THE. .SCIENCE O T A IN D AC COUNT I IN G C tt A .S. A Science -OF- Coosc Ccaf Book -Keeping AND flccotmting. GHAS. A, SWEETLAND, PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT. PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR Cbas. H. Swcetland, Century Buildimj, St. Louix, Mo., P. O. Box 838. First Edition April, 1903 Second Edition December, 1903 Third Edition February, 1904 SPRECKELS COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY CHAS. A. SWEETLAND, St. Louis ^ Mo. All Rights Reserved. INTRODUCTORY. Loose leaf book-keeping is a development of very recent years. It is an evolution from the necessity of pinning several important sheets together to pre- serve their continuity. Like any other of the world's best, and most modern methods it was American in its birth, and has been, so far in its existence, almost exclusively American in its use. The conservatism of the old world has as yet prevented any general application of the idea to the business methods there. It has come to stay how- ever, and will gradually spread throughout the entire accounting system of the world. Primarily the term Loose Leaf as applied to book- keeping, means books from which leaves may be removed, or in which leaves may be inserted at pleasure, as distinguished from bound books in which the leaves are sewed and thus permanently fixed. The same general rules apply in double entry book- keeping, whether bound or loose leaf books are used. In the keeping of books on the loose leaf plan, how- ever, many details can be changed and a number of advantages gained by which a great saving of time and labor is effected, and accuracy assured. A beautiful mosaic may be arranged, each piece dovetailing perfectly with its fellow, thus making a system which would be impossible to devise if bound books were used. The public accountant and expert must recognize the new arrival because they are expected to be always able to meet existing conditions. Those who are now using loose leaf books can double their value if they know just how to best adapt them to their business ; how to get the most perfect results from the least labor. The book-keeper must inform himself thoroughly upon this system of book-keeping or his position will be in jeopardy. Schools and business colleges must teach the loose leaf accounting system, or fail to be up to date. Auditors and accountants everywhere need a knowledge of the proper use of this system as they must meet it in their business. Proprietors and managers desire information of its advantages or disadvantages, so that they may be able to act intelligently in bettering their accounting methods. Hence the necessity for this work. To point the way in as simple a descriptive manner as possible is the object of this book. The author's experience with every known system of book-keep- ing enables him to speak with authority as to this, the latest method of accountancy. The information given within is applicable to loose leaf book-keeping no matter what make of binders and leaves arc employed. It embodies the principles of the most progressive book-keeping methods and is thoroughly up to date. The Science of Loose Leaf Book-Keeping and Accounting CONTENTS. Chap. Page. Index of Forms " 6 1 Loose Leaf Accounting Systems. Their Advantages 9 2 The Loose Leaf Ledger. How to open and how to use it 16 3 The Loose Leaf Ledger continued. Rulings 25 4 The Loose Leaf Ledger continued 40 5 Indexing. Alphabetical States and Towns Nu- merical Special 47 6 Loose Leaf in the Voucher System 63 7 Loose Leaf Cash Books. The Advantages of the Perpetual System 76 8 Loose Leaf Journals. How to operate them -... 86 9 Special Books, Including Account of Sales, Com- parative Statement Books, Payrolls, Time Books, Cost Accounting Books, Perpetual Trial Balance Books, Purchase Record, etc., etc.... 92 10 Loose Leaf Books in Banks and Trust Companies. 114 11 Loose Leaf Books in Insurance, Stock Brokers, Tel- ephone, Telegraph and Water Companies, Gas and Electric Light Companies, etc., etc 128 12 Loose Leaf Books in the Installment Business 144 13 Loose Leaf Books in Wholesale Houses 151 14 Loose Leaf Books in Retail Houses, where a credit business is done 163 15 Loose Leaf Books in Manufacturing Plants 172 16 Loose Leaf Books in the Transportation Companies 180 17 Loose Leaf Books in the Lumber Business 187 18 Loose Leaf Books in Municipal Work 191 19 Statements 200 20 The Bill and Charge System 204 21 Odds and Ends. How to save money in Business. The Long Way and the Short Way. Various Suggestions 211 Topical Index . . 237 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. INDEX OF FORMS. Desiring to show form as large as possible, only the ruled portion is given. Loose leaf binders hold the leaves to- gether by clamping them tightly, over posts and devices of different patterns; hence in making up a form for copy, from one and one-half to two and one-half inches must be left blank at the left of the form to provide for bind- ing space. The punching of the leaves to fit over the posts, and the device to produce a flat opening effect is in this space, which is not used for any writing. No. Name. Page 1 Ledger Center cols 26 2 Ledger, Center cols., Double bal 28 3 Ledger, Outside cols., Double bal 30 4 Ledger, Double Dr. col 32 5 Ledger, Retail Item 34 6 Ledger, Sundry or Petty Account. 36 7 Ledger, Center cols 38 8 Voucher Record, Leaf 72 8 Voucher Record Leaf (Continued) . . 73 9 Cash Leaf, Receipts 82 10 Cash Leaf, Disbursements 82 12 Ledger, Extra Item 40 13 Cash Journal 90 14 Sales Record 94 15 Purchase Record 94 16 Building and Loan Register 100 17 Secret Society Ledger 102 18 Seed Distribution Record 100 19 Lumber Call Book 189 21 Box Making Record Ill 22 Bank Ledger, Small 116 23 Bank Ledger, Large 117 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 7 No. Name. Page 24 Statement Daily Balance 118 25 Note Register 120 26 Discount Ledger, Bank 121 27 Balance Book, Bank 121 28 Daily Balance (Patent) 126 29 Policy Record, Insurance 132 30 Expiration Record, Insurance 132 31 Water Company, Ledger 138 32 Electric Company, Ledger 177 33 Gas Company, Ledger 142 34 Telephone Company, Ledger 140 35 Physician's Ledger 218 36 Corporation Cash Journal 218 37 Transfer Index Card 224 38 Bond Register 226 39 Foreign Shipment Register 226 40 Real Esate Loan Register 228 41 Newspaper Advertising Ledger 228 42 Telephone Register 177 43 Peculiar Ledger Ruling 232 44 Profit and Loss Register 230 45 Department Sales Record 232 46 Special Assessment Warrant Register .195 47 Order Form 234 48 Voucher Record 173 48 Voucher Record (Continued) 173 Topical Index 237 CHAPTER i. LOOSE LEAF ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS, THEIR ADVANTAGES. No improvement since the introduction of double entry book-keeping has been of such importance as that of the removable leaf systems in accounting books. Like other changes the introduction of this system has met with violent opposition, especially from three classes the non-progressive book-keeper, the over- cautious business man and the makers of sewed books ; but the large number of enterprising firms, who are now using perpetual accounting systems, and the general movement of the banks in this direc- tion have almost demoralized the "objectors" and rendered their efforts as useless as Don Quixote's famous tilt against the windmills. The opposition of the N. P. B. comes mainly from the fact that he don't know the advantages accruing to himself from the use of loose leaf books and he is too lazy to learn. As an instance one of this kind was asked if he knew about the loose leaf system and he replied, "No I don't know anything about it and I don't want to." When an endeavor was made, in spite of his curtness to explain some of its most salient features, he said : "You might as well save your breath I would not make a change, even if I KNEW it would save me time." 10 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. The over-cautious business man is he who is constantly in fear that his books may be manipulated, afraid that loose leaves, would be flying around the office like a flock of pigeons or that the book-keeper in a fit of absentmindedness, would use a page of the ledger for a handkerchief. He is a back number now, but still in evidence. It is he who has raised the question of the loose leaf ledger in court. This question is one which will not be considered seriously by the well-informed bookkeeper or busi- ness man. In the first place, it is not the book of original entry and even if it were, the fact that nine- tenths of the firms now use the bill and charge system, filing their loose sheet charges in an order binder would show that any properly kept, consecu- tive record, either by date or number, is admissible in any court of the United States. I will not enumerate the disadvantages of other systems, but will briefly take up the advantages claimed and proven for the loose leaf ledger. First, the elasticity of the account. No more long pages and short pages, no more giving a man an eighth when he should have had a half, no more double-double to utilize space. The loose leaf adjusts itself to the occasion, whether an account contains one item or ten thousand. This fact in itself ought to prove the usefulness and practicability of the system, but there are others. Second. This ledger is perpetual. After you have once opened your ledger you can take a long breath, for you will never have to open another. If a man LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 11 who traded with you six years before again renewed his business dealings, his account leaf, made six years before, would be taken from the transfer to the current ledger, and the account would go along as though there had been no interruption. The fact that long accounts are kept in continuous, consecutive order in the transfer ledger enables a ready reference for a period of years, whereas, if kept in any other manner, you would have to pull down the books, covered with the accumulated dust of ages, and examine many of them, and often many places in each. Third. The loose sheet can be fully used while with bound books at least twenty-five per cent of the space is wasted. Fourth. The saving of time. This is so import- ant that it might have been considered first. With the loose leaf system full pages and balanced accounts are transferred at given periods (once a month being often enough) to the transfer ledger which is a duplicate of the regular or current ledger in index- ing features. The elimination of these dead accounts renders the taking of a balance a very easy matter without the liability of passing open accounts. As one leaf is reserved for each account and the accounts follow each other in alphabetical order the dangerous error of posting to a wrong account (an error which makes a presumably correct balance-sheet incorrect, and which is extremely difficult to discover) is entirely avoided. Accounts can be arranged in any manner to best facilitate posting, and the salesbook entries, 12 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. or the loose sheet charges can be made or assorted in such a manner as to accord with the arrangement of the ledger, thus enabling posting to be done in one half of the time required in sewed books. Another point of importance is that should any change be necessary, such as from alphabetical arrangement to salesmen's routes, or to states, and towns, it can be made rapidly, perfectly, and without the stroke of a pen or any disturbance of the equil- ibrium of the ledger by interchanging the leaves. The self-indexing feature also makes the work lighter, and on account of the expansive properties of each account, it offers better results in this direction than the self-indexed ledger, which, it is but fair to admit, is an improvement upon the old sewed book, with its folio and separate index. An account can be found and the posting made in a loose leaf book quicker than the folio can be found in the best index. Many book-keepers using this system have done away with any written index or account number, filing pages in the same order as the names would appear in a directory. This one must admit, is a great time-saver. There may be a question as to the advisability of this method in the minds of some, but those who use it are lavish in its praise. Taken altogether it is not too much to claim that there is a saving of 33 1-3 per cent in time by the use of this system and as time is the most valuable commodity a merchant buys, and one upon which he does not appear to reap a profit, it would pay him LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 13 to introduce the system if it cost him ten times as much as. any other. The facts are, however, that it does not cost any more than special, made to order, books (in the long run), and costs less than some of the other systems. By the use of loose leaf accounting system all congestion of work at the end of the month, or year, can be avoided, as the books can be distributed to several clerks if necessary, who can work upon them at the same time. The system can be augmented or diminished, re- arranged or readjusted at any time without cessation of business or transfer of accounts. Usually firms introducing the loose leaf system adopt it first for their sales ledgers and in this connection I would say that each sales ledger, no matter how many are used, should be handled inde- pendently, and each one separately balanced. This can be readily accomplished by having separate col- umns for each ledger in cash books, and by keeping separate sales ledger or Accounts Receivable ac- counts for each ledger in the General or Private ledger. The latter ledger may also be loose leaf, but many firms still prefer a small sewed ledger for this pur- pose, as the accounts and entries are comparatively few. So far I have only considered the loose leaf system as applied to Ledger service, but I would say that many advantages are urged for the use of the sys- tem in Cash Books, Journals, Purchase Ledgers, 14 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. Sales Books (when still in use), Perpetual Balance System, Pay Roll Books, Stock Books, Price Books, Cost Books, Inventories, Bills Receivable or Bills Payable Books or any special records, either neces- sary or desirable to be kept. These advantages will be taken up in future chapters. It makes the most perfect note record in the world, especially for firms carrying a large number of notes, dividing them alphabetically or numerically and giv- ing a perfect and permanent record of partial pay- ments. Not many years ago the railway passenger trains of the United States were equipped with chain brakes, and the engineer had to whistle down two miles from a station in order to get the train stopped anywhere near it. Numerous brakemen had to be employed on each train. Then came the pneumatic brake. Wiseacres shook their heads, and said it would never work, that it could not be relied upon; but it does work. The chain brake has passed away entirely for passenger service, and nearly so in freight service. The improvement not only proved beneficial to the public but an economy to the rail- roads, lessening the number of men required to man the trains, and the danger of accident. Thus the loose leaf or perpetual ledger system ts come to render a perfect service, to lessen ex- nse, and to provide a simpler and safer salient, of keeping accounts. I have never heard of but one firm that had what seemed to be a legitimate objection to offer against the use of the system in their business. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 15 The advantages had been explained fully and care- fully to the attentive gentleman. He finally said : "Well, it seems to be all right, except for one thing. If I were to eliminate the dead accounts in my business I should have to go into bankruptcy." HE WAS AN UNDERTAKER. In the purchase of loose leaf books as the binder is supposed to outlast many thousand leaves, the fea- tures to look to are strength, durability, v ease in manipulation and appearance. Any manufacturing stationer can furnish leaves of equal merit, but the main rivalry in perpetual accounting books is in the various devices patented for holding the leaves firm- ly in place and their facility in opening or closing, for extracting or inserting leaves, and the methods of obviating the spring or bulge in the thick ledger paper at the hinge edge, to produce a flat opening- effect. These, then, should be the points closely looked into by those introducing the books, for the best is always the cheapest in the long run. 16 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. CHAPTER 2. THE LOOSE-LEAF LEDGER. HOW TO OPEN AND HOW TO USE IT. Every book-keeper is familiar with the regular, or as I would term it, the otd style ledger. He knows its purposes and its peculiarities. It has been the object for a number of years past to make improve- ments upon the old style le'dger, and to that end there have been several inovations, in the shape of bound books, arranging accounts in different manners, changing the indexing features, revising and im- proving several points, calculated to lessen labor or produce better results, thus making the book more convenient to handle, but it was not until the idea of the interchangeable leaf became a certainty and the methods of rapid handling were evolved, that the public recognized the greatest improvement ever inaugurated. The essential idea of the Loose Leaf Ledger and the one N which gives it its greatest value, is that the working ledger may be kept current and all closed accounts, rilled pages, etc., etc., transferred to another binder, which is considered a book of reference. Containing, as it should, no open accounts, it bears no relation whatever to the general balance. As under the Loose Leaf System, a separate leaf is required for every account, it will be evident that a much smaller leaf may be used in this system than LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 17 in the old style books. As any number of leaves may be given to one account whenever necessary- there is no limit to the expansion. Old style books frequently had six, eight and ten accounts on a page, and in the purchasing of a ledger, the necessity of large accounts had to be considered, and a space necessary for smaller accounts was arranged by cut- ting up large pages into spaces of appropriate size, no matter how many might be required. As the loose leaf theory is exactly the opposite, it will be seen that it is unnecessary to provide for large ac- counts, for the reason that no matter how small the page may be, as soon as it is necessary a new leaf can be introduced, and so continue indefinitely, giv- ing all the room required for large accounts, while short leaves for small accounts will of course always be ample. The advantages of having each account upon a separate leaf are many. In the first place, it renders errors in posting very unlikely to occur. As each account is absolutely independent, it would be almost impossible to post upon a wrong leaf while the op- portunity for erroneous posting upon a page where six or eight accounts are clustered together is ever present. One account to a leaf means a much easier balance sheet, with very little opportunity for passing- open accounts. In fact, with the Loose Leaf System, a balance can be taken off the sales ledger without using names of the accounts, certain sections being taken by form, and a recapitulation made of the different sections. 18 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. Another advantage gained from the individual leaf account, is that of perpetuity. Loose Leaf Ledgers are called perpetual from the fact that after once be- ing introduced, there would follow from year to year no necessity of opening new ledgers except it might arise from the expansion of the business. It will be very readily seen that if an account has been opened on a leaf, it exists, whether it is unpaid and in the current ledger, or balanced and in the transfer ledger. Suppose the account of Smith & Co., had been balanced and taken to the transfer ledger, later on (we will say two or three months) Smith & Co., buy again. It is obvious that, as the account of Smith & Co., has been started, and the leaf has not been filled, that it is quite unnecessary to open another account, consequently Smith & Co.'s leaf is taken from the transfer ledger, returned to the current ledger to its proper place, and the posting made which makes it current. Thus you will see that should one firm buy but two bills per year of you for ten years, that their entire account would be upon one side of one leaf, as the loose leaf ledger usually averages thirty to forty lines per page. On the other hand, if Smith & Co., had been customers who used ten pages or five sheets per year, making in all fifty sheets for ten years, all of these fifty sheets would be, one after another, in proper consecutive order in the same place, in the same transfer ledger. The above statement in regard to perpetuity of ac- counts, is one that cannot be too lightly passed over, in considering the advantages of the loose leaf ledger. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 19 Those who know the difficulty of tracing up an old account through five or six ledgers, and perhaps five or six places in each ledger, will readily appreciate this wonderful improvement made possible only by interchangeable leaves. From the above statement you will see that it is possible to use in any loose leaf method, every line of every sheet of every account while this is an utter impossibility with books that require re-opening and exchange as the larger accounts fill. The saving of time when posting and balancing has been referred to and will be readily seen from the fact that there is no dead matter to run over or at least a very small proportion of it. In taking a trial balance much time and labor is saved on account of the fact that all of the account leaves follow consecutively, one account to the leaf and there is no necessity of running through the blank leaves, to be certain that no "open account" lurks unsuspected amongst them. Should one alpha- betical section have twenty or thirty leaves and the accounts end at the tenth leaf you can be sure that there are no other accounts in that section (unless you use the sundry leaf which should be at the end of each section). Balances may be read off, copied with or without the names as preferred, or may be taken direct to the adding machine. In the opening of a new loose leaf ledger or ledgers the method of course depends a little upon the index- ing features used. In regard to the best method when 20 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. the ordinary index is used, it is perfectly safe to say, that after taking off a balance from the old style books and proving the same, the balances may be transferred to the loose leaf ledger and afterward sheets can be taken out of ledger, (a small section at a time) and re-arranged in proper alphabetical order. Or a method which is adopted by many houses in order to save time and labor, is to allow accounts in the old ledger to close out by making all credit entries for the opening month or two months in old ledger and by making debit entries in new ledger. Of course by this plan, for a time it will be necessary to combine the old ledger and new ledger in taking off the balance. I do not approve of allowing old ledger to remain open longer than a regular balanc- ing period. In other words your old ledgers are bal- anced. Your new debit postings for succeeding month are made in loose leaf. The credit postings for the month are made in old ledger except in such accounts as have been debited the same month in new ledger. At the close of the month the balance remaining in old ledger should be transferred to loose Teaf, and new balance taken from new books. I think this course is likely to be more satisfactory, easier to handle and less likely to contain errors. A closed account or a filled page should only be transferred from the current ledger to the transfer ledger after the balance has been taken. This is very important. Should transfers be made from time to time during the month and any error be found in the balance, it would be necessary to check through the LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 21 transfer ledger as well as the current ledger which would be a long and tedious task after the transfer ledger becomes voluminous, while it would be a com- paratively easy matter if accounts were left in the current ledger until after the trial balance had been proven and then gleaned out and removed to the transfer ledger. Putting in a Loose Leaf System is not merely pur- chasing a ledger but in order to obtain the best results there should be a general arrangement and systematizing of other departments to render the work of the book-keeper less. For instance, an easy method at present is to post from direct order, or from direct charges, using bill and charge system (explained in another chapter). It is but very little trou- ble for those who have charge of the billing to ar- range the charges before numbering to accord with ledger arrangement. Thus supposing you had two ledgers one A to K and one L to Z. Before charges come to you these charges could be as easily arranged to run alphabetically from A to K and from L to Z as otherwise, and thus numbered consecutively after be- ing arranged, or even if sales book was used it would not be difficult to arrange the records of the sales so that they would run alphabetically and continue thus. When you post, you begin at the front of book, and by the time you have finished the ledger you are through the charges. This obviates the necessity of turning back and forth and thus saves a great deal of time. The chapter on indexing will show you the different methods that may be employed, and of 22 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. course your billing department should conform to whatever method of indexing is used. The most popular plan of handling accounts is on the loose leaf indexing directory principle, or lexicon plan in which case you do not need the account numbered, as the account is inserted in its proper consecutive alphabetical position, being in same po- sition when transferred. In this case it is necessary, or at least it is convenient to open accounts outside of ledger and to insert them after a definite period, say at the close of your day's work. For this pur- pose an ordinary spring back holder the size to cover ledger sheet is used. This holder has a capacity of 50 to 100 sheets, contains a number of blank ledger leaves whereon a new account may be opened and wherein any accounts which it has been found neces- sary to take from transfer may be quickly inserted, and left there until you are ready to open the current ledger and place accounts in their proper alphabetical location. This obviates necessity of opening ledger so often and also provides a sufficient receptacle for loose leaves so they are firmly held together and can- not be mislaid. Of course if this holder should not be gleaned and the several open accounts and trans- fer accounts placed in current ledger every night, the holder forms a part of the current ledger, and must be cared for in same manner. It is not well however to leave accounts any length of time in the temporary holder. It should be the duty of the book- keeper in charge of the ledger to open his book at least once a day and place therein all the leaves upon LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 23 which new accounts have been entered, and those from the transfer upon which new postings have been made. Some book-keepers have abated the necessity of the holder by inserting a number of extra leaves in the back of the ledger, upon which extra leaves new accounts are opened and transferred at regular in- tervals to their proper places. I consider the holder quite a necessary feature and very useful. In case accounts are numbered, the necessity for opening new accounts in holder does not exist, as they are opened consecutively following each section irres- spective of their alphabetical sequence, which of course in this case is a reason why you should always keep a number of blank leaves following any section and thus have plenty of space for opening new ac- counts. By this plan if accounts are taken from transfer and re-opened, they should be placed in holder until night and then put into current binder in their proper numerical place. After the trial balance is taken all closed accounts and filled pages, should be well gleaned out and placed in the transfer binder. Of course an account may be closed and still current, each book-keeper knows his accounts well enough to be able to tell (even if an account is closed) as to whether the cus- tomer is likely to re-open the same within a month or not. Of course with a regular customer whose ac- count is likely to be soon re-opened it is useless labor to transfer it, because to re-open the account it would have to be brought back immediately to current 24 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. ledger. It is well however to keep your ledger as free from dead matter as possible, and the book-keeper who does not do so, is losing one of the greatest ad- vantages of the Loose Leaf System. It is well to remember that loose leaf binders like other things have their limitations and they should not be crowded beyond their normal capacity. When a business grows to such an extent that the new ac- counts are becoming greater in number each month and the capacity of the binder or binders is taxed to the uttermost it becomes important that more binders be purchased and the present binders be split or divided into two or more parts as may be desired. The indexing arrangement may be also split or new indexes with more minute divisions may be pur- chased. