CASH BOOK
25. The general cash book for a brokerage firm in loose leaf should be sheet size 14 by 14 inches. In a bound book, it would not be necessary to have it more than 12 inches wide. In this particular business, it is not desirable to carry the general cash debit on one sheet and the general cash credit on another, although it might be advantageous in certain cases to run the grain in the general cash book and to keep a subsidiary cash book for the stocks, which might be run upon similarly ruled sheets, the total of the day's transactions being brought into the general cash at night. By doing this the posting clerk could be using one of the cash books while the cashier was working on the other.
Fig. 9. Broker's General Cash Book
At the heading of the general cash sheet appears the sheet number and either the date (providing one sheet or more is used for each day), or the month with an extra day column, next to the margin. The columns are ruled and printed to show stocks, grain, and general ledger on the debit side and the same on the credit side, with the posting columns and sufficient room for the names of customers in center, as in Fig. 9. In this cash book should be entered all payments for margin on purchases of either grain or stock, all deposits by customers, which should be carried into the column indicated by their account—if they deal in grain their account is in the grain ledger and if in stocks their account is in the stocks ledger. All items of receipts or expenditures, not from or to customers, should be entered in the general ledger column, except as shown in the subsidiary cash sheet called office cash disbursements. Cash book sheets should always be paged consecutively when made, and each sheet accounted for, if loose-leaf cash books are used.
The best binder to use for a loose-leaf cash book is a flat opening spring back holder, in which may be placed enough leaves to last for the month, to be used for the current work, and when the new month is started the sheets for the previous month are placed in a reserve binder—which should be of the sectional post variety—for reference. If the back of the binder is labeled as the front and the leaves are reversed when placed in the transfer binder, they will run consecutively as to pages and dates.
At the end of the month the totals of the grain ledger and stocks ledger are brought into the general ledger column and posted to the controlling account for that ledger.