Theresa, a cash basis taxpayer, purchased a bond on july 1, 2014, for $10,000, plus $400 of accrued interest. the bond paid $800 of interest each december 31. on march 31, 2018, she sold the bond for $9,800, which included $200 of accrued interest.

The importance is particulalrly acute if your career consists of serving 
those clients, i.e., if that's how you make your living. If that's the case, 
then client records must be completed correctly, because if you don't, 
then it's only a matter of time before one of your mistakes is discovered 
and you find yourself in deep doo doo.  

Depending on exactly what kind of business you are in, correcting your
mistake might cost you big bucks.  But whether or not it costs you anything, 
the news that you don't always complete your clients' records correctly will 
spread like wildfire throughout your market of potential clients, and you will 
soon be out of business because you have no more clients. (They have all 
taken their business to somebody else.)  

You'll then be out on the street looking for another way to make a living, and 
wherever you go, your reputation for sloppy work and inaccuracy will ride into 
the employment interview on your back.  You may have to start at the bottom 
again, settling for a job where you have no clients ... and I can't even think of 
a job like that just now.