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 25 CHAPTER 3- THE LOOSE-LEAF LEDGER Continued. RULINGS. The forms for ledger pages under the Loose Leaf System are as varied as the demands of the cus- tomers require. They may be made up in any desired style, from the simple old style debit and credit sec- tions to the newer forms adapted to different lines of business. A ledger leaf which has proven very popular among book-keepers is one wherein the difference is in the placing of the figure columns in the center of the sheet rather than at the margins (see plate No. i). In this form you will notice that the balance column is in the center of the page with debit column to the left, credit column to the right of it. The ad- vantage of this ruling is that wherever it is neces- sary to rule off accounts only one short line is re- quired for the purpose instead of lines upon each side of the page, as is necessary in the old style ruling. Most book-keepers use the balance columns merely as memoranda entering balances with pencil and con- sidering all balances debit unless they are entered in red ink, or enclosed in a circle. As most balances in a sales ledger are debit one balance column is suf- ficient to meet the requirements of the case, but a double balance column may be introduced showing both debit and credit balance (see plate No. 2) in 26 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. Plate No. 1. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 27 which case of course the balance would be placed in its proper column. Of the two forms above mentioned I much prefer the latter, as it is perfectly clear and requires no more space than the other style. Some book-keepers do not rule off closed accounts, but use their balance column for proving up in same manner as the Safe Guard System, in which case of course balance should be carried into balance column at the close of each month, and should there be no balance it should be indicated by ciphers or a dash. This arrangement has one great advantage, viz., that the entire amount of debits and the entire amount of credits for each customer is shown in the total ad- ditions of debit and credit column and at the end of the year a recapitulation of the individual debits will balance the total debit posting for the year and the recapitulation of the individual total credits will bal- ance the total credit postings for the year, while the total of the individual balances will be a balance for the end of the year and will balance the total debits less the total credits with the 1st of January, preced- ing balance added. Of course where this plan is used the balances at the beginning of the year, or the balances trans- ferred from old books at any given period, should be placed in the balance column and not in the debit or credit posting columns. It is not ne'cessary for me to give in this work all of the different ledger rulings, I could not do so if I wished without producing a very large volume, 28 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 29 but a few other forms may be of sufficient in- terest on account of their difference from the old style ruling. Plate No. 3 shows a ruling which by many is preferred to any other style. It gives the ordinary debit and credit balance columns, but does not place the columns in the center of the page. As far as the use of this form is concerned and its prac- ticability, there is no question but that it is thor- oughly up to date, and can be used to great advant- age in any line of business, not requiring much room in the item columns. Plate No. 4 shows a double debit ruling against a single credit ruling, which is an inovation somewhat unusual. This ruling is especially intended for houses having a large num- ber of debit entries, most of them being paid by monthly check, and therefore largely reduces the number of credits. It is practical in some lines of business and useful in-as-much as it enables more postings to be made upon one page, the necessity for carrying forward accounts thus being lessened. I will give another illustration of regular ledger ruling, and that is in a case where more room is required on the debit item side, than is required on the credit item side, and this ruling is shown in plate No. 5. Qf course the necessity for a ledger of this character only exists where the items them- selves are transferred to the ledger from the sales- sheet or sales-book and really makes the ledger a combination book being in itself explanatory of the entire transaction. These sheets of course must 30 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 31 be somewhat wider than the ordinary ledger to make room for additional spaces required. Some book-keepers and business houses still cling to the old idea of having a "Double Double" ruling thinking that it will save space and ' render the book more useful, but when you take into consid- eration the number of 'small accounts where the largest portion of the page is not used up for a long time, it does not seem that there is any real neces- sity for using the "Double Double" in Loose Leaf Books. Of. course the public have been for many years accustomed to the sewed books wherein, in order to have sufficient amount of space without transferring frequently, the "Double Double" was a great necessity, in-as-much as it enabled book- keepers to have a much larger number of accounts in one ledger, than could be done with the single ruling. The fact however that the expansion of accounts is limitless under the Loose Leaf plan renders the necessity for "Double Double" in ruling absolutely nil. Of course various columns may be introduced made necessary by requirements of any special line of business, for instance, "the terms," "the due date," "requisition number," "salesman" or any other explanatory column required. Necessities of the business can thus be closely followed in the rul- ing of loose sheets and by bringing them within the columns arranged thus, reduces to a very large ex- tent the amount of labor required in keeping an accurate account. On most of the Loose Leaf sheets 32 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 33 the heading of the different columns are printed in and the name of the firm at the head of each sheet, this is a special advantage where columns are in- troduced for a definite use, outside of the regular ledger column. Of course where the regular ruling is made, it is not absolutely necessary to put in printed heads, as a book-keeper with an ounce of sense would be able to tell the different uses of columns without referring to the printed caption. As already stated the different forms of ledger ruling which can be made for Loose Leaf books are inexhaustible and subject only to the indivual needs of the users. Some of these individual needs will be mentioned in their proper place in the following chapters. I will give another illustration (see plate No. 6). This leaf is intended for "Petty Accounts" or "Sundry Accounts" - and if op- ened on an ordinary sized ledger leaf eight or more such accounts may be accommodated. I do not recommend the use of this "Sundry Leaf" in any line of business, as it does away with the primal object sought for in loose leaf accounting, namely an individualized leaf which will contain charges and credits of individuals, whether they are few or many; say that for instance, if a customer purchased but one bill a year for ten years, his en- tire account would appear at the end of that time upon one side of one leaf, whereas if "Petty Ac- count" page is used it would be necessary to re-open this account from year to year, the same as is done in the old style ledger, as it would be manifestly 34 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 35 improper to return the leaf containing seven closed accounts to your current ledger in order to re-open one account. The cost of the leaf is so triflng, that there is really no reason why an individual leaf should not be given to each customer, no matter how small the account, and this will be found the most de- sirable manner of keeping accounts. Never-the-less there are some houses that prefer this leaf for "sundries" on account of the fact that they can per- haps, by this method, lessen the number of ledgers required for their service. Where this leaf is used, it is the best plan to have one or two sundry leaves following each alphabet- ical division. These sundry leaves give room for eight or more accounts to a leaf according to the size of the leaf. In case any sundry or petty account should grow, and require more room, it goes with- out saying that it should be immediately transferred to an individual leaf which should be inserted in its proper place. In regard to disposing of these "Petty Account Leaves" and transferring them from cur- rent ledgers into, transfer ledgers, of course, it can only be done when all of the accounts upon the leaf are closed, except in one way, namely : should one or two accounts only be open on leaf and a desire is felt to transfer this leaf, these accounts may be transferred to another current leaf, and the old leaf removed from current work. In this connection it is practical to use a "Petty Card Ledger'' for this class of accounts, in which case the "Card Ledger LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. LJ LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 37 Account, should be carried in the general ledger and balanced separately. Where a "Petty Ledger Account" is kept in the general ledgers, if the leaves are congregated, and not distributed among the alphabetical divisions a separate charge file should be provided and a sepa- rate column in the cash book for payments. This is of course necessary with the card arrangement, but if the leaves are distributed through their different alphabetical locations, it is unnecessary to have a "Petty Ledger Account," as the charges and credits are entered and posted the same as other accounts. A center ledger ruling without balance columns is shown in Plate No. 7. A ledger ruling giving an extra item space with dating and terms is shown in Plate No. 12, next page. Any desired variations of ruling can be accomp- lished as is illustrated in those presented. One of a peculiar nature is referred to in the last chapter of this book. LOOSE EEAF BOOK-KEEPING. *l LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 39 CHAPTER 4. THE LOOSE-LEAF LEDGER Continued. The durability of the Loose-Leaf Ledger is much greater than the general old style books, and the term perpetual has often been applied to it from the fact that new ledgers do not have to be opened from year to year, and that the binders may be used for many thousand accounts. The current binder (as the holder which contains current accounts is usually called) should contain from 500 to 600 accounts. If more than this num- ber should be handled in one ledger, it becomes cumbersome and unwieldy. If a firm has. 1400 cur- rent accounts or more, it would be best to divide same into three ledgers. Ease in handling is a very essential feature. In the purchase of Loose Leaf books care should be taken that the leaf is not too large, or capacity of current binder too great. It is better to have three ledgers to handle from thir- teen to fifteen hundred accounts, than to endeavor to force them into two ledgers not only for the convenience in handling, but on account of the op- portunity for expansion, which in most cases is made necessary by the growth of the business. There is no necessity for numbering loose leaf binders, on account of the fact that they are not succeeded by other binders, as is the case in sewed books, and the transfers are handled in such man- ner that they do not follow in consecutive numerical order. 40 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. u UJ 5 a u h- < -J a I: LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 41 A transfer binder usually holds one thousand sheets and assuming that it is indexed from A to Z and the necessity for a second transfer binder arises, instead of calling the first one No. I and the second one No. 2, the proper course is to divide the accounts in the first binder placing last portion in the new binder, you would then have accounts in one binder from A to K and accounts in the second binder running from L to Z in same manner. Should accounts be divided from time to time, every time that a new transfer is required in this way, the ar- rangement of accounts is such that any given per- son's account can be found instantly by referring to only one book and whether it should occupy the space of one page or fifty pages, it would be in one place. Some large firms who use a very great number of ledgers have adopted a substitute for transfer binders, which is working very satisfactorily. It is a vertical filing case made to take in sizes of ledger leaves and indexed as fine as may be necessary. With this device, which is in fact a transfer ledger, the leaves taken out of current binder are placed in their proper alphabetical position consecutively in same manner as they would be placed in transfer binder. They are very accessible, easily found and the drawers may be locked if it is deemed necessary. A very valuable use of the transfer binder has been found by many firms in circularizing work. Where it is desired to call the attention of the cus- tomers who have closed their accounts, and stopped 42 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. purchasing to the advantage of your wares it can be done very systematically by running through transfer ledger and taking the names and addresses of such accounts as are in good standing. It will be seen from the method of handling trans- fer accounts that it is a very easy matter to look up back accounts no matter how old they may be, as they are found under any indexing arrangement in same locality for whatever time the loose leaf sys- tem may have been in use. The making of statements from the Loose Leaf Ledger is a simple and easy matter The fact that there are few closed accounts to go over lightens the work materially, and if statements are made con- secutively from each ledger, they will follow in same ord^r as index arrangements indicate, which is quite serviceable under all circumstances. If the index is alphabetical, the statements will naturally be in correct alphabetical order, having been taken con- secutively. If the index is by state or town, the statements for any given section will be together and should index be by salesman's territory it natural- ly follows that each salesman's statements are to- gether and the same admirable arrangement is maintained without any extra labor. On the loose leaf plan it is possible to get out the monthly statements more promptly as extra clerks can be put on the work at one time, where there are a number of ledger binders. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 43 With the large old style bound ledger but one man could work on it and necessarily the statements would always be several days late. Upon each page of the Loose Leaf Ledger will be found the words "Sheet No." In opening a Loose Leaf Ledger every account opened therein would of course be sheet No. I, and as each sheet is filled the numbers follow consecutively, so that in trans- ferring an account it can be traced through from be- ginning to end by sheet numbers. On the same principle it is necessary to use Sheet No. I as the caption of each new account as it is opened. It is usually the case in Loose Leaf books that the columns are headed such as "Date," "Items," "Debit," "Balance," "Credit," "Terms," etc., etc., which is a guide to the proper location of posting. When it is possible for a firm to carry all their accounts in one ledger, that is when total number of "General Accounts," "Sales Accounts" and "Pur- chase Accounts" does not exceed six hundred, it is entirely practical to arrange your ledger for this purpose, in which case it is best to run the "Gen- eral Accounts" and "Personal Accounts" in the front of ledger. The "Sales Accounts" to follow, and the "Purchase Accounts" at the back. Even with this arrangement it is best to carry in your general ledger section a sales ledger account and a purchase ledger account, so that your general ledger section balances independently, and your sales ledger account shows the required balance of the sales ledger section, and your purchase ledger account 44 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. shows the required balance of purchase ledger sec- tion. In order to accomplish this result, it is of course necessary at the end of each month to post through your journal the total debits of the month of the sales ledger under one item, the total credits un- der one item, and the same for the purchase ledger account. If you have more than one sales ledger, it is better to have a separate general ledger and the same principle as laid down for single ledger, will apply for any number of ledgers, which you may use. The only necessity arising from the multi- plicity of ledgers, would be that a proper number of columns must be maintained in cash book, so that the posting of the total credits of each ledger can be obtained at the end of the month and the division of sales be kept in like manner for whatever num- ber of ledgers you carry, or whatever series of ledgers you require. It may be well to explain what is meant by series of ledgers. In some large houses that require fif- teen or twenty current ledgers they are arranged in series form. As one book-keeper might be able to take care of two to four ledgers under the Loose Leaf plan, therefore the number of ledgers under one book-keeper's care would be called series A, those under the next book-keeper's care, series B and so on. Of course with the arrangement of several ledg- ers or several series of ledgers, whichever may be the case, the arrangement of debits and credits should be made to accord with the arrangement of LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 45 the ledgers in order to gain time and avoid mis- takes ; this is quite as necessary as any other portion of the work. The best method of proving postings in the Loose Leaf Ledger or any other, for that matter, which can be used by every one and which is adapted for a business of any character and any size, is to have the total amount of debit postings figured up by bill clerk, prior to posting. The bill clerk should keep a recapitulation book, showing each day's debits of each ledger or series. The book-keeper then takes the "Sales-book," "Sales-sheet" or "Tis- sue" whatever it may be and goes forward with his postings, placing the sheets to be posted from at the left hand of ledger and the posting slip at right hand of ledger. If posting is made, amount posted is jotted upon the posting slip, and at the close post- ing must balance with total amount as indicated by the bill clerk's addition. Some firms prefer to place a slip in ledger at each posting point and either take off amount after the posting is completed upon a posting slip, or if they have a computing machine in the office, it can be done readily with that. The same arrangement of credits is followed by cashier and book-keeper, thus proving the credit postings in same, manner. If this plan is followed carefully the ledger is kept absolutely in daily balance. Of course it is understood that all debit postings from whatever source, must be summarized and all credit postings from whatever source the same. I do not consider it necessary to go into detail in 46 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. regard to the handling of a large business. My ob- ject in this' book is to lay down the general princi- ples which will be applicable to any business house whether they require the services of one book-keeper or ten, of course in the larger concern there would be much minutia necessitated by the character of business, and differing in many respects from each other. I believe the general rules laid down above for balancing will prove satisfactory in every case pro- viding they are handled intelligently by book-keep- ers. Of course, in some small houses we find a book- keeper who acts as bill clerk and cashier also. In this case the proving is not as positive, as when we have someone else to accomplish the primary work, for the reason that it is much more difficult for a person to prove his own work. Many book-keepers or clerks use the check-figure and find it very satisfactory, but it is not the prov- ince of a work of this kind to discuss check-figure systems, and it is best to leave their use entirely to the option of the book-keeper. In closing I wish to say that every book-keeper who is using a "Loose Leaf System" will undoubt- edly appreciate the truth of the saying that it is "the book-keeper's friend," as it makes his work lighter, destroys much of the tediousness of his calling, enables him to accomplish greater results and be absolutely accurate (with less labor), than any other system ever introduced. The book-keepers who have not used the "Loose Leaf System'' may LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING.- 47 not appreciate the full force of this statement, but when they drop the old and adopt the new, they will very soon become convinced of its truth. CHAPTER 5. INDEXING, ALPHABETICAL STATES AND TOWNS NUMERICAL SPECIAL. The greatest saving of time made through the introduction of the Loose Leaf System, is in the im- provement in indexing features, which can be ef- fected through its use. The old style ledger has been vastly improved by various self-indexing arrangements and while they have added to the value of the book and in a meas- ure proved a time saver for the book-keeper, there have been various difficulties impossible to over- come in any sewed books. The principal of these is that the- account is very likely to over-run the amount of space given, thus necessitating a trans- fer of the same and, as the number of spaces under any given alphabetical arrangement is necessarily limited a transfer is frequently made upon subsid- iary leaves inserted after the alphabetical leaves to provide for this very emergency. It will be readily seen that in this arrangement a perfect system of indexing is absolutely impossible. During the early use of the books, while the accounts remain unfilled, it is quite -possible to produce an alphabetical ar- 48 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. rangement which will be more satisfactory than the old plan of having a special index. But when the accounts become rilled and the transfer to the sub- sidiary pages made absolutely necessary, it is im- possible to continue this arrangement, and conse- quently a very large portion of the advantages of the self indexing ledger is thereby completely lost. Again it is manifestly impossible to accurately judge as to the business which may come from the busi- ness which has come. It is true that we can form an idea which may not be very far out of the way, and at the same time the new business taken during the succeeding year may vary materially from business of past years, and thus render our indexing features insufficient for our needs. The Loose Leaf Ledger is absolutely the only ledger which will index alphabetically in correct sequence for the different terms. This admirable feature is made possible only by interchangeable leaves, and no book of whatever nature with permanent leaves can be arranged to produce these results. It is also a fact that with any kind of a sewed ledger manufactured, once every year (or pehaps every two years) new ledgers must be opened, new accounts must be started and old accounts must be transferred. If a firm has 10,000 accounts with about 2,000 of them current, the 2,000 must imme- diately be given a space' in the new books and the other 8,000 as they come in. This has to be done every year or two. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 49 Not so with loose leaf books after the 10,000 customers' accounts have been opened they would never have to be re-opened, whether active or inac- tive and the only accounts necessary to open would be for absolutely new customers. We will first take up plan of alphabetical arrange- ment. Most firms who have a small number of accounts, namely from five hundred to two thousand, prefer the alphabetical arrangement to all others. The Loose Leaf books are made self-indexing by the intro- duction of projecting leather tabbed leaves at proper intervals for each letter of the alphabet, or for sev- eral divisions of each letter of the alphabet running up to two or three hundred. We will consider first the plain twenty-six letter alphabetical division which is used usually in one book and is suitable for about five hundred accounts. In the use of this al- phabetical arrangement the accounts as they are placed in the ledger are properly arranged in con- tinuous alphabetical order, the same as will be found in the directory, for instance, under B, the first ac- count might be, Baker-Benninger & Co., the second Bittner, the third Bobb & Co., the fourth Butler & Brown. You can very readily see that if you had an account for Thomas Brookly & Co., in order to keep proper alphabetical sequence, this account would be inserted between that of Bobb & Co., and Butler & Brown. If you had several Browns (in- dividual) they would be entered according to given 50 LOOSE LEAF. BOOK-KEEPING. name. Albert first, Benjamin second, Charles third, and so on. When the sales ledger is kept in this manner, it is absolutely unnecessary to have any written index whatever, for each page of your ledger is an index page. It is not difficult to turn almost instantly to any account desired, in fact, you can turn to the ac- count and make a posting sooner than you can find the folio in any index. The reason for this is ap- parent as we have noted in previous chapters as the main idea of Loose Leaf Books is to keep your ledger as nearly current as possible. In looking for a name among the various names in your current ledger, you do not have to pass over, or examine a large number of inactive or dead accounts, which you would have to do with a separate index. In. case your sewed books have been in use for a year or more, you are obliged to have a written index in which you enter all the names, and thus the num- ber multiplies rapidly, whether accounts are active or inactive. Where no account number is used and the book- keeper fails to find the leaf for any given name in the current binder, he should examine the transfer binder to see if an account had ever been opened with the customer. A note might be made on divid- ing index leaf when a sheet is transferred, in order to keep the current binder record clear. Some firms find it most convenient, however, to keep a cus- tomer's card index, in which case an account will be marked "new" before it reaches the book-keeper. LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 51 This is explained in Chapter 21. The index arrangement for transfer ledger is ex- actly similar to that of the current ledger, and ac- counts in transfer ledger therefore lie approximate- ly in same position as those in the current ledger and are as easily found. You will readily note by this plan that there is no account number or folio number used in ledger whatever, and that your notation when posting would be an ordinary posting check, which would in- dicate that the amount opposite this check had been posted. At first glance a person does not realize the im- mense saving of book-keeper's time in this method of handling accounts, but perhaps you can gain a little better idea, if I give you an example of saving from the actual experience of a business firm. This firm had altogether during the year three thousand accounts, one thousand being the average number which were current. Under the old system it wa^ necessary to write the names and addresses in the index book, which made three thousand names and addresses during the year. To these accounts the average number of postings were ten to each, mak- ing thirty thousand postings during the year. This occasioned thirty thousand researches in the index in order to ascertain the folio. Their plan was to have the stenographer run through the charges, placing folio thereon in order to aid the book-keeper in his work. This necessitated the writing of folio upon the original order in pencil thirty thousand 52 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. times. The book-keeper upon posting the item placed folio number in its proper place on the charge, which necessitated the book-keeper writing the folio thirty thousand times. Besides counting time necessary to look up names, the summary of this is, the writing of name and address of three thousand people, and the writing of a three-figure folio sixty thousand times, or the unnecessary writ- ing of one hundred and eighty thousand figures in one year. All of this labor is saved by the index system described. As mentioned the alphabet is variously divided for the use of a large number of books, up to sev- eral hundred divisions. It is usual for a firm hav- ing from seven hundred to one thousand current accounts to use two ledgers, and what is called the two-line alphabetical division, or in other words fifty divisions of the alphabet properly made according to letters and formation most natural to occur. Of course the names most common are those beginning with "S", "M", "H" and "B", and these letters are more thoroughly subdivided than others. It is en- tirely proper and frequently the case with parties who only have one ledger who desire the same thor- oughly divided, to purchase the two-line index, which gives them this advantage, that if, at any future time, they find it necessary to have two cur- rent ledgers instead of one, it is not necessary to purchase a new index, as the one which they have in use may be divided and will answer for two books. