ABA President Robert Sindelar Urges Booksellers to Submit to ABACUS Today

Dear Fellow Bookseller,

This Friday, July 13, is the deadline for beginning this year’s ABACUS annual financial report. I am not exaggerating when I say that ABACUS provides unparalleled bookstore financial information — and that it makes this data relevant and actionable to your business.

Filling out the five-page ABACUS form will take you less than an hour. It will ask you general information about your store, inventory, and staffing, as well as information that you will already have on hand from your business’ income statement and balance sheet.

In return, you will get a full picture of your store’s financial performance, presented with benchmarking information across a number of categories, including sales volume, profitability, and market size. And access to online tools will allow you to generate additional reports.

You can begin the submission process by going to www.ABACUSbenchmarking.com. If your store participated last year, the store account information has been carried forward. If you are participating in ABACUS for the first time, you will need to create an account to access the site. You do not have to complete your submission by Friday, but that is the deadline for beginning your submission.

Join the ABACUS community. You will not regret it, not for a second. And the more bookstores that participate in ABACUS, the stronger the report will be.

If you have any questions about ABACUS, you can e-mail ABA Senior Strategy Officer Dan Cullen.

Robert Sindelar
President, American Booksellers Association
Third Place Books
Lake Forest Park and Seattle, Washington

P.S. And a reminder that stores submitting to ABACUS for the first time will be able to register an additional staff person for the 2019 Winter Institute, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.