret of success is in the
cooking,’ and ‘one trial is a gross injustice,’” she quoted so solemnly
that everybody laughed.
“Come and see the kitten eat her whipped cream,” begged
Dorothy. “She gets it all over her little nose, and she hates to stop
and wash it off. Besides, I think she ought to have more people than
just Maggie and me at her party.”
So Betty went out to the kitchen to swell the numbers at the
kitten’s party, and suddenly remembering Madeline’s neglected letter
she slipped away to read it.
“Well, I’m coming back to my own, my native land,”
Madeline wrote. “Father thinks he wants to sub-let the
apartment in Washington Square. Of course he’ll jolly well
change his mind before I get to New York, and then he’ll
waste his substance cabling me frantically not to sub-let.
And perhaps he and mother will come back too, later on.
But I don’t mind coming along by myself. I’ve had enough
of Italy and idleness. My head is full of tales that I want to
get out of my system and into the magazines. I want to
talk them over with Dick Blake. He’s a frightful cynic, and
he’ll be sure to tell me that I can never make good. But he
can’t stop me that way, not till I’ve sat on editors’ door-
steps for a while and seen for myself.
“Incidentally here I am in London buying china madly
for the tea-room—yours and mine and Babbie’s, that we
 planned last summer. The plans are so lovely that we’ve
simply got to carry them out. I ‘elect’ us to do it. I’ve written
Babbie to come and spend October with me and help at
one of my famous house-cleanings. You must come too,
and then we can discuss it—the tea-room, I mean. I
should hate to hear my house-cleanings discussed. And if
we don’t have the tea-room, the china will be adorable in
the apartment. It’s a blue Canton kind, and I’m getting
mostly double-decker bread-trays, and little toast-racks,
and mustard pots—such fascinating squatty fat ones—and
pepper grinders. If you were here, we’d hunt up an English
cooking school and learn to make scones and bannocks
and Bath buns. I’ve asked a queer little English woman in
my boarding-house to give me the recipes. Perhaps you
can make them out. I can cook only by taste, just as I can
play only by ear; and the taste of scones and bannocks is
as complicated as Wagner. I got your letter about being
the family cook. It will be valuable experience for the tea-
room.
“Come down early in October. Wire and I’ll meet you
any day after the fourth, when my boat is supposed to
come in. If either of you could get there sooner, it would be
terribly jolly, because then you could meet me. The key to
the house is at the tailor’s underneath, the cook left her
new address on the mantle in a pink cloisonné jar, and
she’ll bring the usual black cat for company while you wait.
“Yours en route,
“Madeline.”
Betty read it all through twice. It was so delightfully haphazard
and cheerful and Bohemian. To-day was the twenty-sixth of
September. It would be such fun to go to New York and share
Madeline’s welcome home to Bohemia. Babbie would go, of course,
and they would have famous parties to make use of the blue Canton
mustard pots. And if they should really open a tea-room! For the first
time since the launching of the economy program Betty winked back
some real tears. Then she carefully turned out the lights in the
dining-room, which Maggie never could remember about, and went
back to the library to read the family her letter, as she always did
when any of the Old Guard wrote to her. As Will said, the penalty of
writing entertaining letters to Betty was that she felt under obligation
to celebrate your epistolary ability by turning herself into a town-crier,
and crying your bon mots from the house-tops.
And the very next morning came a scrap of a note from Babbie:
“I’m going to spend October with Madeline. Mother is
off paying visits, so I can get away easily. Be sure to come
right away, because we ought to get the tea-room started
at once. Mother says I may do just as I like about it, only
of course I know that I can’t stay away from her all the
time. When she says I can do as I like she really means
that I may have all the money I want.
“Betty dear, if you really want to earn some money,
why couldn’t you run the tea-room? Madeline will be too
busy with her writing. Besides, she hates running things. I
should love it, only there’s mother to be amused.
“Babe is too wrapped up in her beloved John to
answer any letters. Bob is trying to make her father start a
newsboys’ home, and he says perhaps he will if he can
have his own home back again. Bob has some little
ragamuffin or other up there all the time. I prefer tea-
rooms myself to newsboys’ homes or fiancés.
“Babbie.”
“P. S. Jack and I have had a dreadful quarrel. He was
the one who came to see me off, you know, and I never,
never dreamed we could change our minds. But all is over
between us. Please never mention his name to me again.
“P. S. Do you think we should have the tea-room in
New York or Harding?”