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 53 Basing each index line of twenty-five characters on an indexing capacity of five hundred accounts, it will thus be seen that if you have fifteen hundred ac- counts and three ledgers you would need a three- line index, or seventy-five divisions of the alphabet. If you have say two thousand accounts and four ledgers, you would need the four-line index or one hundred divisions of the alphabet, and so on. ACCOUNT NUMBER INDEX. Some firms will adhere to the old idea of writing an account number for each account as opened in the Loose Leaf Ledger (described in previous chapter) and it will be seen that wherever this ar- rangement is preferred the saving of writing the names cannot be effected, but the advantages of the loose leaf even in this arrangement are numerous, owing to the fact that a vowel index page may be furnished for each letter, and this is not a separate distinctive book, liable to be mislaid or lost, but is an integral part of the ledger. Of course, where this account number is used, it is absolutely unnecessary to have other than a one line index, consisting of the different letters of the alphabet for accounts do not follow in alphabetical order, but just as they are received and in numerical order, according to ac- count number. Thus it will be quite as easy to find any account by number -whether there are two or two hundred, by the account number given on pre- ceding index page. Of course if transferring of inactive accounts has begun, the account numbers 54 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. will riot run consecutively, but the absence of an account number in the current ledger immediately indicates that it is in the transfer ledger, for it must be in one place or the other. With this arrange- ment it does not matter how the accounts are in- serted, in ledger under each other, as they are classi- fied through the vowel index preceding each letter. They do not however run in the same order as folio numbers of the old style ledger, as each letter is absolutely independent. Account numbers under each index section must start with No. I. American Brass Co., might be account A 3, Baker & Brown might be B 3, Chicago Buggy Co., might be C 12, etc., etc., but the principal advantages gained by those who prefer this method are : First, that it is impossible to lose an account, as each one is consecutively numbered as entered in the ledger and must be forthcoming either in cur- rent or transfer binders, and the index keeps a record of such a number. Second, that the index furnishes a guide to all customers whether accounts are current or closed and by glancing through it the book-keeper can ascertain whether or not an account is a new one. (This does not seem to be of great importance, as it is very unusual for a new account to be opened in any house without the rating of the customer, and the O. K. of the credit-man or proprietor, which would indicate of itself to the book-keeper that the account was % new). Third, that the entering of accounts in the ledger LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 55 may follow consecutively, and a sufficient number of blank leaves kept after each letter at all times, to provide for the opening of new accounts. I feel that the last advantage cited for this method of account number is perhaps the most important and deserving the most attention of any mentioned. It is of course a convenience to be enabled to enter accounts immediately into ledger and perhaps a lit- tle saving of time in the arrangement of such ac- counts, but against this is lost all the time writing index names and account numbers, looking them up every time an account is needed, and the fact that after a number of years they will multiply and pro- duce an index more or less complicated while the former plan does away with all such complications, and provides for them automatically giving an elas- ticity which will allow very few or very many ac- counts. An account number once given always re- mains the same. It is thus easily remembered. I have given tfie advantages of each of these plans considerable space as they are of considerable im- portance to the would-be purchaser or book-keeper. Of course, it is readily seen that although you may have opened your books on the account number plan (Loose Leaf) you can at any time you choose, change them to the straight alphabetical arrange- ment, or on the other hand if you opened them on the alphabetical arrangement and find that it did not work satisfactorily, a change could be made without re-writing to the account number arrangement. Of course such radical changes could not be done were 56 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. it not that the leaves are interchangeable, and may be varied to suit the case. It might be well to say right here that similar changes can be effected from any method of indexing to any other method of in- dexing without re-writing a single page, if the Loose Leaf System is in use. NUMERICAL INDEXING. Numerical indexing is where the account has a number, and is known by that number throughout, much more readily than by the name of the in- dividual, and is found mostly in use by Saving Banks, Building Associations, Trust Co.'s, Insurance Co.'s, Installment Houses and the like. The general numerical system has been adopted by some of the largest concerns of the United States and of course where this system is in use in general conduct of their business, it should also be observed in the arrangement of their ledgers. This in brief is the giving to a customer a definite number, which remains with him throughout all his dealings with the firm, for instance if Brown & Co., were 921, aP orders of Brown & Co., would be 921, all letters re- ceived 921, all communications sent 921, the ledger number 921, and every detail of business would be recognized as belonging to Brown & Co., if it had upon it the number 921. A card index, arranged alphabetically, should be used in connection with this plan. Under the numerical arrangement the ledger leaves may be numbered at the time they are made from one to ten thousand. The numerical index LOUSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 57 labs running through ledger can be introduced as often as desired either in hundreds, fifties or twenty- fives, and merely serve to throw the ledger open close to the point desired. Ordinarily in the business houses the numerical arrangement is not preferred unless they have other things in accord therewith, but the fact that it can be introduced with so little trouble, shows its advantages charly. INDEXING BY STATE AND TOWNS. Probably the most complete indexing that can be done under any plan, is that of subdividing the busi- ness under the state and town alphabetical arrange- ment. Most of the largest business concerns, at least those who use four or more ledgers have adopted this plan as being the most perfect, all things con- sidered. By this arrangement the accounts are divided into states and where it is necessary two or more ledgers may be provided for one state, and in other cases three to six states may be accommodated in one ledger depending entirely upon the amount of busi- ness done in different localities. Then again a ledger is used for miscellaneous numbers of states, and should one of these states begin to show a great in- crease of business, it is not a difficult matter to pro- vide another binder for this growing state, and ex- tract, it from its brothers without interfering in the least with the business arrangement, or being re- quired to write a single name. 58 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. Where this plan is followed the arrangement is as follows : States Alphabetical, as follows : ALA IND. MONT. R. I. ALAS. 1. T. NEB. S. C. ARIZ. IA. NEV. S. D. ARK. KAN. N. H. TENN. CAL. KY. N. J. TEX. COLO. LA. N. M. UTAH CONN. ME. N. Y. VT. DEL. MD. N. C. VA. D. C. MASS. N. D. WASH. FLA. MICH. OHIO W. VA. GA. MINN. OKLA. WIS. IDAHO MISS. OREG. WYO. ILL. MO PENN. Towns Alphabetical, Names Alphabetical under the towns. It is not necessary of course to have a town index leaf made in every instance, in fact it is unnecessary to do so, unless there are one-half dozen or more customers in one town. In this case it would of course be desirable to be able to turn quickly to this one town, and that can be easily effected if di- vision leaves are used, giving the name of the town, which of course would follow its proper state tab. In case no names of towns were desired at all, and at the same time a division wished the alphabet can easily be divided into four parts, one division leaf indicating towns taken from A to F, another G to K. another L to R, and another S to Z. Of course, LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 59 these division leaves following the state tab would indicate to the book-keeper the location of any de- sired town that he may wish to find. One of the greatest advantages of the state and town arrange- ment is, that the book-keeper becomes familiar with the business men's names in certain territories, and a book-keeper who is handling the Missouri and Kansas ledger, or New York ledger, or Oregon ledger, or California ledger, soon learns the cus- tomers in these different points. It also shows at a glance how many customers a firm has at any given point, and how much they have sold in any given town or state during the year. It is conven- ient for making up statements, as statements are made from one ledger, all going in same direction through the mail, and consequently arrive at their destination at about the same time. It is necessary to keep an alphabetical card index in connection with state and town index ledger, for the reason that occasion might come up and does come up at odd times, where name of customer is known and name of town or state in which he is located is not known. In such cases the ledger would not give any indications and a subsidiary card index (which can be used for a great many purposes) will give exact information desired. Another plan of indexing which is sometimes used and which has some good points to recommend is, to arrange accounts by states and alphabetical- ly by customers' names irrespective of towns, put- 60 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. ting the regular alphabetical index tabs under each state. This plan is particularly advantageous where the firm does business in a few states and can possibly aggregate the balance of the United States under one division, and "foreign" under one division. By subdividing the accounts in this manner, it assem- bles all of the customers of a given territory, and in case at any later date it was desirous to change to the state and town indexing plan, it would be very easy to do so without making any transfers or opening new accounts. It would have to be done by the re-assembling of the individual accounts un- der each state according to the alphabetical arrange- ment of the towns, and procuring the proper index tabs and division sheets to accord with the new ar- rangement. SUNDRY ITEMS. The Loose Leaf Ledger as you have seen by pre- ceding chapter affords a limitless opportunity for indexing. I have seen a ledger indexed by geo- graphical divisions, also by railway routes also in salesmen routes and in salesmen names, also by days of the week, in fact, there is no indexing ar- rangement, which cannot be effected through Loose Leaf books. This advantage is shown very clearly and will be spoken of in connection with record books, where the names of commodities, of branches, or of indivduals- may be inserted on projecting tabs of division leaves at will. The general ledger (Loose LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 61 Leaf) is made better by the division leaves giving the names of the different general accounts upon tabs, and also the names of personal ac- counts, thus enabling the book-keeper to turn to them instantly without referring to an index of any character. All that is necessary for a firm to consider, is the character of an index which will best answer its requirements, and it does not matter whether such an index has been constructed before or not, it can be utilized in the Loose Leaf plan of book-keeping and even if it was to a certain extent experimental, it would not involve a great amount of work in case it did not prove wholly satisfactory, to revert to any other plan found to be more desirable. Care should be taken in handling index leaves and division leaves, in order to keep them in good condition. As they extend about one-half an inch from body of book, they are more subject to contact than any other portion of the work, and consequently care should be taken that they are not -torn and mutiliated. They should be made much heavier than the regular ledger sheet, to give them the required strength. INDEXING SUNDRY OR PETTY ACCOUNTS. The great drawback to the use of the Sundry Ac- count Leaf on the Loose Leaf plan, arises from the fact that it is almost impossible to index these ac- counts in such a way that reference may be had to them quickly. Where a leaf is large enough to con- tain eight or more accounts on each side, it becomes 62 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. quite a task to locate any given account unless they are numbered consecutively and indexed in a sepa- rate index. Then again, unless the book-keeper is thoroughly familiar with his accounts, he may not always be certain whether a name occurs in the Sun- dry section or in the regular. Much annoyance and trouble, however is saved, owing to the fact that these accounts, not being very active are necessarily not often referred to. Where a sheet or more for these accounts is placed under each alphabetical sub- division they may be located much more quickly as only the names beginning with that subdivision will be placed on that sheet, but the use of this kind of a sheet on the Loose Leaf plan is never very satis- factory. The rule of absolutely one account on a leaf, and both sides of the sheet devoted to that ac- count, if strictly adhered to will save the book-keeper much annovance and future trouble. LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 63 CHAPTER 6. LOOSE LEAF IN THE VOUCHER SYSTEM. On account of the great variety of rulings, the size of the book and the constancy of its use, the Loose Leaf plan is particularly adapted to the voucher register or distribution account. The voucher record should be used as a distri- bution book, for bills paid or discounted, which have been charged to accounts payable in the monthly totalization. It should show monthly the total amount of purchases and expense, and of course, their proper distrioution. It is usual to have a number of columns, but quite unnecessary to have special colums for items unless four or more entries per month are sure to occur. For occasional items a "Sundries" column can be provided into which all such items may be entered. This column analyzed at the end of the month can be sifted down as fine as may be desired. The different character of vouchers it is not necessary to discuss, as it has no bearing whatever on loose leaf accounting, but the method of handling and entering those vouchers is certainly within the limit of this work. When we are studying a system to gain an idea of its advantages and defects and how the best application may be made to improve the science of book-keeping, it will not do to lose sight of the fact that, at all times, the best book-keeping in the world is that which gives all of the desired results 64 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. with the least amount of labor and with the fewest entries. Book-keeping may be theoretically correct and still four times as many entries made as are actually needed. A better book-keeper taking charge of such a set of books will have them just as accurate in every particular and will not spend one- half of the time of his predecessor or use one-half of the space. To a very great extent the loose leaf plan makes this proposition possible. In the first place on account of the large number of columns necessary on a voucher record to prop- erly distribute the purchases of a manu- facturing, merchandising or railroad plant, a sewed book must be very large. I have seen them two and one-half feet wide, extending when open fully five feet. As the columnar items usually carry across both pages, imagine the labor of tracing to follow the proper line four to six feet from the guiding entry. Think of the great weight of such books, for with such expensive ruling it would be folly to have them less than 500 pages and frequently they run to 800 and 1000 pages. It is desirable on the loose leaf plan to decrease this width as much as possible, eliminating all useless or unnecessary columns and bringing it down if possible to an 18 or 2O-inch sheet. On the loose leaf plan the use of the book is rendered easy by the fact that not more than a dozen or twenty sheets of this size need be handled LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 65 at a time, such a number usually being sufficient for a month's entries of the largest firm's business. At the end of the month and when all of the columnar additions have been verified and posting made, the filled pages of the voucher record may be removed from the temporary holder and placed in the permanent voucher binder. This should, of course, be done only after the balance has been taken, as it may be necessary to do some checking through the voucher record when posting is made direct thereform, and it is always convenient to keep the current work in the current holder until it becomes absolutely inactive. The advantage of passing these filled pages to the permanent binder is apparent, from the fact that it decreases at once the weight and size of the book most used, and at the same time it places the sheets which have been filled with entries in a book which is not used and consequently is not liable to friction. Excessive handling of the filled pages in bound books frequently renders the writing in certain portions illegible, the figures a mere jumble, the edges of the leaf resembling the teeth of a cross-cut saw and ? he whole book presenting an appearance of dil- apidation that is extremely distressful to the heart of a book-keeper who delights in keeping his books in neat and proper shape. Some firms use a voucher book as a journal or distribution record, entering bills after they have been O K'd in the voucher book, giving the proper distribution therein, and posting from this book not only the totals at the end of 66 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. the month, but oft-times other items as may be found necessary. In this case, the bills are fre- quently entered in the voucher record and the vouchers made out for them a considerable time before they are paid; but, of course, it is assumed that after having been once entered in the voucher record, the account may be paid at any time there- after convenient without any further examination and that the time of payment be entered in the voucher record. This use of the voucher record it has not appeared to me to be the proper one. It is fre- quently the case where records are handled in this manner that vouchers become mislaid and cause a considerable annoyance before they can be found or if necessary duplicated. There does not seem to be any necessity in my mind for the issuance of a voucher until such time as a check can be made for the payment of the same, and I also argue that the voucher number and the check number, if pos- sible, should agree, as it facilitates any examination which may be necessary thereafter and renders checking and auditing remarkably easy. If a voucher book is handled in this manner, dis- tributing the purchases of all description to their different departments, and also all expenses of the house, it removes the necessity for extra columns in the cash book and it also removes all distribution from the cash book, thus affording a uniform method for the distribution of goods purchased and expenses LOOSE LEAF ;jOOK-KEEPING. 67 incurred, and by so doing it forms a proper basis for securing automatically the most essential stat- istics of the business. Another advantage of handling the voucher record on this plan is that, it can be kept in exact balance with the bank and the total amount of the vouchers issued for a given period must also be the total amount of the checks issued during the same period. If there are no cash disbursements except through the medium of petty cash (which is described herewith, and which may be handled in the same manner through the voucher record,) the voucher record will also balance with the cash book for any given period. The best method of handling "Petty Cash" where everything is paid by check and vouchered, is to draw .check for as much as needed, say $100. and open a "Petty Cash" account in general ledger, to which account the amount is charged. At any given period the cashier should voucher the petty expenses for the period and run them through in the general way, drawing check for the amount. Suppose at the end of the week the amount paid out of "Petty Cash" was $43.80, the balance would be $56.20 and when check was cashed for expenditures it would restore the petty cash to its original amount $100.00 charged in general ledger. The distribution in the voucher book, of course, depends entirely upon the business followed and differs in almost every case. The main idea in 68 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. arranging a voucher book, should be to introduce columns for such expenditures as come at frequent intervals during the month, and to introduce these columns in such continuity as will bring the separate and necessary data together, and sundry columns should be introduced wherein items may be entered for which no columns have been provided. It will be found possible by this method to reduce to a large extent the width of the voucher record, and by so reducing it, make it more convenient to handle and thus easier to use. The various distribu- tion columns used in the voucher record, and also, of course, upon the voucher, are usually designated by number or letter which becomes familiar to the cashier or book-keeper. The following distribution is from the voucher of a Railway Equipment Co., and distribution of charges is herewith given. A. Machinery. B. General Tools. C. Belting. D. Materials. E. Productive labor. F. Freight and expense on products. G. Commissions. H . Advertising. I. Salesmen's Salaries. K. Office salaries. J. Traveling expense. L. Printing and Stationary. M. Postage. N. Legal and Patents. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 69 O. Office and general expense. P. Non-productive labor. Q. Shops and supplies. R. Tools. S. Telephone and Telegraph. T. Insurance. IL Water tax. V. Fuel and light. W. Rent. It will be seen by a person who studies this arrangement a little, that, while there are a large number of divisions in this voucher it is not well put together, and a better arrangement of it would be as follows : Factory merchandise D. Operating expense E, U, V. Selling expense F, G, H, I, J. General expense K, L, M, N, O, P, S, T, W. Machinery and fixtures A, B, C, Q, R. By arranging the voucher record in the manner last suggested, the reader will see that specific dis- bursements are aggregated according to their purpose, and that at the end of the quarter, half- year, or year, it becomes a very easy matter when these different columns are properly arranged, to bring together the disbursements of the various departments, enabling a statement to be made, which is simple, very easy, both to make and to compre- hend, and at the same time is absolutely the most explicit analysis of the expenditures that could possibly be produced. Taking the above for ex- 70 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. ample, we find that the arrangement and aggregation of these columns given in toto (we will say for the year,) furnishes figures for the Factory merchandise expenditures. Operating expenses. Selling expenses. Machinery and fixtures. The voucher record of one of the largest packing houses of the United States consists of the follow- ing columns. (See plates 48-49, chapter 15.) Date. Voucher number. In favor of. Accounts payable. Advance payments. Date paid. C Cattle. Hogs. Calves. Sheep. Store. Store expense. General expense. . Advanced payments, GENERAL LEDGER. < BRANCHES. , t rv c & 5 2 rr 1. j 1 X pi i <5 7 11 | t | i i ? t It ) * 6 ! lf>: Z U t ^ 3 I z u r- < _j OL J _j Q. t 5 '! J LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 95 corduroy and one half leather, furnishing a very ex- cellent wearing article and one which is found very satisfactory. Account of Sales Books may be made up in any size and style desired and under any other title re- quired. In some cases they are termed "Sales Records," and in still others "Comparative Account of Sales." This book is used principally for the pur- pose of recording the sales as they occur; for the purpose of crediting them to the proper salesman or territory, or to the mail-order department ; or to the direct cash sales department, and only used for the purposes of distribution as recorded, and for comparative statements from month to month and year to year. If it is desirable for the comparative statement to be ready promptly on the first day of each month, it would be well in this book to con- sider the 25th day as the end of the month, the months running from the 26th to the 25th inclusive This gives a few days for the arrangement of the statistics, and the remaining days of the month may just as well be carried on to the sales of the succeed- ing month. Of course, this is not necessary unless the statement is desired for publication or other- wise promptly upon the first. (See Plate No. 14). Pay Roll Hooks may be made up with a list of employes, either divided into departments or not as the case may be. These books may, if desired, be arranged in the manner of a trial balance book, with a short leaf and a long leaf, doing away with 96 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. the necessity or re-writing the names. Frequently the time-book record and the pay-roll record are united in one book. jStocJc Books are arranged in numberless forms, subject to the character of the business and its needs, the principal intention of a stock book being to keep a record of the stock on hand. It should be care- fully handled, and postings made from requisitions, so that at the close of any given period the stock as shown in the stock book may be produced in the stock room ; or in other words, the balance of the stock book for any particular stock room should at any period be the inventory of stock for that room. In stock books no record need be kept of prices whatever. Warehouse Records are really nothing but stock books for warehouse purposes, and are used by the largest houses to keep a record of the receipt of goods and disbursement of goods from the particular warehouse. In this case, it is usual to open an ac- count with each order, crediting when the goods are taken into the warehouse and charging out as they are withdrawn by requisition. Cost Accounting Books. The matter of cost ac- counting is one which has troubled the brain of many a man engaged in the manufacturing business, and various methods have been evolved in order to ar- rive at the definite cost of the finished product. Like all other special books the ruling and require- ments of the sheet for a cost accounting record can- not be clearly expressed in a manner that would be LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 97 suitable to all lines, but it must be a subject for the accounting department in each particular manufac- turing establishment to provide a page suitable for the purpose. The usual manner, however, is to open an account similar to a ledger account, with each lot or article as the case may be, and by the use of time recording devices and reports from the various departments through which the article or articles have passed in the process of manufacture, from the crude material to the finished product, be able to compute the cost of the material included and of the labor necessary to produce, and thus arrive at the net cost of the completed article or lot. LOOSE LEAF OR PERPETUAL TRIAL BALANCE BOOKS. These are made with a long and short leaf. The long leaf containing names of the accounts and one side only of it being used. The short leaves are generally made large enough to carry three months' balances on each side. They are usually ruled with merely a debit and a credit column. Some- times instead of two columns they are made with four columns, the last two being debit and credit bal- ance columns. In totaling these would show the total amount o? debits and the total amount of credits, and the other columns would show the bal- ances. These short sheets are made enough shorter than the long leaves to prevent the covering of the name column on the long leaves. As they usually carry three months on a side, two of these short sheets will take care of a year's business. Additional 98 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. short leaves may be put in as needed, and this does away with the re-writing of the names. The trial balance book of course may be sectionalized the same as the ledgers, and each balanced separately. The indexing of the trial balance book would of course follow the general indexing schenie of the ledgers. Where the loose leaf ledgers, however, are used on a strictly alphabetical or lexicon plan, it is of course impossible to preserve the correct succes- sion of the names on the trial balance book, the only way to obviate this when opening your trial balance book and writing the names in, is to leave blank spaces through the book, and on these blank spaces may be entered the names of new accounts in their proper alphabetical position when they come in. The trial balance book, however, is nothing more or less than a proof of the ledger, and the necessity for writing the names in it is seldom recognized now. The balances or posting totals are usually recorded in the balance book without reference to the names, and where this is done there is no neces- sity whatever for providing blank spaces for new accounts to come in. In such cases the long leaf of the trial balance book for the names may be elimi- nated altogether, and the short leaves only used, with the names of the months at the top. The amounts would then be entered on these sheets one after another as taken from the ledger accounts, Of course in the loose leaf trial balance book where the ledger accounts are arranged on the State plan, it is an easy matter to arrange subdivisions of the LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 99 trial balance the same as the ledgers are arranged, putting in dividing tabs and thus carrying into one binder ultimately all the balance sheets covering a number of different ledgers. Each book-keeper could be provided with a few of these balance sheets and the final proof made by the head book-keeper. Purchase Record. This is one of the most ad- vantageous loose-leaf books for a business house or manufacturing establishment no matter whether their business is large or small. It may be ruled to suit the requirements of the case, the width of the columns varying to suit the amounts to be entered, a simple form being as follows: Size 11x12, (See Plate No. 15). Date, Number, From whom purchased, Amount of bill, Discount, Department, Rebates, O. K.'s, Date received, Date paid, Amount, Remarks. The Purchase Ledger may be dispensed with when this record is kept, as it accounts for all merchandise received in the month to which the indebtedness properly belongs. It eliminates a large quantity of journal work, there being but one journal entry 100 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 1 5 s - i ! I ~ 5 1 1 J : T o s ; e ''' - 1 \ ', +" " \ 1 | 5 i j- - '- . . . * 5 I a Si!; ii \ * H I 3 ! i 3 f- J : " . ; 1 | iiiiiiiiiiii "Ij- -Is- !} 1 i I H -C ^ c 2 *3 , ~ I 5 ^ r I it LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 101 necessary to cover the total merchandise received for the month, thus saving much journal and ledger space. Of course, such expense as may come in the form of bills or purchases should always be handled in this same manner, and where the voucher system is used, is properly distributed at the time of the payment of the bill. It also shows the amount of unpaid accounts, balancing with the Accounts Pay- able Account in the general ledger at the end of each month, and its use faciltates an audit and avoids completely the possibility of paying bills twice. The proper journal entries from the purchase record at the end of the month are Purchase Account to Accounts Payable Then from the cash book or voucher record Sundry Accounts (found in Account Payable column) properly distributed to Purchase Account. Clievk Record. This sheet can be run in the Cash Book Binder, or in a separate binder as preferred, and gives a record of all checks issued, merely giv- ing the figures. The ruling upon this record is usually, date, deposits, check number, amount of check ; and in case two or more bank accounts are kept by the firm, each bank account may be repre- sented by its own section on the same check record, and thus each bank balance 12 attainable at a glance. If desired separate sheets may be used for each bank account and the sheets assembled daily. The use of this record does away with the necessity of keeping check stubs and checks can be blocked in- stead of books a great saving. 102 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING O Z y LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 103 Department Sales. Each department store uses a recapitulation sheet and transfer binder giving the day by day sales for each department, and also the monthly and annual sales for each department. Wherever there is more than one store in operation, the monthly recapitulations for the different houses are kept at headquarters. Building and Loan Association. The special ledger page required for this character of business differs materially in different cases. One of the principal Chi- cago institutions carries a page containing the fol- lowing information in the heading : (See Plate No. 16). Series No. Certificate No. No Shares Loan No. Loan Int. Pmt. Prem. Pmt. Issued to Address Transferred to Address Withdrawn Dues Profit allowed Total Order No. 104 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. Debit side. The columns upon this sheet are arranged as fol- lows : Date (Blank) Installments Fines Interest Premium Loans Sundries r Date Cash Folio Installments Credit side. < Fines Interest Premium Loans Sundries Secret Society Form. Secret Societies use a form which contains in the heading the name of the Society, the name and address of the applicant, and such other information as is necessary. The col- umnar arrangement is as follows : (See Plate No. 17). rDate I Admitted Debit side. J ^ ees ^ Dues Assessment Total LuOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 105 Date (Check) Fees Credit side. Dues Receipt No. Assessments Total This form is made up in a manner which will last for four years, on the basis of there being regular monthly payments, and under the date running down the column each line is printed with the months o* the year being separated at the close of each six months' period by a blank line. Piano Rent Contract. This can be quite a small page, 8 or 9 inches long and of the same width. It contains the name, address, rate per month rented from, notified, Piano returned, balance due. The pages are divided horizontally into twelve columns for each month and so designated, and laterally into four and six sections having the date and amount of payment. On the back of the sheet the contract may be printed, and all of entries are thus made upon the original contract. The following is an ex- ample of the usual rent contract : PIANO RENT CONTRACT. Stock Book St. Louis, This is to certify, That I have this date rented of ROYAL PIANO CO., (Incor- porated), One Piano, Color , No. . with one Stool and one Cover for use of 106 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. which I agree to pay the sum of $ per month, payable monthly in advance, without demand, and expenses of moving same to its destination. If Piano is not kept three (3) months, I agree to pay $ as return drayage on same. I further agree to surrender it in as good condition as when received (usual wear and tear excepted). Upon default of any said payment, or the removal of the Instrument from the place herein described without written consent of ROYAL PIANO CO., (Incorporated), or at the end of any month for which rent has or should have been paid in advance, or upon the refunding of rent money paid for time yet unexpired, ROYAL PIANO CO., (Incorpor- ated), may, without liability for trespass, enter the above described or any other premises wherein said Instrument may be, and take possession thereof without notice or demand. I further agree and declare that no part of this contract is to be construed as a sale of said Instru- ment to me. Should renting continue longer than six months, in event of my then buying said Instrument, as a measure of its depreciation by use, a sum equal to six months' rental, and no more, shall be deducted from the valuation price, $ Signed REFERENCES. Seed Issue Book. " The wholesale seed houses are in the habit of placing a certain amount of seed with their customers at certain times of the year and tak- LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 107 ing back the unsold part at the close of the year. This requires a special style of book, which differs largely among different houses. It is, however, quite desirable to be able to turn immediately to an account and ascertain how much seed has been sent at different times, what was returned and the net results of the different seasons. The sheet that I will give an idea of is calculated to last for five sea- sons. It is made up as follows : TOWN COUNTY STATE POSITION ON MAP. . . . POPULATION Under this heading are subdivisions of about an inch in width, allowing for the number of names of customers in said town. The headings of the differ- ent columns are as follows : (See Plate No. 18). Credit Memo. Rating Name Grass Garden Seeds Poultry Supplies Miscellaneous Goods Floral Designs, Etc. Date TRAVELLER SEASON 1903 -- SEASON 1904 SEASON 1905 SEASON 1906 SEASON 1907. MEMORANDUM. Under the columns headed "Season," there are two sub-heads, Net Cash, and 1st of June. 108 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. Under the "Traveller's" column there is : ist Trip 2nd Trip Correspondence TOTAL SALES. At the bottom of the page the total business se- cured from the town is recapitulated and carried forward for each season. Receiving Boole Grain Elevator. Headed with the Sheet No. and Ledger Folio and Year. The columns are as follows : Date Car No. Initial Station Grain Grade Premium Discount Price Weight Gross, Dock, Net. Over Short Net Procteds Drafts Freight Rate Chgd., Rate Paid, Date Paid. Amount. A Purchase Record Grain Elevator Sheet can be made up in the following form under Shipments in Transit : LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 109 Date Station Car No., Initial. Grain Grade Draft Amount, Date. Shippers' Weight Date Unloaded (Division Line) Date Pro. No. Grain Grade Time Shipment Price Terms Amount Commission Book Receiving. This book is one generally used by all Produce Commission Houses, and contains a record of shipments and of sales from different lots. It should be so arranged that each lot can be kept separately and the amount of sales rendered for the original entry. The heading should be simply, Received From, with the Date and Lot Number. The sheet should be large enough to allow a full record of the Lot, with the double figure columns for Weights and Quantity. A 14x18 sheet is a very desirable size. On the left- hand side of the page the record of sales is entered of the lot in question ; giving the number of the sale, price sold at, amount and total. At the lower left- 110 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. hand portion of the sheet is entered the charges on the shipment : Freight or Express Commission Net Returns Railroad Car No. Advanced Charges Stop Charges Local Charges Condition on Arrival Net Cost On the right-hand side of the sheet would be the Total Gross Proceeds and Rebate. Total Expense is down on the left-hand side of the sheet, the Net Returns and Loss or Profit on the transaction. Also it should show Shrinkage Acct. Sales Rendered Date Cash Remitted, or Cash Credited to Acct., with Advances and Total. Issue Books. Large companies require "Issue Books" for supplies and material, and their variety is such that it will be impossible to give an idea of anywhere near all of them. I have one before me from the Pullman Company, "Issues of Lumber," giving Thickness, Grade and Kind. The columns are : LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. Ill J I 1 4-J -4-> M-H ^ ^ " '1 * , D o i ^ c ^ - > 5 <-> O C : i ^ ! -H rt S G p. [] C v rt SJ-H X/N 1 1 II ? I 03 2r 3 w g s H M *^ S 8 rt c oj o; cu o J3 be ** ^ ^ 03 oj HI J3 . T3 nj rt rt c ^ I' * i* a w -^ o bJO c & o I ^g 2^ ^ s f G ^ ^ W5 1 ^ rt ^ ^ rt >^.S ^ 'o > l ! l- ^^ g S BP ' a* *** * M D ro 5 J= ~ 2 2 -5 ^ g ''!! g -o a-S F;3 p c/5 rO t 6 u z U o ;i I H- fc < J O. 2 z 1 a \ I j 5 ; S t j S "1 I ( t ! ! J ; I ! j g LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 143 work from the books of detail must be kept in ad- dition to the customer's accounts. The telegraph companies in their dealing with the public have not as much need for voluminous customers' ledgers as the telephone, gas or electric light or water com- panies; these four latter lines now-a-days deal with a very large number of private citizens and invari- ably extend to them a certain amount of credit, nec- essitating careful and complete records at all times, kept in such a manner as will be most readily avail- able. Gas, electric and water companies require also a large number of meter registers, arranged in such a manner that the charges can be quickly and properly made to the various users. The customers'" ledgers (See Plates Nos. 31 and 33) are made to have each sheet last several years. On account of various facts before stated in re- gard to the economy of time secured by the intro- duction of the loose leaf books, it is aboslutely sure that the larger the number of current customers' accounts the greater the proportionate benefit at- tained by its introduction. Economy of space, and of time, the relief from transferring; the ready ref- erence, and the quickness of posting and statement or bill-making, mean a lessening of the number of clerical employes, and basing the salary of a clerk or assistant as low as $50 per month, shows a net saving to the firm or corporation of $600 per annum for each person th'us dispensed with; and if there were no other advantages connected with the intro- duction of *he Loose Leaf System in extensive lines 144 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. of business, this should be enough without any ques- tion to decide the "would-be" user in its favor. Electric Lighting Record of Sales Plate 32 and Telephone Ledger Plate 42, will be found in Chap- ter 15. CHAPTER 12. LOOSE LEAP BOOKS IN THE INSTALLMENT BUSINESS. The Installment business in the United States has become one of remarkable prominence ; it has developed from a small beginning into one of the most important industries. We now find Install- ment houses for Furniture, Dry Goods, Ladies* Clothing, Gentlemen's Clothing, Watches, Pianos, Organs, and various other needs. One peculiar feature of the Installment business it that, on account of its nature, the books used, require from 10 to 20 credit entries against one debit entry. This is exactly opposite from the ordinary line of book-keeping, as under ordinary conditions the debit entries far outnumber the credit entries. It is usual with Installment houses in selling a bill of goods, to divide the payments in such a manner as will cover the amount purchased within one year from date of purchase ; but it is frequently the case that they are required to extend this time limit so that it may cover two years of twenty-four monthly entries, or one hundred and four weekly entries on the credit side of the account against a single debit item. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 145 On account of the easy terms upon which goods are sold by this plan, and the fact that poor people or people of the middle class may purchase more than they otherwise would on account of the ad- vantages obtained by monthly or weekly payments, the number of customers carried by Installment houses is very much greater and the length of - time which they are carried is very much longer than in the usual mercantile business; hence it follows that the number of current accounts, or unsettled accounts, for a business of this character, vastly outnumbers the number of current accounts carried by regular merchants. As has been explained in other portions of this work, the loose leaf system when properly installed, renders the work of the book-keeper very much eas- ier to accomplish. It cuts out a considerable amount of unnecessary labor, and saves at least a third of his time. This condition prevailing in an ordinary business, would naturally attach greater importance to a business carrying a much larger number of ac- counts, as the Installment business does, and the saving of time would be proportionately greater. It is usual in the Installment business as it has been operated with the old-style sewed books to give each customer a number, or numbered account, and have a ledger cut up into a great number of small accounts. It is frequently found by this arrangement, the space allowed is insufficient for the entries necessary; consequently, in many cases, the entries have to be credited in two to the line 146 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. or the amount must be transferred to another por- tion of the book, losing its identity and its consecu- tiveness. As each of these numbered accounts only contain one debit entry, in case the parties buy other bills of goods (which is not unlikely, and which frequently occurs) they are given separate accounts and new numbers ; so that should a customer buy during the year four bills, this customer would have in the Installment ledgers f our separate accounts, which it would be necessary for the book- keeper to keep track of, as if it were four different customers. Should a customer pay his account in full and afterwards repurchase, it is necessary also to open a new account. The consequence is that hundreds and perhaps thousands of accounts are opened un- necessarily by the present system. Loose leaf accounting books are therefore the "Sine-qua-non" for the Installment business. The fact that the customer's account ; be it large or small ; be it one debit item or twenty ; be it twelve credit items or two hundred, is kept in one place at all times, whether current or closed, makes this system absolutely invaluable for the installment business. Not only that, but the peculiarities of the busi- ness, before mentioned, which requires numerous credit entries against one debit entry, can be provided for by having two or three credit columns on the same ledger page against one debit column, giving the necessary space for the additional credit entries LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 147 and allowing upon one page the posting work of three pages. As this system is flexible to the highest degree, there is absolutely no necessity for ever opening a new account with a customer who buys a second or third time, as the entries may be all followed consecutively, whether the account is closed or open ; and, if necessary, where double payment is running on a double purchase at the same time, the credit on each purchase may be posted in a separate credit column. With this system there is absolutely no necessity for a transfer of account, as the number of leaves which may be added from time to time, as required, renders it unnecessary. The indexing feature under this system may be arranged according to the need of the proprietors of the business. There is no reason why the num- erical system could not be profitably employed in this regard as it is in sewed books with the ex- ception that with loose leaf books after a number was given to an individual, that number would con- stantly remain for his identification. In most cases, Installment houses use a little book, similar to a bank book, wherein payments are credited and the number of the account is on the outside of this book, guiding the cashier in making the proper entry, both by number and name, and also the book- keeper in making his posting. Of course, in case the numerical plan is used as a guiding feature in indexing, it would be necessary to keep a separate 148 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. card or alphabetical index of some character to indicate the number of the account of any debtor, as there might frequent occasions arise where an amount would be paid by a debtor without reference to the number of his account, being either remitted by mail or paid in person, and it would be necessary in case, the numerical plan was used in this manner, to have some ready reference to ascertain the cus- tomer's number. In case the alphabetical arrangement was used under the Lexicon plan, as explained in the chapter on indexing, any subsidiary index would be unneces- sary ; and still, if it were so desired, the number could be used in connection therewith, and it would be advisable to keep a numerical card index so that if occasion arose where the number of a customer's account was known and not the customer, it would be as readily turned to as by the other system. There are advantages to be claimed for each of the two systems, and it would depend upon the individual preferences of the proprietors as to which they adopted. Loose leaf Cash Books for the Installment busi- ness should be arranged on the debit side, in a col- umnar form, and cover each ledger, and a full des- cription of the advantages of this cash book will be found in chapter 7. The ledgers mentioned above are strictly Install- ment ledgers, and any Installment .house should carry in addition to this a General Ledger, and if desired, a Purchase Ledger, or if the Purchase Rec- LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 149 ord was used (as described in chapter 9), the Pur- chase Ledger could be dispensed with entirely; this is also, a matter of preference. Other loose leaf books which are used to great advantage in Installment houses are : Bills Receivable Book. Bills Payable Book. Inventory Record. Stock Ledger. Collection Tickler. and where the business was sufficiently extended, Time Books, Pay-Rolls and Cost Books. The perpetual trial balance would also be desirable, and in some cases, Recapitulation books. As there are frequent cases in the Installment business where the payments are interrupted some- times with good cause, and sometimes with inten- tion to delay or defraud it produces in this busi- ness, especially, a large number of accounts which might better be out of the regular current ledger and seggregated. This is very readily accomplished by the loose leaf system. A Suspense Binder can be provided; (i. e. a regular binder of the proper size), to which the leaves of the accounts thus dis- posed of may be transferred. This book may form, if desired, a part of the regular monthly balance; or, another way which is still more satisfactory, is to charge out to suspense account all balances on leaves thus taken from the current ledgers, and whenever any payments were made upon these ac- counts held in the suspense ledger, suspense ledger 150 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. should receive the credit in the cash book, with the name of the account subsidiary for direct posting in the suspense ledger. By this manner of keep- ing these accounts, the exact amount of the balance of the suspense account is always immediately de- terminable from the suspense account in the Gen- eral Ledger, and the addition of the balances at any time in the suspense ledger must balance the account in the General Ledger. The great advan- tage of this collating of doubtful accounts, is that they are very easy of access by the credit man; he does not require a list, which may or may not be complete ; he is not obliged to look through one- half dozen ledgers in order to ascertain the slow payments ; but he has every account of this charac- ter ready at all times, and his daily examinations of this ledger will keep him in such constant touch with the conditions that, in the long run, it will make a difference in collections to the firm of a very considerable amount. Like other ledgers, the suspense ledger should have its complement in a transfer, to which are transferred closed accounts the same as any other ledger thus keeping the work current. It is not objectionable, when a sus- pense account is paid up in full, to transfer the sheet to the regular closed account transfer binder. It will then retain its relative position, and in this way all closed accounts will be found in one place. It is also possible to keep the accounts upon the numerical plan, having several accounts to the page. