SPECIAL ACCOUNTING FORMS
21. Bookkeeping, if it is to fulfil its mission, must furnish a complete record of the transactions of a business. The record must show, as well, the results of each transaction or class of transactions, with respect to their bearing on the business as a whole, or on specific sections or departments of that business. From a mere record of personal debits and credits, bookkeeping has grown into a detailed history of a business.
The principles of bookkeeping are the same regardless of the nature, size, or condition of a business. But different businesses require different kinds of information; vital facts in one business may be valueless in another. The success or failure of each depends upon certain elements which must be recorded in its history. It is the work of the bookkeeper to record these facts—to write the history of the business in language that will be understood by anyone who may read it.
Laying out the business history is the work of the accountant. He makes an analysis of those elements which bear on the success of the business, and determines what facts, when properly recorded, will furnish the clearest and most understandable history. And when he has determined what facts should be recorded he must plan how they are to be recorded—in what form they will present the most concise history of business transactions. His work should result in a system of bookkeeping that will present the most vitally important information, with a minimum expenditure of labor.
The increasing demand for more intelligible records—for facts—has stimulated the ingenuity of accountants in devising forms that will not only accommodate the records desired but will permit of their being made with the least labor. Special forms exactly suited to the records which they are to contain, are now made for every purpose. Labor-saving devices and methods have minimized the drudgery of bookkeeping.
The bookkeeper who would rise above mediocrity requires something besides the ability to record business transactions in the proper columns of books prepared for him. He must know how to devise forms and books, how to adapt correct principles to the building of a system of bookkeeping for any line of business. If certain facts assume importance, he must know how those facts can best be obtained and recorded.
To assist in familiarizing the student with the more modern methods, this section is devoted to illustrations and descriptions of special forms of books for various purposes. The student should devote careful study to these forms, for while they have been in the main devised to meet special conditions, the principles can be adapted to any line of business where similar conditions exist.