This letter Betty read and reread, and finally put away in her
writing-desk without so much as mentioning it to any one. But that
afternoon she went all by herself to have afternoon tea at an
attractive little shop that had just been opened down-town. She read
the menu carefully, and finally asked the waitress if she might take it
away with her. She counted the tables, the waitresses, and the
patrons. She scanned the decorations with a critical eye. She
frowned when she noticed that there were three different kinds of
china in the tea service that the maid had brought her. Then she sat
for a long while, sipping her tea and trying to remember little details
of the fascinating Glasgow tea-rooms, and of the Oxford Street and
Piccadilly shops that the B. A.’s abroad had haunted so persistently
in the pursuit of Madeline’s “dominant interest.” Finally she tried to
compare the prices on the cards with those at Cuyler’s and Holmes’s
in Harding. And last of all, she extracted a tiny silver pencil from her
shopping-bag, and put down a few figures on the back of the menu.
But she soon gave up that. Hadn’t she just discovered that figures
lie? And besides, when you can’t even guess at rents, and haven’t
the least idea how much chairs and tables and china cost, and are
even a little uncertain about waitress’s wages, the calculating of the
probable expenses per month of running a tea-room becomes, to
say the least, a difficult matter.
At last, having remembered her responsibilities about dinner,
Betty rushed home and into her big apron—she had half a dozen big
ones now—as fast as possible. She was very quiet during dinner, but
afterward, as soon as she had helped Maggie clear the table, she
put out the lights, walked into the library, and made an astonishing
announcement.
“Father dear, if you’re willing and mother can get another cook
and you won’t all miss me too much, I want to go to New York next
week to see about running a tea-room for Babbie Hildreth. We
haven’t decided yet whether to have it there or in Harding, but
Babbie thinks I could run it, and I think so too.”
“Why, Betty, don’t be absurd!”
That was mother’s comment. Will whistled; Dorothy, scenting the
loss of her beloved Betty, came over to hug her; but father threw
away his cigar, folded his paper slowly, and pointed to the arm of his
chair as the best available seat.
“Now begin again,” he advised, when Betty had established
herself comfortably. “Your proposition does sound absurd, as mother
says, but perhaps that’s because we don’t understand it. To begin
with, has Miss Babbie Hildreth already gone into the tea-room
business? I understood from Miss Bohemia’s letter of yesterday, that
so far the sole assets of the tea-room were some double-decker
bread-trays, whatever those may be, and some very fat mustard jars,
which hadn’t yet left London, and which Miss Bohemia really wanted
for her own use.”
“Oh, father, that was just Madeline’s queer way of saying it. She’s
written to Babbie, and Babbie has asked her mother for the money,
and her mother is willing. So now Babbie has written me. Of course
there are a lot of things still to be arranged,” Betty admitted
reluctantly, “but it won’t take Babbie and Madeline long to arrange
them.”
“I see.” This time Mr. Wales was quite serious. “And you think that
under the circumstances—my circumstances, I mean—you would
like to join in their project. I’m afraid I can’t spare you any capital,
little girl.”
“Oh, I don’t want you to,” explained Betty hastily. “The others
don’t expect it. But I’ve thought it over and—isn’t it likely to be a long
while before business is good again, father?”
“I’m afraid it will be fully a year before I’m on my feet again.”
“Well, I want to help, to be really and truly earning something, I
mean, like Nan and Will. I should perfectly hate to teach, but I should
love to run a tea-room.”
“I don’t like the idea of my daughter’s going into the restaurant
business,” put in Mrs. Wales stiffly.
“Oh, mummy dear!” Betty abandoned her father’s chair for a seat
beside her mother on the sofa. “An adorable little tea-room isn’t a
restaurant. College girls are always running tea-rooms. Why, Mary
Hooper has a friend in Boston who does it, and Mary is always telling
about her, for all she’s such a snob.”
“Would you have to sit at a desk near the door and see that
everybody paid up before he could get out?” demanded Will, very
scornfully.
Betty considered. “Why, I don’t know. I might. But if Madeline
plans things she’ll have a desk that the Queen of England would be
dying to sit at, if she saw it,” she ended gaily.
“But are you sure of making money?” demanded father dryly.
“Times are bad——”
“But even in bad times people have to eat,” Betty took him up
hastily. “And if tea is sixty cents a pound, and there are piles of cups
in that, and you sell a cup for ten cents, how can you help making
money? People do, in tea-rooms, or they wouldn’t be sprouting up
everywhere. And if it can be done I’m sure Madeline and Babbie and
I can do it. I just know we can!”
Mr. Wales’s glance traveled from Betty’s dancing eyes to her
mouth with its pleading curves. “Well, mother,” he said, “shall we let
her try?”