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 151 The advantage of this system in the loose leaf would be that such a record could be kept down in size by eliminating the closed accounts, that is where, every account upon the leaf was closed. Individual leaves are much to be preferred. Taken all in all, from the deductions and explana- tions given, it seems that there is scarcely any bus- iness which is more likely to be benefitted by the use of the loose leaf system than the Installment houses, and the great saving, in time and labor alone, should be sutticient inducement for every Installment house- in the country to introduce the loose leaf system : as labor is the most expensive article purchased, and the wage list and salary list of large houses cut no enormous slice from their gross profits. CHAPTER 13. LOOSE LEAF BOOKS IN WHOLESALE HOUSES. Probably the largest number of loose leaf books now in use in America are in Wholesale houses. They have been the first to recognize and adopt the loose-leaf system, and have found it of such an ad- vantage to them in handling their business, such a saving in time and such a convenience in gen- eral, that the use has spread very rapidly among the wholesale houses in different cities, not only of one commodity, but of all. 152 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. We sometimes meet individuals who say : "Loose leaf books may operate very well in such and such a line, but they would certainly fail to give satisfac- tion in my line." This, of course, is an assertion which it is not at all difficult to disprove. There are no vast differences in the book-keeping departments of wholesale houses. It makes very little difference to the book-keeper whether the final figures of a bill represent Sugar, Boots and Shoes, Drugs, Hard- ware, Millinery or any other commodity; in fact, he seldom knows, except that he sees evidences of the character of the business in his transit from the office through the store. There is absolutely no wholesale business of any character wherein the loose leaf books are not available, and it might be said here; there is no business of any character, which requires book-keeping, that loose leaf books are not both valuable and desirable. The wholesale house pointed the way for Loose Leaf Accounting Books by the use of the original order as a salesbook, bound together on an ordinary Post Binder. It was found to be absloutely un- necessary and a great waste of time to copy bills in a sales book, and the first innovation made in order to lessen this work was to take an impression of the bill in a tissue copy book and post from the tissue. It was soon found to be unnecessary even to do this, as the order blanks are easily constructed so that the prices may be extended into the proper columns, the checking for shipment and for exten- sions made, and the charge ready for posting with- LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 153 out a single item being transferred to another sheet. Using the loose leaf system, these loose charge sheets can be arranged in a manner conforming to the Sales Ledger arrangement, facilitating easy posting; the bill is made direct from these charge sheets, and after arrangement, the charge sheets are numbered consecutively, beginning usually with the beginning of the fiscal year. From the loose leaf order blank, it was but a step to the bill and charge system for city sales ; this system is fully described in Chapter 20. There are many houses who yet cling to the old idea of booking their sales, but it is absolutely unnecessary. A very good plan is to use a loose leaf Sales Record, merely giving the date, number of the bill and the total upon loose sheets for country salesmen separately, city sales- men separately, mail orders, office sales and cash sales if desired. A recapitulation of the result of these daily postings of the separate salesmen and other accounts will give the entire sales for the day, and balance the recapitulation of the loose sheet records as entered for each ledger or series of led- gers. If the book-keeper uses a slip system or the duplicate entry plan, the result of his work will bal- ance the credit to sales accounts as represented by the recapitulation of the loose sheets in the order binders. In the wholesale business, the city department would require the order blank system referred to, the bill and charge system and credit memorandum plan similar to the bill and charge, which dupli- 154 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. cates the credit and is filed in a similar manner for direct posting, duplicate requisi- tion blanks - - which are used by their customers and receiving blank which is used in connection with the requisition system, a stock record book, an inventory book, city delivery re- ceipts, loose leaf price books, recapitulation books, loose leaf catalogues; and in this connection I wish to say, the loose leaf catalogue is a very desirable thing for the wholesale firm, for the reason that any sheet in the catalogue may be changed without dis- turbing the balance of the work, and the catalogues in some lines of business are so very expensive that if they become obsolete on account of change of prices, it is a very costly matter to furnish each sales- man with new ones. This is not the only considera- tion. In the old-style printed catalogues where prices were raised or fluctuations occur, they fre- quently failed to be noted by the salesman, and goods sold from old catalogue, at old prices, involving a considerable loss to the firm. It will be readily seen that by the loose leaf plan, the salesman would be furnished with the leaf from the house, giving the new figures and changes in prices, he would be instructed to insert that leaf at its proper place in his catalogue and "return the old leaf to the house ;" this, of course, would prevent any errors in pricing goods. Besides the books mentioned above, of course, the requisite number of city customers' ledgers, LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 155 monthly statement system and perpetual trial bal- ance would be necessary. In the Buyer's department of wholesale houses they use : Loose Leaf Stock Books. Loose Leaf Quotation Records. Requisition System in duplicate. Loose Leaf Price Books as mentioned above and also the inventory system. All the books used in the Buyer's department as above noted, can be handled with binders and holders, the holders being used to carry as many sheets as are necessary for the current work of the month and then they are transferred to the binder. In some cases, especially in the loose leaf stock book where articles are given an account similar to individual accounts in sales ledger, and the debit and credit for goods received and delivered is maintained, it is necessary to have the alphabetical indexing arrangements and to use one binder for current purposes, and another similarly indexed for transfer purposes. Stock and Warehouse rec- ords kept in this manner are easily available and handled without difficulty and with comparatively little labor. The advantage of Loose Leaf Quota- tion Records, Price Books and Inventory system will be seen very readily from their application in other ways. The sales department would find the loose leaf catalogue for salesmen mentioned above absolutely indispensable. The price book for salesmen, 156 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. order registers, salesmen's expense record and the general sales record can all be handled in the loose leaf with ease, giving the greatest efficiency in this service. The character of information desired by the sales department, the necessity for constant and careful supervision of the work of salesmen is such that, the interchangeable leaf system appeals directly to them as something which will vastly im- prove their methods. It renders the book to be handled much lighter, and allows any size or shape page which may be necessary to convey exactly the information desired. It keeps a perfect record of all matter which has passed^beyond the active stage, and at the same time it keeps the current record all together in one place and constantly before the operator. No other system can do this without the necessity of doing a large amount of superfluous work and at the end of a period leave information stored away in bound books not easily available. Under the head of Loose Sheets, of course, the manifold books for salesmen's use, duplicate, trip- licate, or quadruplicate as required. Order blanks for salesmen, duplicate or triplicate. Receipt blanks for salesmen, expense reports and all other neces- sary reports. The entry departments require the bill and charge blanks in duplicate, triplicate and quadruplicate; also require recapitulation blanks. The pricing department should be provided with the recapitula- tion blanks and loose leaf price books which are LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 157 indexed especially for the purpose and which can be referred to instantly in regard to prices or changes of prices. The profit department should also be provided with loose leaf books, recapitulation blanks and salesmen's ledgers. In the cashiers department the books necessary to be carried are the records referred to in Chapter 7 on loose leaf cash books. The mail order department should have loose leaf records of advertising matter, which has been sent to customers with prices quoted which can be arranged as desired. A key record for advertising should be kept in this department, which should be arranged so that the contract for the advertising is given at the head of the page and the credit for answers received under the key below. At the close of the contract or any given period thereafter, the number of answers received can be computed, the net cost per answer obtained, the number of orders received through the advertisement easily kept track of, and the final results of loss or gain upon the advertising contract determined. This information is of the greatest value to the advertising manager of the concern, as a reference to the results obtained through different mediums enables him to save a LARGE AMOUNT OF THE FIRM'S MONEY iii placing his advertising contracts. In the mail order department should also be kept a loose leaf record of the orders recieved, and such other data as may be deemed necessary or required by the business. The advertising department can use loose leaf 158 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. books to the greatest advantage by carrying their advertising accounts the same as individual accounts, keeping a record of contracts and payments made thereon from information received from the cash- ier; also as to returns from information received from the cashier; also as to the returns from such advertising as is possible to trace from in- formation received from the mail-order de- ' partment, and thus keep the business well in hand. Under the advertising department usually the mat- ter of catalogue and price books is handled, of which I have spoken before in this chapter. We come at last to the Accounting department ; the official center of information. In connection with this department, the chapters upon the ledger No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 fully cover the subject of General ledgers, Private ledgers, Stock ledgers, and Sales ledgers ; also the manner of use. A whole- sale house usually requires in addition to the regu- lar ledgers in this department a Bills Receivable Book, a Suspense ledger, an Attorney's ledger, Ac- counts Payable Book, a Bills Payable Book, Re- capitulation Books for the ledger system, Perpet- ual Trial Balance Book, and in some offices a col- lection Tickler. The Bills Receivable Register can be arranged in the manner best suited to the de- mands of the business ; the ruling and columns can be made to suit any occasion and can be indexed for due dates if desired. The balance of the Bills Re- ceivable represented in this book should at all times \ LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 159 ue the same as the balance of the Bills Receivable account in the General ledger. Some firms carry their Attorney's account in a Suspense ledger; other firms prefer two ledgers one called Suspense carrying such accounts as are inactive and uncertain, but at the same time they have not been given to Attorneys for collection, for reasons. Such suspense accounts are frequently small accounts of disputed items and occasionally accounts of parties who are perfectly good, but on account of some misunderstanding are holding ac- counts open and unpaid. Of course, the Attorney's ledger represents such accounts as have been passed over to the Attorneys for collection. These ledgers should be in duplicate, as it is important that the Suspense and Attorney's ledgers should be kept current. Perhaps more so than any books in the house. The great advant- age of being able to transfer the account in its en- tirety from any Sales ledger direct to the Attorney's ledger, to keep all such accounts together and to be able to make notations furnished by the Collection Agent as to a settlement or prospective settlement upon an original account ; to have this information directly before the eye of the credit man without the necessity of going through a large amount of extraneous matter; and the fact that, they are col- lated and systematically arranged, renders it pos- sible for the credit man to urge the collection very much more readily, and there is no question that the proper use of the Suspense and Attorney's ledger 160 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. WILL DECREASE TO A VERY LARGE EXTENT THE LOSSES OF THE FIRM. The uses of the Accounts Payable and Bills Rec- eivable Books are apparent to every book-keeper. The Recapitulation book should be built up from the ledger system; it should have columns for each ledger or series of ledgers in use and should run both debit and credit. It should be arranged with lines sufficient for the daily recapitulation for one month upon one page; the debit postings for the day being inserted under its proper caption from whatever sources obtained will give in its entirety the total debit postings; the credit postings for the day arranged in their proper columns will give in their entirety the total credit postings for the day; these again taken in connection with the previous day's balance will show the total balance for the day. The daily recapitulations added at the end of the month will give the monthly debit postings from every source, which, taken in connection with the previous month's balance, will give the present months balance. Monthly recapitulations should be kept in the back of the book for each number or series of ledgers, giving the monthly results, and the total of the twelve monthly recapitulations will give the total debit postings from every source for the year, and the total credit postings from every source for the year when taken in connection with the previous year's balance will give the required for the present year. LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 161 The Stock books of large houses can be kept admirably by this plan, so that at the close of any week or any given period, it will be but a small amount of work to tell the exact amount of stock on hand. In each department of the vast wholesale estab- lisments of the country, there are frequently special books required, adapted to their peculiar business. I have endeavored in this chapter to give a general idea of such books as are considered necessary in most large establishments, but I do not desire to have anyone consider that I have mentioned all of the books to which the loose leaf can be adapted in connection with wholesale business, as it would be an impossibility to do this without knowing the particular requirements of the business. It is safe to say, however, that there are no special books used in any line of business that cannot be success- fully converted into loose leaf books, and by that conversion be more advantageously used and more satisfactory in every respect. With the vast advantage offered by the loose leaf system in reducing the weight of books handled and in being able to multiply indefinitely divisions of the work so that any number of clerks can be employed at the same time; in the fact that all dead or inactive matter is released immediately from the operators hands, and so held that it does not require to be disturbed except for reference, and conse- quently is kept in the best condition; the additional fact that no new books have to be opened of ANY 162 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. character after the loose leaf system is thoroughly inaugurated, as it is in itself a perpetual record; and ti.j fact tnat the time 'saved in handling any portion of the work by this method runs from 20 to 40 per cen t are ample reasons for its adoption by any wholesale house. Thousands of the largest wholesale houses in every line are now using loose leaf systems to their satisfaction, and thousands more are changing an- nually from other styles of book-keeping to the loose leaf; surely there could be no stronger argu- ment used favoring a model system than the suc- cessful operation of it by so many of the largest houses. LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 16S CHAPTER 14. LOOSE LEAF BOOKS IN RETAIL HOUSES. WHERE A CREDIT BUSINESS IS DONE. While the introduction of loose leaf books in wholesale houses, banks and other large business institutions is an accomplished fact, it has been taken up but gingerly by the retail trade, and principally from the fact that they are not aware of the proven and particular advantages offered them. In describ- ing the system for any retail grocer business, it will readily give the general system for all branches of trade where a credit business is conducted. Such .changes in detail that are peculiar to the trade, can be easily effected. It is no longer necessary to journalize sales from day-book, an order blank or duplicate sales blank can be used and a carbon copy for posting can be made if desired. Each sales clerk can be provided with case or cover in which these sales- blanks are held, containing both original and dup- licate. The original is given to the customer who takes the goods with him ; or is sent with goods. The duplicate is first used to see that the order is properly rilled, and afterwards passed to the book- keeper, who files it in its proper binder. In this manner it is not difficult to keep cash sales and charge sales separate. The charge sales are filed in a binder, paged consecutively in space provided for the same, afterwards posted by book-keeper; 164 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. but in crcler to facilitate posting, these sales blanks may be arranged alphabetically before being placed in the binder. There is a useful method by which posting can be made with less trouble, and that is a system of statement blanks in duplicate with the ledger account sheet of customer on the left hand side of the binder and statement blank with carbon for duplicating at the right hand, one statement to the leaf, both statement and ledger sheet being carried in the same binder. Posting can be made direct from sales blank to the statement blank and at the end of the month the statement blank is computed and only one posting is necessary to the account upon opposite page. The statement blank is then torn from the book at the perforation and is sent to the customer. The book-keeper will read- ily see that by this method of work at the close of the month, say the 3ist, there would be but one day's posting necessary to complete all of his statements and they can thus be immediately transmitted to the customer. The duplicates of statements or post- ings render an explicit and ever ready account of the one month's posting made to the debit of the customer. The under sheet or duplicate sheet of this statement plan is perfectly plain and is retained in the office, and placed in a permanent binder. Where the business is sufficient to warrant, it is an excellent plan to have a statement binder for each month so that these duplicate statement sheets may be congregated and kept in this binder. In this event the binder is indexed similar to the other LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 165 books, and all of the names are arranged in proper line by the Lexicon System; thus in looking for a name in this book, it would be only necessary to look for it the same as you would in a directory. As the ledger account might possibly over-run the length of a single leaf and thus necessitate the turn- ing of a leaf and entry on left-hand side of the binder where the statement of a customer should be kept this ledger sheet can easily be made in what is called "Tumble Form" so that turning a leaf end for end posting may be continued on right-hand side of binder. Of course ledger ruling can be made in any size or style desired, columnary arrangement can correspond with statement ruling, and with one date column there is no necessity of repetition; but account may continue down the page. Where the balance column is used, the balance is always oppo- site last sales entry, and this is useful in locating balance, and also for the ready reference in regard to status 'of the customer's account. By the ^se of this book every line of every page can be used and as but a very small number of lines are in use each month, the ledger leaf will last a yery long time. The book-keeper should post from sales-blank to statement blank every day, and it is understood that only one account should appear upon one page, as it would be impossible for different accounts to be entered upon the same page or leaf and preserve the "Lexicon System" of arrangement of sheets; which is the greatest feature of loose leaf work and the one which saves the book-keeper the most time 166 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. and annoyance. Upon making the posting from sales blank the number used on the blank is placed upon the statement in column provided and it is very easy at any time to refer to the original charge, and the carbon copy made when the entries are posted furnishes a complete itemized record of every item posted and also every credit made the customer during the month. Of course these post- ings on the statement for grocer business would give every item separately, and any other small busi- ness where the charges are numbered, the statement blank is used in lieu of the sales-book and on this account it is quite necessary to have it explicit in detail, but as this entire operation is accomplished at one time, and as the entire posting of the month is in the ledger under one item, it will not take a very wise man to recognize the great saving of time, the ease in manipulation, certainty of customer's state- ment being out on time, the opportunity for a double check by adding statement and carbon copy sepa- rately and the checking them against each other, and the advantage of the single monthly posting to the customer's account which can be proven at any time by reference to the itemized statement retained in monthly account binder. Credits can be handled in exactly the same manner and it is always a good plan to have the credit blanks on a different colored paper than the sales blank, but of the same size. They can be numbered consecutively each month posted in same manner as debit on statement at the time when the .credit is given and filed each day in LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 167 same manner as sales blanks. Of course at the close of the month it will be necessary to deduct from the total of the charges the entire amount of credits during the month, which will leave the total amount of customers' monthly purchases. Of course state- ment will then show, itemized, all goods purchased with dates, and also the proper credits for all goods returned. The cash paid during the month will be posted direct to customer's ledger account and will not ap- pear upon the statement until the end of the month, at which time it would of course have to-be shown together with the previous month's balance and deducted therefrom, the result added to the month's purchases will then show total amount due. If this is done there is no further necessity for labor, ex- cept to tear off statements at perforation and mail them direct to customers. The total of each cus- tomer's purchases, less credit for goods returned, should be posted to the ledger account as soon as it is totaled. A vertical file can be used for filing duplicate state- ments if it is desired under alphabetical order, which will do away to a large extent with the number of binders necessary for the duplicate monthly state- ments. It will be readily seen that as soon as dupli- cate statements are removed from current binder, it will be necessary for another set of statements to be inserted, so that same may be ready immediately for the new month's business. It is usual in retail houses to have a recapitulation sheet of each day's sales 168 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. made up by the book-keeper or assistant, and veri- fied by reports of the sales of each clerk, added to show the total sales. This verification is rendered easy on account of the fact that each sales book of the salesman is numbered or lettered, and in the recapitulation sheet will appear in its proper column. It is not neces- sary to combine this statement form for a retail ledger. I have given it first on account of the fact that I consider it the best possible method of hand- ling retail accounts with ease and absolute pre- cision. Another very easy method of handling this statement ledger account would be, to file the origi- nal statement under its proper index head and use this record for the ledger account. The only serious objection to this arrangement in a retail business comes from the fact that many customers do not pay their monthly accounts in full, but are continually making payments on account. For this character of customer, it would be very difficult to keep track of the accounts in this manner. A regu- lar loose leaf ledger could be made up with the debit side of the account much wider, and the debit item space much wider than the credit side, then the items as taken from the different sales books could be entered and itemized in the ledger itself, from which a statement could be easily rendered the cus- tomer in the usual manner. Wherever this is done, the great advantage of the loose leaf system consists in the fact that the pages of a ledger used in such a manner fill up very rapid- LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 169 ly. In any character of sewed book this becomes a detriment to the handler on account of there being a great deal of dead matter to go over in each case where it is necessary to make out statements. I think the most important benefit to be derived from keeping only current accounts together in the retail business is, the facility of collection from cus- tomers which this arrangement materially assists. Wherever accounts are scattered through a large ledger and kept in the usual slip-shod, hap-hazzard manner used in ordinary retail stores, it is quite frequently the case in making out monthly statements that some of them are overlooked, and especially if they have ceased to buy and become in a measure an uncertain account. Of course it will be readily seen that if the inactive accounts and filled pages are eliminated, there is very much less likelihood of passing any open account as each page must receive its proper consideration. A loose leaf book which would be of great benefit to all retail business, large or small, would be a pur- chase record, wherein could be recorded every bill of goods received in the house, also the O. K. of the receiver of goods, checker, extender, etc., with re- bates and discounts, if any; time of payment, when paid, and all such matters as appertain to this por- tion of the business. Its use in a retail business would be quite desirable from the standpoint of the wholesale credit man, for the balance on this book would at all times show the outstanding liabilities 170 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. for goods purchased by the house. A fuller descrip- tion of this book is given in Chapter 9 on ''Special Books." With a large, growing retail business like a de- partment store, while the same arrangements may be satisfactory, they would be conducted on a much larger scale and would require to a certain extent a class of books particularly adapted to their busi- ness, and more of the nature of those used by whole- sale houses, which have been described in a chapter on that subject. There is no question whatever that loose leaf books of all descriptions can be adapted to any busi- ness requiring a set of books to be kept ; but, of course, it is impossible in a single chapter to cover all of the features which may arise owing to the size or character of the business. The handling of re- tail ledgers is to a certain extent the same as de- scribed in chapters 2, 3 and 4, of course modified to suit the nature or magnitude of the business. The books and blanks suggested for a complete system for retail houses would be for the purchas- ing department, requisition blanks in duplicate, re- ceiving blanks in duplicate, stock records, inventory blanks, purchase ledger, (if business is conducted in the manner whereby purchase accounts are kept and the bils are entered up through the journal; otherwise the purchase ledger would not be neces- sary and its place would be taken by the purchase record). It will also be found convenient to put in LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 171 a Perpetual Invoice Filing. System. (See Chap- ter 21). For the selling department it will be nec- essary to supply them with duplicate manifold ac- counting slips, the bill and charge and receipt sys- tem, the monthly statement system and statement ledger or the regular sales ledger as previously de- scribed. In the general accounting department which, of course, would ta*ke charge of the ledgers for the two departments mentioned in all ordinary cases there would be the necessity for a general ledger and perpetual trial balance, an attorney's ledger (sometimes called a Suspense ledger), to which ac- counts that are in doubt or upon which it is found necessary to put additional pressure may be trans- ferred, a check journal or register, pay roll books, recapitulation books, tickler, collection sheets, etc., etc. All of the books of record mentioned above should be loose leaf ,and the system could be so fitted as to work in perfect harmony. There is absolutely no reason whatever why the introduction of the loose leaf accounting system throughout the general retail trade should not be ac- complished and produce the very best results. Of course, what we mean by the "general retail trade" in this regard is, a retail business of sufficient magnitude to keep a set of books for the proper conduct of their business, and it has usually been found that where retail houses are not of this mag- 172 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. nitude they soon pass into nothingness ; for the first essential in establishing even a small business is to give that business such watchful care and attention as will warrant its continuance and gradually build it up. In all lines of business where credit is given, some method of keeping a record of the amount of credit extended is absolutely necessary, and if this record is slip-shod and not carefuly looked after, it becomes worse than useless, for through it many dollars are lost monthly to the firm, and eventually by such careless methods many an otherwise solvent firm has been forced into liquidation. CHAPTER 15. LOOSE LEAF BOOKS IN MANUFACTURING PLANTS. The manufacturing interests of the United States are probably the most varied of any country in the world, and there is no doubt that in the number of manufacturing establishments this country leads all others. While in the matter of book-keeping in a manufacturing establishment there is generally less detail than in wholesales lines, banks, insurance of- fices, etc., etc., it is still as improtant for manufact- uring establishments to keep their records in the best possible manner as it can be for other houses having a greater volume of clerical work. As a usual thing the accounting department in a manufacturing business is not extensive and does LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 173 174 LOOSE LEA' 1 BOOK-KEEPING. 