RETAIL DRY GOODS BILLING
The retail dry goods houses and department stores use a form of billing which is different from any other, in that the bills are rendered to the customer once a month only. There are other lines of business which render their bills monthly, and which use the same style of billing.
A folded form is used, the top sheet when completed at the end of the month is mailed to the customer. The second or duplicate is retained for the record of purchases.
When a customer makes a purchase, the saleslady makes the charge in her sales book. One copy goes with the goods to the wrapping desk, the other goes to the cashier's desk. The wrapper cannot handle a package without a duplicate sales slip. The packer removes from his duplicate slip a stub bearing the same number as the slip. This is to prevent goods being removed from the house without proper authority. The cashier retains the slip if cash has been paid, but passes the slip on to the auditing department, if the slip is marked by the saleslady charge.
Fig. 24. Compound Forms, Showing Invoice and Office Records
Remington Typewriter Co.
In large stores like John Wanamaker's, the customers are given by the credit man a brass check with their number marked thereon. This shows each clerk with whom they deal that they are entitled to credit, without having them identified each time they make a purchase. In smaller cities, the clerks become familiar with all the charge customers, and any plan of this character is not needed.
The sales slips are all numbered from 1 to 50, and the auditing department checks back each day all the slips of the different sales-people to see if all the slips have been accounted for. Some stores have a chart on the cashier's desk with the clerk's number at the top of each column, and the check numbers listed serially in each column, as shown in Table I.
Table I
CHART FOR CHECKING RETAIL SALES SLIPS
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
As fast as the checks are received at the cashier's desk they are checked. If one of the clerks should sell goods to a friend, and send one slip to the packer, but destroy the cashier's copy, the fraud would be detected, as the next slip which would be sent in would show by the number that the previous one was missing. The matter could be investigated immediately. The auditing departments of different stores handle the detail of the work in various ways—which, however, are about the same. Some stores, after they prove that there are no slips missing by checking the slips by the serial numbers, add them up on adding machines. As some stores do not care for a list of the slips, they use a non-listing machine, such as the comptometer. Other stores add the sales of each clerk separately, and add the totals of all the clerks to secure the total sales. The total sales of each clerk are then entered on a statistical sheet which shows a comparison of the total daily sales of each clerk for the month, as shown in Table II.
The slips are then sorted according to departments, then added again, and similar information written on statistical sheets with the department numbers at the top, instead of the clerk numbers. The grand totals must agree to prove the work.
The slips are then sorted according to customers. If Mrs. J. B. Jackson has bought goods in three different departments, the auditing department will pin the three slips together and mark the total of the slips to be charged to her account on the back of the under slip. If there are twelve bill clerks and twelve billing machines, all the slips will then be assorted into twelve lots, each lot representing the number of accounts taken care of by each bill clerk.
TABLE II
COMPARISON OF DAILY SALES OF CLERKS
| Clerk No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Days | ||||||||
| 335 38 | 1 | 30 50 | 55 45 | 47 70 | 35 35 | 56 78 | 34 25 | 40 56 | 34 79 |
| 492 53 | 2 | 56 74 | 87 55 | 9 76 | 87 23 | 54 09 | 19 89 | 86 75 | 90 52 |
| etc. | etc. | etc. | etc. | etc. | etc. | etc. | etc. | etc. | etc. |
Each bill clerk receives the slips in alphabetical order. The monthly folded bills are arranged in the same order. These are held in binders—a special kind, such as the Tengwall, being used—from which the bills can be easily and quickly removed. Some firms prefer to file daily in vertical files the current monthly bills, upon which the charges are being made.
Some machines, such as the Smith Premier and the Elliott-Fisher, have a carbon roll on their machines for manifolding these duplicate folded bills without handling the carbon paper. These attachments were especially designed for this particular work.
After the operator has entered the charges of the three slips for Mrs. J. B. Jackson, or any other customer having more than one slip for the previous day's purchases, she compares the total she has placed on the bill with the total marked on the back of the slips by the auditing department.
Fig. 25 shows samples of folded monthly retail bills. The black showing under the top sheet, which is turned over, is the carbon paper used with the bills when made on machines not equipped with the carbon-roll attachment. Some firms place the carbon paper between the sheets at the beginning of the month, and leave it there; others place the carbon paper between the sheets for every charge which is made to the bill.
After all the charges have been made, the operator adds up on the adding machine the totals of all the last charges on the various bills to which charges have been made that day. This total must agree with the amount which the auditing department handed over to each bill clerk to be entered upon these bills. The Smith Premier and Elliott-Fisher have tally-strip devices which automatically record the total of each charge made to all the various bills each day. This paper strip, when added up, must agree with the total of the auditing department figures.
At the end of the month, about the 26th, most firms begin to total the columns of the bill. The final total of each bill added to the total of every other bill must give a grand total equal to all the charges for the month. This proves that each bill has been correctly added. The balance due from the previous bills is then brought forward, and any payments made during the month deducted, and the bill footed. All credits for returned goods are entered during the month the same as the charges, excepting that they are placed in a separate column provided for that purpose, and deducted at the end of the month from the charges.
Some firms post the total charges and credits for the month to the ledger in two lump sums. Other firms prefer to post the total of each day's charges to the ledger daily, instead of letting the posting go until the end of the month. This is a matter to be decided from a bookkeeping standpoint. If the bookkeepers have the current month's charges in the ledger, it saves referring to the bills at the bill clerk's desk for information or the current month's charges.
Fig. 25. Monthly Statements of Retail Dry Goods Houses
Remington Typewriter Co.
Fig. 26. Smith Premier Device for Inserting Dry Goods Billing Forms Evenly
After the bills have been sent out, the duplicates are filed away. The best known way to file them is alphabetically; each customer's bill for the various months together. This is in contrast to the plan of filing each month's bills away separately. If it is wished to refer to any one person's charges for a given number of months it is necessary, under the latter plan, to refer to several binders.
Fig. 27. Remington Billing Machines
One of the devices which did more to permit cylinder machines to do billing successfully is shown in Fig. 26. Formerly, when two or more sheets of paper were inserted in a cylinder machine, the small feed roll which rests against the large rubber platen, fed the under papers at a different speed than those sheets which rested against the large roll. The result was that the papers were fed unevenly into the machine. When removed, it was impossible to replace them in the same relation in which they were before.
The device illustrated furnishes a resting place for evenly placing all the sheets in the machine by pressing a release lever which draws the feed rolls away from the large roll until the papers or sheets are properly placed in the machine. Started evenly, they will invariably feed evenly.
Fig. 28. Smith Premier Dry Goods Billing Machine
This is of particular advantage in retail dry goods billing, where a sheet is placed in and out of a machine as many as thirty times a month. If the top of the bill is each time started from the same starting point, namely, the top of the statement, it will feed correctly to the next writing point on the statement without any adjustment. The Remington, Fig. 27, and Underwood machines are equipped with devices for the same purpose. The Smith Premier, Fig. 28, and the Elliott-Fisher machines are equipped with rolls of carbon which automatically manifold folded monthly bill forms.