Accrual income versus cash flow for a period. Thomas Book Sales, Inc., supplies textbooks to college and university bookstores. The books are shipped with a proviso that they must be paid

for within $30$ days. For simplicity, assume there are no returns and no bad debts $($i$.$e$.,$ bookstores pay on time$).$ This year, Thomas shipped and billed book titles totaling $$620,000.$ Collections,

during the year totaled $$567,294.$ The company spent $$251,049$ acquiring the books that it shipped.

a$.$ Using accrual accounting and the preceding values, show the firm's net profit for the past year.

b$.$ Using cash accounting and the preceding values, show the firm's net cash flow for the past year.

c$.$ Explain why the accrual and cash accounting methods show different net profits. How do the two profit figures provide different information to the financial manager?