'not require any more books than the regulation supply, namely : Private ledger, General ledger, Stock ledger, Sales ledgers, Cash book, Purchase record or ledger. Voucher system and journal; but the requirements of manufacturing houses for sub- sidiary books are almost illimitable. In considering the above, I do not refer to the immense manufacturing interests, some of them operating a large number of plants under one man- agement but simply to the individual manufactur- ing concerns. The details regarding the books mentioned as necessary in the accounting department for manu- facturing concerns will be found fully described in other chapters of this book, and it is unnecassary to repeat, as the method as far as these books are concerned is almost identical, whether they are rep- resentative books for a retail or wholesale selling establishment or for a manufacturing concern. It is true, however, that in the matter of subsidiary books, the manufacturing house has many places where books are needed, and where records must be kept that are not found in other lines. The matter of ascertaining the cost of manufact- ured articles is carefully considered these days. The costs systems in large establishments are complete and thorough, and the arrangement for handling them through the medium of the loose leaf is all that could be desired. Taking a single article, for instance, which requires the manipulation of a large number of departments, a proper form can be con- LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 175 structed which will find its final resting place properly indexed in the binder provided for that purpose, but in the interim the form is handled as a loose sheet ; the article is entered on the headline and it starts upon its journey. The first entry thereon will be for crude material used in manufacture, giving the amount necessary for the production of the article, then will follow the time in the first department ; the article and the sheet passes on to another de- partment whereon such additions are made as is nec- essary of either material or labor and so on through each department until the finished product appears, when the cost sheet is turned over to the extender and the cost of the article is readily ascer- tained. In many manufacturing plants this is not con- fined to a single article but to a large number of articles called a "lot" and described as Lot No. 6, etc., and the final result gives the net manufactur- ing cost for the entire lot, which can be reduced to hundreds, dozens, or the single piece as is desired. In order to assist in this work various devices are employed by large manufacturers, such as Time Recording Clocks, where the operator records the time automatically upon each piece or lot and pass- ing on from operator to operator the full time occu- pied in the production of the goods in each depart- ment is recorded in this accurate manner. Of course, when these sheets are collected and placed in the binder, properly indexed, they form very valuable data for the manufacturer's information; 176 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. and as the cost of producing goods varies from time to time on account of the variation of the cost of the crude material and labor, the continuation of the cost system has become a necessity. Every manufacturing institution should have re- ceiving department records and shipping department records, as well as stock books. The large number of employes in manufacturing plants makes it necessary for the most perfect ser- vice of time sheets and pay-rolls to be kept; and as these records are likely to be referred to from time to time for various information, it is quite nec- essary that they be kept in continuous order. There is no method of doing this x quite so good as the loose leaf system, for the reasoii that the time sheets and pay-roll records while they are current and when they are being produced emanate from differ- ent departments and frequently from different fac- tories, and it is necessary to collate them afterward in proper form. With the old plan of bound books it was necessary to have a separate book for each de- partment, and it was an absolute impossibility to bring them together as a continuous uninterrupted record. It is usually the case that in large manufacturing establishments loose leaf books are provided for an analysis and comparison of expense as well as reve- nues, averages, etc. ; for coincident period and as the variety of such records is endless and can only be determined by the business itself, it will not be possi- ble to complete the list of necessary books. LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 177 LI h < _l 0- a B U i i 178 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. The facts hold true with manufacturing establish- ments as with wholesales houses, namely: that a large number of the great manufacturing concerns of this country have already adopted the system after a most thorough and convincing research, and after adopting it have found it admirably adapted to their needs and without hesitancy recom- mend it to other concerns. Of course, the loose leaf system is too new yet to be in use by the majority of either business firms or manufacturing plants, but it is gaining ground with such remarkable rapidity, that there seems to be no question that the old-time methods will quietly disappear and go into a "Rip Van Winkle sleep." It may be possible in the future for some better system to be evolved out of the loose leaf, but it is absolutely certain that up to date there is nothing that can compete with it for convenience, desirability, ready reference, time and labor saving. For manufacturing establishments with a number of branches and one general headquarters, it is usually an important matter to have records of the branches brought together at headquarters in such a way as to give quick access to all past as well as present records. For such purposes the loose leaf idea is invaluable. Sheets may be made of uniform size, and written in duplicate with the aid of carbon paper if desirable ; one copy being retained at the branch and the other sent to headquarters, where it may be carried in a binder indexed by the names of the branches. In this way the general office has in LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 179 the most accessible form, cost, as well as other rec- ords, which may be used for comparison as between the different branches, or between different periods of time. Among the various manufacturing interests which have grown to a magnitude not comprehended by many, the Brewery interests comes first on the list. They require different books from any other class of business for keeping their customer's accounts. The general books, cash, general ledger, stock books, payrolls, etc., are similar to other wholesale or man- ufacturing lines, but their customer's ledgers are very different. In the keg beer department the sales are made daily to the same people, and are entirely local, there- fore it can be found most convenient to make up a leaf that will last for six months, and give a record of the amount of beer received by the customer, in *4, y* and whole barrels daily. This bill must be promptly settled or the account is closed, and no more beer is delivered. In systemizing the delivery a ' certain number of contiguous places are on one driver's route, there- fore it is best to divide the ledger by routes. If the route changes, or if it is divided, as it often has to be in bad weather, the changes can be made in the leaves so that they are always in their proper place. One man may drop out and another substituted, and the loose leaf is the best method in the world for keeping this ledger up. Filled pages can be placed in the Transfer under their proper alphabetical ar- rangement and the current book of record kept down to the exact number of customers. 180 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KMEPING. I 33S1 In the bottling department a very difficult task presents itself, as all breweries sell the packages and the beer separately, charging each. The packages are returnable. A balance must be maintained at all times in the same account, both of packages and of beer. The changes in these accounts are frequent, and nothing has ever been found as perfect as the loose leaf ledger in handling this branch of the business. CHAPTER 16. LOOSE LEAF BOOKS IN TRANSPORTATION COMPANIES. All transporation companies have a very large amount of clerical work. There is no department that does not require a large force of clerks and a large number of books ; this is not only true regard- ing steam railroads but also electric lines, street railways and water transportation companies. The minutia necessary for the proper conduct of these large companies are numerous, and any method which can be devised for reducing the labor or pro- ducing better results meets with a very ready rec- ognition from the officers in charge. The auditor's department usually is over-loaded with its reports, abstracts, compilation of necessary data for a com- plete record of the transactions, comparative state- ments upon almost every imaginable subject from the movement of trains to the co*t of the smallest LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 181 expense items and the consequence is that they have a vtry large force of clerks, and a very great assortment of books is necessary. On account of the large dealings of these com- panies in every-day transactions, it is impossible to keep their records in books of ordinary size; and, therefore, it is found that railway companies and steam navigation companies, particularly, use very large books, and very many of them. This is true also of the electric railway companies and other forms of inter-urban transportation. These companies, many of them, have already adopted the loose leaf system, either in its entirety or for a portion of their service, and as they become familiar with its many advantages and thoroughly aware of the fact that it is one of the greatest labor savers which has been recently introduced, they will all adopt the system throughout their entire business. .Railroads require a full line of loose leaf books in their auditing department, general ledger, special ledger, stock ledger, bond record, cash book, re- ceipts and disbursements, etc., etc. The passenger department requires, passenger traffic records of all kinds, including issues of tick- ets and record of reports from agants. Ticket issue record is ruled as follows: From Destination, In- voice date Bal. on hand Jan. 1st. Tickets invoiced to agents Com. No. Clo. No. Date. Com. No. Clos. No. Date. Com. No. Clo. No. 182 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. year of Cr. Then follows the months of the entire year with commencing number and closing number. After this comes the balance on hand Dec. 3ist with commencing number and closing number. The freight traffiic department has many records, including- often the coal traffic department. The maintainance- of way can keep the most ac- curate of records by the use of the loose leaf books. Track supervision is rendered easy by the use of proper records. Car accounting is a special line in which the in- terchangeable leaf is nearly indispensable. The purchase department keeps a file of orders and requisitions in loose sheets, turning them over to permanent binders as soon as the orders are filled or turned down. Bids can also be kept most systematically by this method. Loose leaf is neces- sary for a pocket record but the office record of costs is usually kept by the card system. Mileage records and tonnage records are most sat- isfactory by loose leaf. Agents reports can be made upon loose sheets so arranged that they may be filed at the general office without re-writing thus saving a great amount of time. Car service records are easily kept by loose leaf. The method of having an interchangeable leaf is almost indispensible in the reports and various rec- ords of the dining car service. Tax records are kept in the treasurer's depart- ment by loose leaf. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 183 Mail carrying records are easily handled if the loose leaf system is adopted. The telegraph department depends upon its rec- ords for a careful and thorough analysis of its busi- ness. It is of no use to keep closed and dead pages, thus it will be found that the loose leaf is admirably adapted to this work. In the claim department it is a well known fact that claims are made which "hang" on sometimes for years. Others are promptly settled. It is mani- festly most satisfactory to have at all times a current book. Bridge records and building records are very sat- isfactorily handled by the aid of the loose sheet. The various books necessary for this department are well known by those handling the work. Store-house books, on the loose leaf plan have given such 'great satisfaction that in almost every in- stance they have been first to inaugurate this great improvement. Fuel accounts, baggage accounts and reports, hospital and emergency reports, land department records and leased lines records are only a few more uses to which the loose leaf books are admirably adapted. Street Railroad Companies. From the pur- chasing department of one of the largest street rail- way lines of the United States I obtained some data which is of unusual interest. I will use the purchas- 184 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. ing agent's own words in describing the necessities of the system : "I am not entirely posted regarding the depart- ment of the treasurer but I know that they are using Minute books, Cash books, Stock register or ledger and Bond registers in the loose leaf, and would not change." "The paymaster uses loose leaves for the various pay rolls and has them bound every two weeks or month." "In my department we have receiving sheets, where material comes in and is entered up. These are at the end of the month placed in Transfer bind- ers, or may be bound if thought necessary." "Official orders are made upon loose sheets in quadruplicate, the original being given to the party from whom goods are purchased and the other three go into three different binders. One of these is bound, one is for the store-room for unfilled orders, and one is for the "Back-order" binder, the same being destroyed as soon as the order is filled." "I use loose leaf indexes of all kinds. Nothing else will do." "The Requisition book is an important loose leaf acquisition. It comes between the foreman "and the store-keeper and from the store-keeper to the pur- chasing agent." "My Price-book is loose leaf, and it is absolutely necessary that it should be, on account of the fre- quent changes. I have tried all other kinds and they are failures." LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 185 "I keep a Form book for stationery in the loose leaf and find it very convenient. The fact is that I do not know how it could be kept in any other manner." "Besides my price book I keep a card index of prices, but this is no practical value unless I am sit- ting at my desk." "The Official Time Schedule for the running time of cars upon the different divisions is subject to sud- den changes and at times great changes, hence it is absolute that it must be kept by removable sheets." "In the Master Mechanic's department the loose leaf is also found very available. It is used in requi^ sitions, shop orders, life of wheels and all manner of cost accounts. The loose leaf is fully established in both our power houses and mechanical depart- ment." "In the Motor, Truck, and Car repair divisions I really do not know what they would do without this great improvement. Each car has its number and leaf and a total record is made, under the different divisions of "Motor," "Truck," "Car Body" of all of the expenses incurred for repairs and it also gives the actual record of the life of the motor, and trucks from the time it is sent out, and also the life of the car body. Under each of these main headings are a number of sub-heads with columns covering every imaginable repair. These car records give the size, when built, where, and the original cost." From the above it will be seen that the value of 186 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. loose leaf accounting books has been recognized by the great transportation companies. The idea is that a more complete record can be obtained at a less expenditure of labor than by any other means, and that this record is always current. On account of the large number of entries, and the magnitude of the business, the leaves of transporta- tion companies, whether they are loose or perma- nently bound must be large. Hence, it is of more importance than ever to discard all of the dead mat- ter as soon as possible. This can not be done with old fashioned bound books. You must keep the record whether dead or alive until the book is ex- hausted. Any book when made of the extreme size is difficult to handle. How necessary it is then to handle just as small a book as you possibly can. Besides the books mentioned above it is quite necessary that the accounting department be pro- vided with the proper ledgers, and subsidiary books, and it is advisable that they be made like the rest in loose leaf. To one who has read this book attentively, it will be unnecessary to go into detail in regard to the reasons for the use of the loose leaf system in the railway business, and it is quite sufficient to say that as their necessities are greater on account of the greater number of books which they require, and the greater number of clerks they employ, the ad- vantageous results to them of its introduction would be more apparent than in a smaller business where LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 187 the auditing department was not of as much magni- tude. Often times the necessary labor of a change from one system to another deters a firm or corporation from acting, until they become absolutely convinced in their "own minds that the change will be profitable to them from every point of view; but when they are convinced upon these points and further defer making such changes as will improve their business, they are acting against the interests of themselves and their stockholders. It will be quite impossible to go into the subject of the multiplicity of forms used in transportation companies. CHAPTER 17. LOOSE LEAF BOOKS IN THE LUMBER BUSINESS. As a rule in the accounting departments of those engaged in the lumber business are employed the highest class of accountants, although the minutia of this business cannot be compared with that of many others which have been reviewed in this work. The books required in the wholesale or retail lumber trade are by no means as numerous as those in use in different lines of wholesale business or in banking institutions. In the accounting department the regulation books are required, viz. : Cash book, journal, ledgers, etc., 188 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. all of which have been explained. While the fact exists that there are not so many books necessary, it is just as much to the interest of those engaged in this industry to secure the best results as it would be in any other line, and the lumber interest has not been slow to recognize the advantages of the loose leaf system of book-keeping and to apply it in their business. Besides the regular accounting books there are a number of special books used in this trade differing from each other on account of individual require- ments, and very different from those in use in any other line of business. Quite a desirable form for lumber dealers is a Lumber Call book. The heading is as follows : Copied .... 190 Name Delivered to Sold 190 Job Called back to Terms, Tms form is so arranged that there are six col- umns on the left side of the sheet with 3-i6th lateral ruling (See Plate No. 19) giving eighteen divisions to the line, so that each load can be entered in these divisions and called back. When the job is com- pleted the price is entered and carried over into the nionev column. LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 189 One particular record in the lumber business, especially among those who handle the sash, door and blind trade, and take large building contracts is the estimate form. The application of the loose leaf idea to this particular form has been made with great success. It may be made in either duplicate or triplicate forms with the aid of carbon paper. One sheet should be given to the customer, and the other one or two sheets retained in a binder filed alphabetically until the order is placed with the house or it is known to be lost to some competitor. If the order is secured one of the two sheets retained may be placed in another binder, and used for check- ing the goods out from the yard or mill, and the other retained in the office to bill from. In this way the check sheet and the bill sheet are finally brought together and being filed alphabetical- ly all estimates for any one contractor or customer will always be found in one place. If the order is lost the sheet may still be placed in the permanent binder in its proper position marked lost, and the figures would undoubtedly be of value in making estimates for the same party in the future. 190 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. If it is undesirable for the customer to see the charges made for each item the sheet that is given to him may be made with a perforated line to the left of the amount column and this column can be detached before handing over the sheet. The total bid could be written at the bottom of this sheet in some convenient place and the customer would then have a complete list of the articles to be furnished but would not know the exact cost of each item. A receiving book is found very satisfactory in the loose leaf as sizes may be treated separately, and filed alphabetically. I know of one large lumber yard that keep what they call an "In" book and an "Out" book, and the difference in these two records at any time shows the stock on hand. Any of the comparative statement books, or books of record necessary to be kept to obtain a close analysis of the business will be found more conven- ient and easier to handle if the loose sheet is used. The records when filed in the permanent binders are available at any time and when needed are not stored away or in a half dozen different books and as many places, but are all combined, and in "just one par- ticular spot." Many interesting facts regarding the uses of loose leaf have been given in this work and it is unnec^- sary to repeat in each chapter. The general ments which apply to one will apply to all. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 191 CHAPTER 18. LOO^E LEAF BOOKS IN MUNICIPAL WORK It is said that the "City Fathers" are very slow to move, and that it is very difficult to inaugurate or change systems of municipal accounting unless there has been some "crooked work" and investigation ensues. Under this stress, and prod, they sometimes completely overhaul their methods and make changes. It has not been found so difficult to introduce the loose leaf books into city, county and state depart- ments as would naturally be supposed, and while it is sometimes a long and tedious task to reach and convince the proper parties, when they are con- vinced they make a clean sweep, and on account of the very large number of departments and the vast quantity of books required, it makes a radical change in many of the working departments. As is naturally the case, the cities are the first to acknowledge the advantages of loose leaf books in the operation of their various accounting depart- ments, and a number of them are now in line, with many others, considering the propostion of the in- troduction of loose leaf books in most of the de- partments. In the water department of the various cities the operation of interchangeable leaf books is exactly the same as is described in Chapter n, for electric 192 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. light, gas and telephone companies. Plate No. 31, gives a water company ledger ruling. As these companies extend a limited amount of credit to a large number of people and as the moving and changing on account of death, sales and removals from the city necessitates a constant change in the names of the debtors, it is found to be advisable and practical to use the interchangeable leaf, espec- ially on account of two facts : One being, the leaf can be so arranged that six or eight years may be accounted for without transfer, and also that in case the debtor's name changes, the same leaf may be removed and the account thereon continued. For instance, if water service is rendered by meter to Chas. Benson, who continued the service we will say for two years and was finally succeeded by Geo. Cox, the Benson leaf could be marked "transferred to Geo. Cox," and the leaf itself changed from the B index to the C index and properly placed. If this party in six months was succeeded by Mary Robin- son, the leaf would still continue under her name and be transfered to the R's. It will thus be seen that the account is practically continuous and the ad- vantage gained by being able to transfer the entire leaf is not only the saving of time (necessary to open a new account), but is also advantageous from the fact that an entire record is maintained of the full term of service. This work on any system is similar, whether it be by regular annual water rental or meter service. With meter service the necessity of keeping sepa- LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 193 rate meter books is apparent and, the same advan- tages that are gained in the ledger arrangement, are also gained in the meter service. The task of enumerating the very large number of books used in municipal accounting is one which I cannot attempt in a short chapter, but in order to give an idea of the class of books used and the ruling of the same, I give a number of forms taken indiscriminately : CHICAGO CITY OFFICES. Miscellaneous Debtor's Ledger is a double double, headed : City of Chicago Office of the Comptrol- ler, with line for debtor's name and address. The ruling is : Date, Reference Book Page, Debit, Credit, Balance. The Appropriation register is headed: City of Chicago, Department. Appropriations for the year ending December 31, 190... The ruling is in seven unit columns and consists of ten columns on one page and seventeen columns upon the reverse side. The lines of each page for explanatory print- ing, ruling down the left-hand side of the sheet as follows : Appropriation followed by three blue-ruled and one red-ruled line running through the entire leaf. Underneath the red-ruled line each line is ex- plained as follows : January Expenses Balance of Appropriation February Expenses Expenses to February 28 Balance of Appropriation March Ex- penses Expenses to March 31 Balance of Appro- priation April Expenses Expenses to April 30 194 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. Balance of Appropriation May Expenses Ex- penses to May 31 Balance of Appropriation June Expenses Expenses to June 30 Balance of Ap- propriation -July Expenses Expenses to July 31 Balance of Appropriation August Expenses Ex- penses to August 31 Balance of Appropriation September Expenses Expenses to September 30 Balance of Appropriation October Expenses Ex- penses to October 31 Balance of Appropriation November Expenses Expenses to November 30 Balance of Appropriation December Expenses Expenses to December 31 Balance of Appropria- tion. The Warrant, for Collection Register is headed: City of Chicago Office of Comptroller Month of 190. .. The column ruling is as follows : Date, No. of Warrant, Rendered Against, Descrip- tion, Amount, Date Paid, Distribution, Miscellan- eous, Brought Forward. Revenue, Expense, Deposits. Acct. Folio. Amount. The Special Assessment Ledger is headed : City of Chicago Office of Comptroller. Number.... "nstallment Date Certified for Collection. The column ruling is as follows : Comptroller's Voucher Warrant, Remitter or Payee, Amount Certified for Collection, Date, Number Vouchers Charged Not Paid, When Received or Paid, Principal, Disbursements Receipts Cash Balance Interest, Disbursements Receipts Cash Balance LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 195 ii 1 , z ? 