Post Exchange Methods / A Manual for Exchange Stewards, Exchange Officers, Members of Exchange Councils, Commanding Officers, Being an Exposition of a Simple and Efficient System of Accounting Which Is Applicable to Large and to Small Exchanges Alike.

by Paul D. Bunker

CASH DISBURSEMENTS.

The right or credit side of the cash book is, in general, of the same form as the debit side. See Fig. 11. As all distribution of merchandise to the various departments is made through the stock records, there is no necessity of trying to duplicate this information on the pages of the cash book. We, therefore, lump all merchandise payments under the heading “Creditors” and reserve a column for such payments only. In a similar manner, all payments for services rendered in the various departments could be entered under a heading, “Labor”, and the proper distribution or pro-rata share of each department could be shown on the receipted pay roll, as explained hereafter.

Other columns that will be needed are:—Maintenance, Fixtures, Interest and Discount, Appropriations, and Expense. All disbursements which can not be placed in one of the other columns should be entered under Interest and Discount. Under Appropriations, enter all disbursements voted by the Exchange Council for Athletics, Dividends, Sick in Hospital, etc. Under Fixtures should go all expenditures for permanent equipment (new) of the Exchange, and under Maintenance, all money spent for repairs, replacing of old equipment by new, and the like. In the Expense Column we carry such items as wastage, breakage, telephone and telegraph bills, fuel, light, insurance, printing and stationery, and such expendable supplies as twine, paper, etc., as are used in carrying on the business. When the Exchange Officer or authorized agent makes a purchasing trip on purely Exchange business, his authorized expenses should be entered in this column. Exchange Councils differ in their interpretations of what such expenses should be, and the Exchange Officer should have it recorded in the proceedings of the Council that such allowances of expenses are authorized.

To sum up:—the columns of the credit side of the cash book, reading from left to right are as follows:—Date; Description of item entered, giving name of creditor and a clue to the articles on the invoices; Voucher No.; Check No.; Net Cash; Discount; Creditors (or Merchandise); Labor; Appropriations; Fixtures; Interest and Discount; Expense; Sundries, and perhaps, one or two spare columns.

At the end of the month or when the books are closed, the totals of the various columns are posted to the debit side of the General Ledger as follows:—

Creditors posted to Bills Payable, Mdse.

Interest and Discount to Interest and Discount.

Discount to Interest and Discount.

Fixtures to Fixtures (Exchange or Laundry, as the case may be).

The items entered in the Expense column must be distributed, such items as cannot properly be posted to the account of any of the departments must be posted to the “General Expense” account in the General Ledger. The same rule applies to Labor and to Sundries. The items in the Appropriations column must also be distributed among the proper ledger accounts, such as Athletics, Dividends, Sick in Hospital, etc., as the case may be.

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