Mrs. Wales hesitated. “I don’t like the idea at all, but under the
circumstances——”
“We’ll talk it over and let you know in the morning,” father
suggested.
“Betty,” began little Dorothy forlornly, “you said I could be ’sistant
cook as soon as I learned to toast the bread and not burn it. And now
I’ve learned. If you go away and have a tea-room, I think I ought to
be something in that.”
“You can be a silent partner, mademoiselle,” suggested Will
teasingly.
“What’s that?” demanded Dorothy.
“About the same thing as a company, I guess,” explained Will.
“Betty can call herself Betty Wales & Co., and you can be the Co.
See?”
“Of course I see,” declared Dorothy with great dignity. “And I think
I’d rather be a Co. than a ’sistant cook. Don’t forget that I’m the Co.,
Betty.”
“I won’t,” Betty promised laughingly. But she gave “Co.” a hug
that made the little girl gasp for breath. The tea-room might be mere
fun for Madeline and Babbie, and father and mother might look upon
it as a foolish fad; but to Betty it was solemn earnest, and the
unqualified interest and approval of even one little girl, who didn’t
understand, helped.
 CHAPTER IV
PLANS AND PARTIES

Next morning Mr. Wales called Betty into the library to tell her
she might do as she liked about the tea-room. His voice broke as he
explained that unless things took a sudden turn for the better they
should probably have to give up their house, at least for a year or so.
“So your present position is likely to be abolished,” he went on
with a rather forlorn attempt at gaiety, “and I heartily sympathize with
your wish to be up and doing. I hate to think that a daughter of mine
needs to work, but I’m glad she isn’t afraid to. It used to be the
fashion for young ladies whose families had lost their money to sit at
home, turning and mending their clothes and remembering better
days.”
“I know—like Mary Hooper’s great-aunts,” laughed Betty. “That’s
so stupid. I’m glad I was born later. But, father, did mother come
around to the restaurant idea? Because maybe Nan or Rachel or
somebody could get me a place to teach, if mother would be happier
about it. But girls who want to work don’t all teach nowadays. Truly
they don’t.”
Mr. Wales laughed. “That’s another antiquated notion, is it—that
teaching is the only ‘genteel’ calling? Your mother and I about came
to that conclusion last night. Anyway we’re quite willing that you
should try out this project. I will give you the money that your board
here would cost for the rest of the winter. You can use it as capital if
you like, but I should strongly advise holding it as an emergency fund
for personal expenses. Tea may be sixty cents a pound and ten
cents a cup, but I imagine you’ll find that’s only one very small detail
in the budget of a tea-room.”
“Of course,” agreed Betty, not daring to avow complete ignorance
of the meaning of a budget. “And thank you ever so much, father, for
letting me try. If we don’t succeed and my emergency fund gives out,
will you send me some beautiful references as a cook?”
“Certainly not, after you’ve basely deserted us with less than a
week’s notice,” retorted her father, pulling a yellow curl, and Betty
danced off, perfectly delighted at the exciting prospects before her,
to look over her clothes and make a list of other things she should
need “in her business.” But her ideas of the duties of her position
were so vague and businesslike, and clothes so very uninteresting,
that she finally decided not to waste her last week at home over
them. If Madeline thought her shirt-waists looked too frivolous, she
could overwhelm her with the six big aprons and Will’s cook-book.
Betty timed her arrival in New York a day after Madeline’s, but
only Babbie Hildreth met her train.
“Madeline’s stuck in the fog down the harbor,” she explained. “So
when I came last night I got the key from the tailor and hunted up the
cook, all by myself, and she brought the cat just as Madeline said
she would. And then that nice Mrs. Bob, the one we met before,
helped me give a party.”
“How did you happen to be giving a party?” laughed Betty.
“Because Mrs. Bob was tired of her own apartment. It’s perfectly
gorgeous, you know, since they got all that money, but she says it’s
so elegant and well-kept that it spoils the informality of things. So the
cook swept, and we dusted, and Mr. Bob invited the people and
bought the food. It was great.” Babbie gave a comical little skip to
emphasize her complete satisfaction with life. Then suddenly her
small face took on its most serious expression. “And to think how
miserable I’ve been lately. Poor mother was glad enough to let me
come down here, I’m afraid, I was so cross. I’m never going to look
at a young man again, Betty Wales, as long as I live. So there now!”
Betty patted Babbie’s arm soothingly. “That won’t prevent their
looking at you, I’m afraid,” she suggested, “at least not unless you
stop buying such becoming hats.”
Babbie frowned. “One can’t turn oneself into a frump, just on their
account. Buying becoming hats is one of the chief consolations of
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