3 rt g "~ H 'rt -4 * f-H J i CJ * ^ 2 ^ d rt "^ I "'' T ^ - | 8 -c c ^ . 'i I 1 cj J^ on H JJ *J *O T3 * 1 1 ! : g-jirg.? 1 * S s j ^ ! * * [1 1 4J g "V ^ i j | '| o .g ^ c 8 J w ^ ^ 5 2 "^ 5 ._, ? .. ^o "S o ** w 2 E ^ - 2 g -a o | 05 i> w _o n3 j rv O J/, Canf/rmtJ >,v Onrl Kefttnct (ifiny) mutt It, . 196 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. SPECIAL ASSESSMENT WARRANT No Sheet No For Grading, Curbing, Paving, Filling, Sewers, Drains, Water Pipes, Water Service Pipes, Macadamizing, Lamp Posts, Plank Sidewalks, Cement Sidewalks. Form No.... Date of Warrant .... Date Confirmed by Court On Alley. . . .Reference (if any) made to Spe- cial Assessment Warrant No Between Avenue Avenue Street and Street I will give- a list of the column headings with the widtli of each column in inches : Under Description is Section Township Range P. M., with "Brought Forward" underneath and descriptive col- umn of i7/s, Sub Lot ^/s, Lot y%, Block y%, Amount of Assessment i. Under Collections a first section under "Date," Month ^, Day ft, Year 3/ s ; the sec- ond section under City Collector, Assessment I, In- terest y% ; the third section under County Collector, Assessment i, Interest ^4, Discount I, Fees County L, Balance Black Debit, red credit i ; under Mis- cellaneous Item i, Amount i. The sheet is I5^4x 15 and ii inches from the top of the left-hand mar- gin is printed TOTAL CHARGEABLE TO PROPERTY CITY OF CHICAGO PUBLIC BENEFITS AMOUNT OF Underneath this is a cut-off heading using the same LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 197 ruling. The descriptive column is headed, Contract- or and Other Payments. The first inch column, The Amount of Contract or Other Items. Under Vouchers Paid, Comptrollers, Warrant Number I, Amount I, Interest Paid on Vouchers ^4. Under Vouchers Issued and Unpaid there is a second sub- head of, Board of Local Improvements, with col- umns, Number i, Year ^4, Amount i, Interest Paid Contractor I. Under Judgments, Principal I, Ex- planation I, Interest and Costs Included in Judg- ment I. At the bottom, in the descriptive column, left-hand are the words, "General Fund. (See Plate No. 46). On the left-hand sheet the columns are headed: Abatements, with a sub-head, "Ordered," underneath which is Reference I, Amount I, and a sub-head "Paid," underneath which is Date ^, Comp. War. No. VL Amount i. Under Rebates and Refunds is a sub-head "Ordered or Authorized" with columns, Reference I, Amount I ; under sub- head "Paid" with columns, Date ^, Comp. War. No. y 2 , Amount i, Blank Column I. Under Dispo- sition of Other Collected Amounts, Explanation i, sub-head "Judgments Refused," Month y 4 , Day ^, Year l / 4 ; sub-head "Property Purchased" are two- heads "Date of Tax Certificate," Month y 4 , Day y 4 , Year >4, "Tax Deeds," Number y 2 , Book % ; sub- head "Other Reasons," Amount I. A continuation of the cut-off heading 4 inches are given to Miscel- laneous, Blank i ; "Balance of Contract," Due Contractor i, Amount Paid Contractor Not Col- 198 i,OOSB LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. lected on Warrant, Blank 3, Amount Over-Collected on Warrant (Rebates not Distributed) i. It is not often that a cut off heading can be carried with the same ruling. Where it is done it is some- times necessary to use two or more columns where one might have sufficed had it been specially ruled. The form for Transmission of Vouchers from the different departments to the City Comptroller is a, double double, with rulings, Department Number, Comptroller's No., Amount, and a Receipt with the date, by the City Comptroller or his subordinate. The Stock Record form is headed : City of Chi- cago Department. Stock Received. Kind of Material The ruling is as follows : Date, Requisition No., Received from or Issued to, Quantity Received, Quantity Issued, On Hand. The Contract form is as follows, heading: COTRACTOR CONTRACT FOR CONTRACT NO SPECIAL ASSESSMENT NO DATE OP CONTRACT WORK COMMENCED WORK COMPLETED REMARKS CONTRACT PRICE EXPIRATION CONTRACT The heading takes up a little over three inches. The ruling is as follows : Date, No. of Estimate, No. of Installment, Voucher No., Blank for Items, Gross Amount, Reserve, Amount of Voucher, Grand Total. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 199 The report of License heading is as follows : City of Chicago Office of the City Clerk. Report of Licenses and Permits During The Day of. ... 190.. The ruling is as follows in quadruple: Li- cense and Permit No., Advice No., Amount, and the leaf is 1524x12. The "Daily Report of Pound Keeper" is headed as given with the blank Division for The Day of 190. .. Underneath, Receipts, with ruling, Number Received, Description, Owner, By Whom Impounded. Releases, Date Received, No. Re- deemed or Sold, Description, Owner, Disposition, sub-head Receipt, No., Amount. The ruling extends 24 down the page, the report as follows : NO. OF HEAD. IN POUND LAST REPORT RECEIVED THIS DAY TOTAL REDEEMED OR SOLD IN POUND . POUND KEEPER. The forms in use in municipal departments of city, county or state, are entirely too numerous to en- deavor to record them in a short chapter, but their familiarity to those who are handling them from day to day will readily suggest where improvement can be made by substituting a loose sheet for that now bound with cord. State, county and city can use the interchangeable leaf for a great many of their records to much ad- vantage. The work can be done in much shorter 200 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. time, and better results obtained. It is wise then for those who have not up to this time thought of these evident improvements to begin to investigate, and by inaugurating a model system call especial at- tention to their term of office and its results. Such a course frequently means re-election and even if it does not come to this you have the satisfaction of knowing that during your term was inaugurated a service which is a saving to the tax payer and a benefit to the community. CHAPTER 19. STATEMENTS. The necessity for the rendering of monthly state- ments is well understood by every book-keeper, but the advantage of frequent statements even if they come oftener than once a month in the matter of keeping an account closely paid up is not so thor- oughly comprehended. There is perhaps no better way to collect bills than to remind a man of his indebtedness as often as is possible. This can most conveniently be done by sending him a statement of his account, and because a statement has been sent the first of the month, is no reason whatever why another should not be sent on the loth of the month providing the customer is delinquent. In Chapter 15 is given a method of statement mak- ing with loose leaf books, which differs from any- LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 201 thing that is possible in bound books, and as it is fully explained in that chapter, it will be unnecessary to go into detail in regard to this method here. A prominent work of accounting says in regard to statements : "It is advisable to make and send out statements of all our customers' accounts on the first of every month. By so doing, an account can- not escape our notice and thereby be allowed to re- main on our books until it is long past due without the person having been notified monthly of that fact. Another reason for so doing is because, if any mistakes have been made in posting by which an item was posted to a wrong account, or to a wrong side of an account, we are then notified by the per- sons who received the incorrect statements and we may then make the corrections in the ledger." The reference above regarding the "allowing ac- counts to remain on the books until they are long past due" is an especial objection to bound books, and is entirely obviated by the use of the Loose Leaf ledger system. The reason it is possible for accounts to be overlooked in the old-style ledger is that, in many cases, there are a number of ac- counts on the page, several of which are closed and perhaps only one on the page left open. With from one to five thousand accounts, it is not unusual in the making of statements to pass accounts, as the work is done at the close of the month, usually in haste and seldom checked back. Loose Leaf Accounting books render this al- most impossible, from the fact that the current ledg- 202 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. ers from which the statements are made contain only the live accounts; the inactive accounts having been eliminated and transferred to another book which is not in use. The fact that none but current ac- counts are before the writer enables statements to be made very much more rapidly and more accur- ately. The indexing arrangements of loose leaf account- ing books are such that, in whatever manner the book is handled, the statements will be consecutively placed by turning them face downwards as they are made. In the ledger or ledgers arranged on the alphabetical plan, after the statements are com- pleted, they will be all found to run alphabetically and may be checked back very quickly with no loss of time. Where the state and town arrangement of indexing is used, all of the statements, as they are made, run alphabetically and consecutively for state, town and customer; thus all of the Texas statements will be together, can be mailed together, and are received essentially at the same time. The advantage of this is apparent to anyone. Another great advantage of loose leaf books in statement making is the fact that, these ledgers seldom contain more than 500 to 600 accounts, whereas old-style ledgers were frequently made to hold upwards of 1,500 to 5,000 accounts. This being the case, at the time statement making be- comes necessary, the ledgers may be divided among several clerks, the operation of making statements be carried on simultaneously, and the statements con- LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 203 gregated afterward ; thus affording a great saving of time and assuring the house that all statements will be promptly posted. Prompt mailing of statements means the prompt collection of accounts. In the quotation given from the book-keeping authority, it gives as a reason for making state- ments the fact that, "if mistakes have been made in posting, the book-keeper can be notified by the per- sons who receive the statements." This seems to me a very weak and incorrect proposition. If loose leaf books or any books are properly kept, it will not be necessary for the book-keeper to be notified by the debtor in regard to his errors, for he will have dis- covered those errors long before the debtor receives any statement of account ; if he does not do so, he is not a first-class book-keeper. Many houses do not send regular monthly state- ments, but send a statement to customers at. the time bills mature. Wholesale houses, particularly, sell goods on dating and different time for payment, and until this bill becomes due there is no real neces- sity for the debtor to be reminded of his indebted- ness. In this case, the books are run through at frequent intervals, or a tickler is kept by the bill clerk or book-keeper showing the due date of dif- ferent bills and from time to time these statements are made out; usually prefacing a draft sent at the same time, or shortly afterward. In receipting bills statements, etc., the word "Paid" is practically the same as "Received Pay- 204 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. merit," and is better to use on account of the fact that it is much more quickly written. Statements should be figured independent of the ledger and checked back. When a statement is com- pleted that is the balance thereon ascertained if this balance agrees with the balance called for on the debtor's account in the ledger, its correctness is proved as far as a transcript of the account is con- cerned. CHAPTER 20. THE BILL AND CHARGE SYSTEM. One of the first departures from the use of sewed books was in the adoption by a few houses of what is known as, ''The Bill and Charge System." It is so called from the fact that it does away with the sales book entirely and with the aid of carbon produces the bill and charge at the same writing. It is used par- ticularly where the bill is sent with the goods or given to customer, and it is seldom employed in connection with country salesmen's orders, which are usually entered upon a form suitable for the purpose, the extensions carried out and billed from this form either with pen or typewriter and the original is filed in its proper place and forms a por- tion of the book of original entry. Usually with the Bill and Charge System, the origmal writing is kept as the charge and the carbon is sent out as the bill. After the bill and charge is LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 205 made the sheets are torn from the pad, the charge sheets are collated and arranged according to the arrangement of the accounts in the ledgers and then filed on post binders provided for the purpose; they are then consecutively numbered and are ready for the operation of posting the debit to its proper ac- count. It is a good plan to have the same number of post binders for filing charge sheets as there are ledgers. Then there will be no confusion in the posting. The advantages of the Bill and Charge system are readily seen. It does away entirely with the re- writing of the bill in the sales book or copying in the tissue book. It allows the best arrangement of the charges for posting purpose, and it also al- lows them to be collated and placed in several dif- ferent binders (where the business is sufficient to warrant it), so that a number of book-keepers can be employed upon the posting at one time. It is an absolute preventative of the error formerly pos- sible of having the charge and the bill different. In the Bill and Charge system if any error what- ever is made in the bill, it must also (being a car- bon copy) be made in the charge. It is usual to have the sheet for the bill a different color from the charge sheet ; this is a matter en- tirely optional with the purchaser. The Bill and Charge system has another advantage, in that it can be used at several different points or locations in the store at the same time if such a requirement is necessary and the collation of the charges from the 206 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. different departments made by the proper person before the close of the business day. The handling of business in this manner naturally suggested other advantageous changes of a similar nature. A sheet shorter than the charge or bill sheet by the width of tjie money columns can be introduced and the entry made in triplicate instead of duplicate, in which case the shorter form can be used for a delivery ticket. This idea has multiplied to such an extent that it has encouraged inventive genious to produce me- chanical aids, and the result has been the invention of "Book Typewriters." The forms used are most frequently printed in pads, wire-stitched or gummed at the left edge, forming practically a temporary book. The "Book Typewriter" machines can op- erate on the forms while remaining in the pad. the charge sheets to be transferred at convenient in- tervals after proper arrangement in the binders with no danger of loss or misplacement. If it is desirable, or necessary for the requirements of the business, the bills alone may be removed as written, leaving the charge and other forms remaining in the pad. Vari- ous devices are used by different machines to keep the sheets or forms in a perfectly rigid position and in a correct printing register, without permitting any slipping or shifting of the forms with relation to each other or to the carbon, the result being a clear legible carbon copy or copies. Corrections can be easily made, additional matter may be inserted or if necessary the forms may be re-inserted {n the LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 207 machine, and in as perfect register as if printed at one time. The great advantage of Book Typewriting ma- chines consists in the large number of copies they are able to produce, the number, of course, depending upon the needs of the business. In order to give an idea of what can be produced at one writing, we will mention two cases : "A large company produces a series of forms, which comprise the bill, the charge sheet, acknowl- edgment of order, salesman's record, original dupli- cate and triplicate freight-shipping tickets, five cop- ies of the order, and car label thirteen records, taking in every transaction from the order and its various copies, to and including the car label. In the event the complete shipping tickets cannot be made out at the time of making of order, the name, address and general information can be put in at the time the order is written, and the shipping tickets, as also some of the other forms may be registered in the machine for completing details." "A large electric light company makes out the order, acknowledgment to the customer, bill, charge- sheet, copy of order for the superintendent, and additional copies of the order for different factory departments, all in one operation. The factory de- partments get merely the order number and not the name and address of the customer. The prices and terms likewise do not appear on the four factory department orders. This is accomplished by mak- 208 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. ing up the set of different size blanks and different size carbons." The manifolding power of these machines make it possible to plan for as many copies as the needs of any business will require. Aside from the saving in labor, all records are ready as soon as the original order is completed, all are in type-written form and all will agree in detail when the first copy is checked. There is a very decided advantage in having all or- ders for factory or shipping departments ready in the shortest possible time, which is assured by con- suming no more time in making a dozen depart- ment orders than for making the first copy. The use of the bill and charge system makes the entry clerk also the bill clerk, and where the number of copies are increased, naturally increases the ca- pacity of the one operative indefinitely. Large retail' stores may in this manner keep what is termed a "detail sheet" for each customer to which the amounts purchased are added from day to day, all of them being closely itemized, as is de- scribed in the Chapter on "Loose Leaf in the Retail Business." At the end of the month the entire pur- chase of the month for one account is posted in one item to that account. The detail sheets in this case ars usually arranged in the indexing form adopted for the ledgers and are filed in the binders monthlv. This does away entirelv with the necessity of item- izing accounts on the ledger, and at the same time furnishes a ready and immediate reference for the LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 209 book-keeper in case an itemized statement of ac- count is required. "THE MEMO. AND CREDIT SYSTEM." In connection with the bill and charge system, it is quite proper that I should mention what might be termed with accuracy, "The Memo, and Credit System." The plan is exactly similar, with the ex- ception that the "Memo." and the "Credit" should be of a different colored paper than either the bill or charge; this marks the proper pad at once and saves any errors. This system would of course be used for such memorandum credits as are given to customers on account of returned goods, rebates, damages or other claims, and they are handled in exactly the same manner; the memo, is sent to the customer 'and the credit is filed in the post binder of appropriate size, distributed properly according to the book-keeping system, posted separately to the credit of the different accounts and at the close of the month the entire amount of each series debited to the proper accounts. It is usual to have the memo, and credit sheets somewhat smaller than the ordinary bill and charge, and the size of the binder can easily be adapted to any size sheet selected. The arrangement of differ- ent forms can be made to suit the purchaser; some- times the bill precedes the charge and at other times the charge precedes the bill. It does not make any difference how many different forms are handled together, but it is usual to have each of the differ- ent forms a different color and absolutely necessary 210 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. that they shall be of the same size or approximate- ly so. Of course, where it is desirable for the many columns to be omitted on a form, it could be made shorter to effect this. These different forms are of course printed separately in exact register and are gathered afterwards and bound as may be required, so that the writing on the top form of this system is transferred upon all of the subsequent forms mak- ing up the set. There is no question as to the economy of time secured through the use of the bill and charge sys- tem, and it can be adapted as required to many dif- ferent departments of any business. The best way to introduce the bill and charge system in your business is, to carefully go over the ground and ascertain how many copies of an original you are likely to require in your business, and when this matter is perfectly clear in your mind, you can then go forward with your order and meet with the most satisfactory results. The post binders for regular use are canvas with leather corners, 6-inch solid post of various patents to admit of speed in handling, while the transfer binders are lighter weight, plain canvas or cloth, solid 6-inch post with a simple screw to hold the sheets in place. Of course, the transfers are not in regular use and need not be either as heavy or ex- pensive. The transfers are used for filing away per- manently the past business. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 211 CHAPTER 21. ODDS AND ENDS HOW TO SAVE MONEY IN BUSINESS LONG WAY AND SHORT WAY VARIOUS SUGGESTIONS. In this chapter I will deal with such items of in- terest as may not have been mentioned in previous chapters, not with any idea of their continuity, but feeling that possibly they may be of some assistance to the operator or offer some suggestions to the proprietor which will be found valuable. Legality of Loose Leaf Ledgers. There is a question in the minds of some skeptical peo- ple in regard to the legality of loose-leaf ledgers. Those who are well posted do not take this matter into consideration, for the reason that they know that the ledger is not the book of original entry, but some timid pople think that an account in order to be proven must be within a sewed book. In answer to such, I quote the opinion of one of the largest firms of corporations lawyers in the city of Chicago a part of their statement is as follows : "The ledger is not in general a book of original entries and is not permissable in evidence as prov- ing the transactions therein recorded, except in cases of co-partnership as between parties, and in cases of corporations as between members. The 212 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. book of original entries which is also (as we under- stand it) a part of the loose leaf system would, we think, be treated in the same manner as any book of original entries. Such a book is admissable in evidence on the ground that it constitutes one of the circumstances surrounding the sales arid trans- actions referred to, and it has never (so far as we know) been held material what the form of the book was. The fact that the leaves are separable would not, we thing affect the efficacy of the book as a writing for evidence." Although the question, of the legality of loose leaf ledgers does not come up very often at present, yet once in a while some timid "would-be" pur- chaser wants an opinion on this subject. Weight of Paper. Some customers desire a very heavy weight of paper for use in their loose leaf ledgers, although as a rule the i7-28-361t) is used. Of course, a heavier paper than this can be secured, but it is a very unsatisfactory thing inas- much as the leaves being so much thicker they less- en the capacity of any binder about one-quarter, and the weight or bulk of paper does not, by any means, contribute to its strength; the body strength and tearing qualities are just as good in the light weight stock as they are in the heavy. Dry Goods House Where Calling and Billing is Done. The loose leaf arrangement for the pur- pose of record where the goods are called as is LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 213 done in many cases in Dry Goods and Millinery es- tablishments is absolutely without an equal. The billers by the use of the bill and charge system also perform the duties of the entry clerk, and the rec- ords are kept continuous. The system as handled in most houses with sewed sales book is, to have the biller and charger enter up their work simultan- eously and balance afterward, each making their own extensions. By the loose leaf system this could be easily accomplished, except that the entry and charge would be made by the same person, after- ward to be separated and the extensions carried out by the extender, or two extenders if necessary, who might balance against each other and who could handle the work of several billers. There is no ques- tion that where a number were employed in this manner, there would be an economy of help by the use of the loose leaf system, even though the carbon idea might not be desirable, there would still be no reason why the items could not be entered on loose leaf sheets, going into the binder afterward ; in which case, the particular advantage would be that the charges could be collated and arranged alphabetical- ly in such a manner to facilitate their posting and thereby save the book-keepers much time and trou- ble, whereas under the present existing arrangement with sewed books, it is absolutely impossible for the caller to collate his orders to produce a harmonious and satisfactory arrangement for the uses of the book-keeper. 214 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. Handling a L/arge Number of Books. Some houses that have a large number of ledgers, have a mpvable truck-rack, upon which all the necessary books are arranged and which can be rolled into the vault nightly; this saves a considerable amount of carrying. Best Service. To secure the best service from a system of loose leaf books, you should have your business so arranged as to be in perfect harmony with that system. In case there are rugged places, such as an improper system in the billing and charging department, it cannot be expected that the book-keeping department will run as smoothly as it should. This, however, is true of any character of books. There should be perfect harmony in all de- partments of business, the work of one department dove-tailing into the work of another department like the various parts of an intricate machine. Take such a machine for example and let one part fail to perform its duty, and it affects the entire machine, often causing its operations to cease; thus it is in business, when system is attempted it should not be confined simply to the counting room. How to Make Money in Business. Passing without comment the push and enterprise necessary, the various requisites of location, character of busi- ness and advertising, I will simply say a few words on the points which come within the province of this book. In manufacturing, close cost account- LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 215 ing is necessary ; in merchandising, close purchasing. There can be no profit in paying small wages and salaries, if it is done at the expense of the service. Good wages produce good results and competent employes are worth their wage ; consequently the lowest wage practicable should be paid for abso- lutely competent labor and no labor employed at all that is careless, shiftless or incompetent In order to add to the profits of the business, the intro- duction of such improved systems in different parts of the work as may further the interests of the house and allow competent employes to vastly increase their productive powers is unquestionably one of the best ways of making money known to business men. No element of expense should be more care- fully looked after than the pay-roll and salary list. Competency should be rewarded by advances, and incompetency should be summarily dealt with. Manufacturers all know that improvements in ma- chinery where they can get the result of two or three men's work Jrom one man's time is a very profitable investment and the same principle holds good in the accounting department of any manufacturing or mer- cantile institution. Bindings. In selecting bindings for loose leaf books, it is always well for the purchaser to remem- ber that one of the principal features of loose leaf accounting is, the fact that the binders are supposed to outlast many thousand leaves. If false economy is shown in the purchase of binders and the cheaper 216 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. grades of binding chosen, it will not carry out the loose leaf theory and will not prove entirely satis- factory. Most dealers in loose leaf books sell sev- eral grades of binding especially for transfer bind- ers, but while the higher grade binders cost a little more, they are certainly the ones to purchase. The bindings usually offered are one-half corduroy and one-half leather, full leather, one-half canvas and one-half leather, one-half cloth and one-half leather, full cloth and full canvas, the higher grades being mentioned first and the one most used at the pres- ent writing being one-half corduroy and one-half leather. Rulings to Avoid Carrying Forward. A very clever arrangement for large books with a great number of columns to avoid carrying forward the totals, is to have the footing line introduced at the top of every other page instead of at the bottom, then by a slight change in the punch holes of the form (the sheets all being of the same size) the top footing line projects one-half inch above the page and the bottom footing line projects one-half inch below the page ; the first page is footed up and the totals placed at the top instead of at the bottom; when the next leaf is turned, the totals of the pre- ceding leaf are -exposed and this leaf is footed down, the totals placed at the bottom ; when the next leaf is turned, these totals are exposed and footed up and so on. It will be seen that by this plan there are absolutely no chances of error in carrying LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 217 forward totals, as they are only entered once in their proper place. Leaf for the Physician's Ledger. A very clever leaf for the physician's ledger has been evolved, (See Plate No. 35) which saves him a large amount of trouble and worry in keeping his books It con- sists of the heading for the name of the patient, address, etc., and is followed by a ruling giving the month and year, then in very narrow columns each day of the month; this is followed by the credit of the year, month, date and cash payment. To use this form a physician need only have his memorandum book, keeping account of his visits, office consulta- tions, operations, medicine furnished, etc., and at night he can check into the proper column the visits by a little cross (X), office consultation by an "O" and describe such other charges as may be necessary through the entire line. At the end of the month it is but little trouble to count up the number of visits and carry into the proper debit column, and the same for office consultations and other charges. With a book of this character made in loose leaf, a physician is kept constantly in touch with such patients as have not paid their bills, statements are easily furnished and the exact data is obtainable with the least trouble. If desired, a suspense ledger can be maintained for such accounts as are slow and uncertain by using this admirable plan 218 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 10 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 219 Dentist's Ledger. Similar to Physician's would be useful. Attorney's Docket. A very useful loose leaf book for Attorney's use is a "Docket Form," size 9 or 9 1 /9xi2, the simplest being headed: Court, General No., File No., vs., Judge, Action, Damages, Opposing Counsel, We Represent, Our Correspondent. A more intricate form is as follows : INDEX SHEET NO , PLAINTIFF ADDRESS vs. DEFENDANT ADDRESS INDIVIDUAL PLAINTIFFS & ADDRESSES i 2 3 ATTORNEYS REPRESENTING PLAINTIFFS RECEIVER OF ASSIGNEE Date ORDERS On left-hand side of division line On right-hand side of division line as follows : CIRCUIT COURT INDEX. .PAGE. .LINE. . LAW CHANCERY GENERAL COURT NO. 220 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. Nature of action. Term No. Changed. Changed VAULT NO. Appellate Court No. General Calendar JUDGE JUSTICE NUMBER Name of Bondsman ADDRESS. INDIVIDUAL DEFENDANTS & ADDRESSES WHEN SERVED i 2. 3 ATTORNEYS REPRESENTING DEFEND'TS ATTORNEYS Date ORDERS A Cash Journal. I will herewith give the form of a Cash Jorunal used by a large Coffee & Rubber Company (See Plate No. 36). A little variation of the form would make it suitable for any of the various incorporated companies of whatever nature. The form is as follows : LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 221 CASH JOURNAL. Sundry Account .... Cash .... Plantation Exp. . . Date Name Memo Check Dr. Cr. Dr. Cr. Dr. Cr. The size of this sheet is 11x15. Hotel Guest Ledger. I will give the form used by one of the largest Chicago hotels, in loose leaf guest ledger. The heading is the name of the hotel. The columns are as follows : Room No. Name (Blank column about I inch wide) Date Board Cash Advanced CAFE (with 3 columns of) Check No Amount Extra Meals 'Phone Service Billiards Laundry Livery BAR Checks Amount SUNDRIES Amount Total Dr. (Division line) Date Credits Balance 222 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. r Underneath the name column after leaving room for name of guests is arrival, departure and rate. The ruling is made so that three or six guests can have their accounts on the same page. Of course, the self-indexing features are used in this ledger, but they cannot be as closely indexed as if each guest had a separate leaf. They can, however, be indexed close enough for all purposes, as transient accounts do not hold over long. The size of this ledger leaf is 15^x24. It would not be difficult to use a small leaf for this purpose, and instead of ex- tending the charges laterally, bring them down horizontally, with the debits coming first and the credits following. By using this arrangement a smaller guest ledger could be used than in any other way. Perpetual Invoice Filing Book. The Perpetual Invoice Filing book is used by a number of firms with a page 16x13, the leaves being made of manila and used in the regular sectional post binder. It is usual in using this book to have money columns at the right-hand side of the leaf wherein the amount of the bills as pasted in the invoice book can be extended and carried forward. In order to make up for the added thickness of the bills pasted within the book, a series of card-board strips is introduced now and then, punched to accord with the size of the leaf. There are firms who find it perfectly satisfactory to use this Perpetual Invoice file as a purchase record and post direct from it, either in- LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 223 dividual bills into a purchase ledger and the amount of the month's bills debited to the proper account, or in toto debit Merchandise, and credit Accounts Payable account. This is the same plan as the old skeleton book for pasting away invoices except that on the loose leaf plan a sheet or more may be devoted to each creditor or each letter of the alphabet as may be desired and an absolute alphabetical or other ar- rangement produced which gives a perfect self-in- dexing effect. A Short Leaf. It will be very evident to those who have studied the loose leaf system and become familiar with it through this book, that a much shorter leaf can be used than in the old-style sewed books. It need be but one-half or two-thirds the depth and not have more capacity, from the fact that one account can be extended to both sides of a leaf and also as many leaves added, from time to time, as the account requires. It is best to adopt a leaf which will properly control the larger accounts, giv- ing space for the average number of entries per month on one side. Of course, there might be one or two accounts running over, but this would not be of sufficient importance to demand an extra depth of leaf for all of them. In loose leaf book- keeping the short account is considered in the pur- chase of ledgers, while in the old-style sewed books the long account had to be considered first in order to save transfers. 224 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. i, .U 4 ft J! LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. 225 Card Index. It is very desirable for firms using two or more ledgers to keep a card index of their customers and to regulate the transfers through this index. In order to do this, a card should be prepared giving whatever information is necessary for the credit man, and below it, with proper rul- ings, the location of the account. Where this plan is used, each customer's name appears upon a sepa- rate card properly indexed, and it should be com- menced by having cards made for every customer's account in each ledger, and then as new accounts were opened, new cards should be made for these accounts, although the customers might be old. It will be readily seen by closely following this plan, the credit man can ascertain whether the customer has an account without referring to the ledgers, and will be able to ascertain also from the card whether this account is open and in the current ledger, or closed and in the transfer ledger. In handling transfers from the current ledgers, the date of transfer should be noted on the card, and where the account is re-introduced into the current ledger, it should be noted on the card in its proper column. After this system is inaugurated it does not require very much time and works very satis- factorily. It is, of course, unnecessary in a small business. I give herewith a sample of the card with the matter and ruling used by a large wholesale house. (See Plate No. 39) 226 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. S i * * 1 f S 1 " 1 - : 5 55 i s 9 * * i i o : !! 6 ; 5 ! i ! (C ' s o i 5 kl j 5 . 1 a Ei s i "-7 g i ; . S ; 2 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 227 Club Ledger. On account of the large number of small charges made to club members, it is difficult to keep a club record without a considerable amount of extra writing. A very clever ledger arrangement giving in the posting a distribution of the charges is that adopted by the Union League, of Philadel- phia. We herewith give the headings of the differ- ent columns ; the page heading being as usual with the sheet number, name and address. Beginning at the left-hand, the columns read : Date, Restaurant, Lodging, Billiards, Wardrobe, Letter-Box, Bowling Playing Cards, Ping Pong, History, Annual Tax, Telephone, Coupe, Sundries, Total Debit, Credit, Balance, Date. Foreign Shipment Register. I reproduce (Plate No. 39) the rulings of a foreign shipment register as required by large firms doing a great deal of ex- porting. As all of the information of each shipment is entered hereon the record is very complete and satisfactorv. Bond Register. Whenever a corporation is- sues and sells its bonds it is necessary to keep a care- ful and accurate and record of the holders of those bonds, interest paid thereon, etc., etc. A form for this purpose (somewhat similar to a stock ledger) is given herewith, Plate No. 38. The Test of Time. When loose leaf book-keep- ing has been in general use for ten or twenty years its great advantage will not have to be explained. A 228 LOOSE LEAP BOOK-KEEPING. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 229 firm puts in a system of loose leaf books now and after using them for ten years requires for some special purpose the account of "Johnson, Robinson & Co.," will find the entire ten years' business all recorded and the record in one book which can be easily found. It may be that this record was all upon one sheet, or it may be that it covered 200 sheets. In either case the result is the same. If more than one sheet has been used the leaves follow each other consecutively both chronologically and by Sheet number, and are found by reference to the proper division; whatever plan of indexing is adopted. Book-keeping for Newspapers. The loose leaf plan has been found especially desirable for newspa- pers in their general books and some of their special books. For subscriptions most of the newspapers use the card system, and find it very satisfactory. For an advertising ledger the interchangeable leaf is most satisfactory. A very good form' Name and Address with Sheet No. for the heading with the name of the newspaper. The columns are ruled as follows : Date, Description, Kind, Lines, Times, Rate, Folio, Balance, Credit, Folio, Date, Remarks. The Chicago Daily News leaf reproduced (Plate No. 41) is as follows : Name of Paper. Name, Address, Sheet No. in the heading. Ruled, Date, Folio, 14 J4 inch cols., blank heading, Kind, Lines, Times, Rate, Amount. Division line Credit, Date, Item, Folio, Amount. 230 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. A Peculiar Ledger. I reproduce Plate No. 43, a peculiar ruling for a ledger used by the Carter White Lead Co., of Chicago. There is probably not another like it in the world, but it is adapted to their business, and by the use of the loose leaf books they can meet these peculiar requirements. They use the Town and State indexing scheme, and their heading is as follows : Name of Company. Town, State, Name, Rating, Shipped via The ruling is as follows: Date, Draft, Bank, Order, Price, Terms, Pounds (unit ruled) Check col., W. H., Date, Folio, Debit, Check. Division line. - Date, Folio, Invoice, Credits, Balance. Profit and Loss Register. Some firms find it very convenient to keep a profit and loss register a form of ruling of which we give Plate No. 44. The ruling is simple. The heading is simply the name of the book and firm. The columns are as follows : Name, Folio, Dr. Division line, Cr., Date, Remarks. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 231- Department Sales. Large firms find it conven- ient to keep a perfect record of Department Sales, especially those engaged in the mail order business, or department stores. The form used by Butler Bros., one of the largest in their line is as follows : Department Sales. New York, Dr. & Cr. Chicago, Dr. & Cr. St. Louis, Dr. & Cr. Totals, Dr. & Cr. Down the lower left-hand margin are recorded the different departments indicated by letter. This form is shown in Plate No. 45. Real Estate Loan Register. A very useful rec- ord for trust companies and corporations loaning money on real estate, is shown in Plate No. 40. The heading reads as follows : Name of the Company, Real Estate Loan to $ No. R Date of Paper Time ...... Due Rate Insurance Amt. $ Expires Time Ex- tended to Taxes Paid to Payee Address The ruling gives first "Description of Property," then under "Principal" three columns, as follows : When Paid Payable Amount, and under "Interest," When Paid Payable Amount. For Real Estate Firms. When a rental or sale sheet is properly made out and arranged for loose leaf binders there is no better way of keeping such records. The agent does not require to keep the description of the premises current after they are rented or sold, and it is much more desirable to 232 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. in < 4- 03 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 233 have them so that they can be easily eliminated. These records can be indexed by streets, or by own- ers alphabetically as preferred. Opening a Transfer Binder. The best way to open the sectional post transfer binder is to unlock, or loosen, the locking mechanism, raise the cover to the top of the posts, and relock it. This takes the weight of the cover from the leaves, and renders insertion or removal of leaves much easier to ac- complish. After you have finished you can release the cover, press it tightly upon the leaves, and relock. Private Locks. Whenever it is deemed necessary for a binder to have a special lock, such device can be obtained with Yale Blocks, securing the book, if : Us sired, so that it cannot be opened for inspection. These locks are sometimes used for General ledgers, Private ledgers, Records of corporation proceedings, and books of private information. Photographers Professional and Amateur. The test way in the world to keep a record of photo- graphic plates is by taking an extra print and past- ing it upon a properly shaped and sized page loose leaf and carrying it in a binder indexed according to subjects, persons or chronologically. Narrow strips can be introduced at the binding edge to keep the book uniform. Whenever a record of this kind is kept- of prints it is easy to find the negative with- out looking over a large stock of plates, as they are .all placed in numerical order and the number of the 234 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. Plate No. 47. 00 00 CO LO f f f => i i t 1 1 i I i 3> f. ^ g g I I I J I ~ s S s s f f f f f f f i s g? s s? s s es * I i f s i I III ! 1 j i i ii | - ' ~ -\ s] s - 1! S I S ! I I s s This form to be attached to ever; order, and not to be detached nntil bill has been made. If for any reason this order is not filled, return this sheet to mailing division with notations thereon, show ing what action has been taken. All of these sheets must be accounted for, whether orders are filled or not, and must not be detached. ORIGINAL. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 235 negative is given upon the page whereon the print is mounted. In cases where a negative has been lost or destroyed it would be possible to secure another from the print. For amateurs it forms a very inter- esting book of reference, and contains careful repro- ductions of their work. Wholesale Order Form. When orders are incorrect- ly divided in wholesale houses it is very important that they do not become sidetracked, and that they are completed and turned back to the billing depart- ment at the earliest possible moment. It is frequently the case that the entire order cannot be filled and it is of the utmost importance that the mailing depart- ment be notified at once, so that a letter, explaining cause of delay or incomplete order may be at once transmitted. Plate No. 48 shows an admirable ar- rangement for this purpose, used by one of the large ir't. Louis wholesale houses. It is written in triplicate and each of the sheets is of a different color. All are attached to the order and go with it through the house until it reaches the billing department, unless for any reason the order cannot be filled, in which case, the second form goes to the mailing division with reasons. After the billing is done the second form goes with the bill to the mailing division, the third form goes to the Sales department so that proper credit may be given salesman or source of order and the original goes with the charge to the accounting department It is never difficult to trace an order with this system. 236 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. The Tumble' Form. It is a well known fact that it is much easier to post on the right hand side of the ledger than upon the left hand. Why, I know not, but book-keepers like the work less on the left hand side. By the use of what is known as "the tumble form," which means that the heading is placed on the opposite end of the sheet, so that it can be turned over and reinserted "right hai)d up," an ac- count can always be kept on the right hand side of the ledger. This necessitates taking the leaf out of the binder, turning it end for end, and reinserting. It is rather awkward in the transfer, as, in a continu- ous account one page would read down and the next one up, but where there is very little reference to closed accounts it is preferred. - It can only be ac- complished by the aid of interchangeable leaves. Safe Guard in Loose Leaf. By getting up the regular safe-guard leaf for loose leaf binder and be- ginning each series by the months consecutively it makes a Perpetual Safe Guard Ledger and while it does not save transferring it distributes the work through the year. The new accounts opened in Jan- uary would begin on leaf with January first column while those opened in February would begin on leaf svith Februarv first column and so on. Uses of Loose Leaf Books. In conclusion I would add that Loose Leaf books may be profitably substituted in ever cas where sewed books are now in use. LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 237 TOPICAL INDEX Page Abreviated States 58 Accounts Payable 158 Accounts Receivable 13 Account Sales 95 Accounting Systems ft Account Years in Same Place 18 Advantages of Account Number 54 Advantages, Loose Leaf 10 Adding Machines 45-115 Advertising Record 157 Agents' Reports 182 Appropriation Register 193 Assorting Cash Items 84 Attorney's Docket 219 Atorney's Ledger 158-159 Average Balance Book 121 Back Accounts to Look Up. 42 Back Order Binder 184 Baggage Account Books 183 Balancing 17-19-46 Balance Book, Bank Form.. 121 Balancing Cash 83 Balance Column 26 Banks 114 Benefit Associations 134 Best Book-keeping 63-214 Bill and Charge System 205 Bills Payable Record ....149-158 Bills Receivable Record. .149-158 Billing System 86 Bindings 215 Binder Limit 24 Binders 15 Bond Record 181-184-227 Bond Record Form 226 Book-keepers' Friend 46 Book Typewriters 129-206 Bottling Department 180 Box Record Form 111-112 Brewery Books 179 Bridge Records 183 Building and Loan, Register Form 100-103 Building Record 183 Car Accounting 182 Car Service Records 182 Card Index Alphabetical ..59-226 Care of Index Leaves 61 Cash Book 66-76-174-184 Cash Book Current 78-181 Cash Book Posting 78 Cash Book Permanent 80 Cash Book Replenishing 80 Page Cash Book Safety 81 Cash Book Size of Leaf .... 81 Cash Disbursement Form ... 82 Cash Journal 89-220 Cash Journal Form 90-218 Cash Receipts Form 82 Cashier's Check Register.... 118 Certificate of Deposit Reg- ister 119 Changing Indexing Plans 121 Check Record 101 Circularizing Form Trans- fers 41 Claim Records 183 Club Ledger 227 Collection Register 119 Collection Tickler 149-158 Commission Book Receiving. 109 Comparative Sales 95 Comparative Statement 190 Comptroller's Voucher 196 Computing Machines 45-115 Contents 5 Daily Balance Book 121 Daily Balance Book, Patent Form 126 Daily Balance Book Patent. 124 Daily Statement Balance Book 117 Debtors' Ledger 193 Dentist's Ledger 219 Department Sales 103-231 Department Sales Form 232 Detail Sheet 209 Discount Ledger (form) 121 Discount Register 119 Distribution 67 Distribution Account 63 Dividing Alphabet 52 Doctor's Ledger 217-218 Double Debit Ruling 30 Double-Double Ruling 32 Draft Register 119 Dry Goods House 212 Durability 40 Electric Company Books ...139 Emergency Reports 183 Estimate Form 189 Expansion . ; 17 Expiration Record Form.. 132-136 Fire Protection Forms 136 Foreign Shipment Register (form) '. 226 Foreign Shipment Register.. 227 238 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. Page Form Book 185 Forms, Index of 6 Fraternal Societies 134 Freight Traffic Record 182 Fuel Books 183 Gas Light Company Books... 141 General Ledger 60-116-158-181 Grain Elevator Sheet 108 Hospital Reports 183 Hotel Guest Ledger 221 How to Make Money 214 Indexing 47 Indexing Account Number... 53 Indexing Alphabetical 49 Indexing Days of Week 60 Indexing Geographical Divis- ions 60 Indexing Numerical 56 Indexing Railway Routes 60 Indexing Salesmen's Routes. 60 Indexing Salesmen's Names. 60 Indexing State Customers Alphabetical 59 Indexing by State and Town 57 Indexing Sundry Accounts.. 61 Indexing Transfers 50 Index Written Unnecessary.. 30 Individual Leaf 36 Individual Ledger 116 Inspection Reports 137 Installment Business Books. 144 Insurance 128 Insurance, Fire Agencies ...135 Insurance, Industrial 133 Interest Book 122 Introductory 3 Journal 86 Journal Binder 89 Journal Columnar 88 Journal Current 88 Journal Permanen t 89 Keg Beer Books 179 Land Department 183 Lawyer's Docket 219 Lawyer's Ledger 158-159 Ledger, How to Open 16 Ledger, How to Use 16 Ledger Forms (Commercial) 25-27-29-31-33-35-37-39-232 Legality 10-211 Ledger Forms, Bank.. 116-117-118 Ledger Forms, Gas Light Company 142 Ledger Forms, Telephone Company 140 Ledger Forms, Water Com- pany 138 Ledger, Secret Society Form. 102 Ledgers in Series 44 Ledgers, Installment 146 Page Lexicon Plan L2 Life Insurance Accounting. .130 License Book 199 Lumber Call Book 188 Lumber Call Book Form 189 Lumber Business 187 Mail Copying Record 183 Mail Order Department 157 Maintainance of Way 1^ Manufacturing Plants 172 Master Mechanic Depart- ment , 1S5 Memorandum and Credit Sys- tem I'OS Mileage Record :. ...182 Minute Book 115-184 Municipal Books 1S1 Newspaper Advertising Ledger (form) 228 Newspaper Book-keeping ...229 Note Record 14 Note Register Form V20 Note Tickler 119 Numbered Accounts 23 Number of Accounts to Binder 40 Numbering Binders 40 Odds and Ends 211 Official Orders 184 Old Ledgers to Close Out.... 20 One Account to Leaf 62 Opening Loose Leaf Ledgers 19 Opening New Accounts 22-49 Opening A Transfer Binder. 233 Order Binder 10 Order Blank System 87-153 Patented Devices 15-124 Pay Roll Books 95-149-184 Peculiar Ledger 230 Peculiar Ledger Form 232 Perfect Index ... 48 Perfect Service 14 Perpetual Invoice FiMng Sys- tem 171-222 Perpetual Trial Balance 97-149-158 Perpetuity 18 Petty Accounts 34 Petty Card Ledger 36 Petty Ledger Accounts 3S Photographers 233 Physician's Ledger 217-218 Piano Rent Contract 105 Policy Record Form 132 Post Binders 92-210 Posting Chqck :"1 Pound Keeepers' Books 199 Prejudice Against Cash Book ...76 LOOSE LEAF BOOK-KEEPING. 239 Page Price Books 155-184 Private Ledger 158-174 Private Locks 233 Profit and Loss Register and Form 230 Proving Postings 45 Punching Leaves 93 Purchase Ledger 87-99-174 Purchase Ledger Account. 43-170 Purchase! Record 99-148-169 Purchase Record Form 94 Quotation Records 155 Real Estate Book-keeping.. 231 Real Estate Loan Register (form) 228 Real Estate Loan Register.. 231 Recapitulation Books. .149-158-160 Recapitulation of Cash En- tries 83 Receiving Book Grain 108 Receiving Sheets 184-190 Remittance Register 119 Repair Department 185 Requisition System 155-184 Retail Business Books 163 Revenue Account 196 Rulings ... ^.6 Rulings to Avoid Carrying Forward 216 Safe Guard System 28-236 Sales Ledger Account 43-158-174 Sales Record 95 Sales Record Form 94-117 Savings Banks 117 Saving Paper 85 Saving Time 51 Sectional Post Binder ....92-210 Secret Society Ledger 102-104 Seed Distribution Form ..'...100 Sefed Issue Book 106 Self Indexing Ledger 48 Separate Leaf 16-17 Series of Ledgers 44 Sheet Number Use 43 Short Leaf 223 Special Assessment Ledger.. 194 Special Assessment Warrant Form 195 Special Assessment Warrant 196 Special Books 92-123 Special Ledger 181 Special Columns Page Speed in Statement Making 42 Splitting Transfers 41 Spring Back Holder 93 Statements 42-200 States Alphabetical 58 Statement Ledger 164 Stock Book 96-155-161-181-184-198 Stock Brokers 137 Stock Ledger 115-149-158-174 Storehouse Books 183 Street Railway Companies. .183 Sub-A.gency Reports 131 Substitute for Transfers 41 Sundry Accounts 34 Suspense Ledger ..149-158 Systematizing Departments.. 21 Tax Record 182 Telegraph Books 139-183 Telephone Books 139 Telephone Register (form)... 177 Test of Time 227 Ticket Issue Record 181 Time Books 149-185 Time Recording Clocks 175 Town Index Tabs 58 Track Records 182 Traffic Record 181 Transfer Binders 11-92-210 Transferring, Where 20-23-91 Transfer Index Card (form). 224 Transportation Company Books 180 Trust Companies 114 Tumble Form 236 United States Government.. 113 Uses of Loose-Leaf Books.. 236 Variation of Ruling 38 Vertical Filing Case 41-167 Voucher Binder Permanent.. 64 Voucher Record 64 Voucher Register Form.. 72-73-173 Voucher Sheer 71 Voucher System 63-174 Ware House Records 96 Warrants Register 194 Weight of Paper 212 When to Transfer 20 Wholesale Business 152 Wholesale Order Form 234 Wholesale Order Form (de- scribed) 235 SEP JUN1 5