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

Dead and Live Records.

It will be remembered that all our Forms 9 were placed in one book and our Forms 6 in another, and that each Form 9 was to be used for two months, that is, used on both sides. After both sides have been used these forms are transferred bodily to the book containing our Forms 6, and placed between the Forms 6 referring to these months. Fresh Forms 9 take the place of those transferred, thus keeping our book “alive” and placing our dead records where they will be less in the way. The logic of this is evident when we remember that we use our Charge Book (Form 6) only at the end of the month, whereas, we use our Form 9 book every day.

As regards Form 8 (charge sales slip) our rolls of triplicate sales slips for the month should be marked on the outside of each roll with the date and the name of the department to which each pertains and kept in a convenient place until the auditing officer has finished his work for that month, when they should be stored together in some place where they can be consulted if desired. They should be preserved for such length of time as may be required by regulations or local laws, depending upon which is the greater. The original slips may be treated in one of two ways; they may be sent to the customer with his bill at the end of the month, or they may be sent to him after he pays his bill. It is felt that the first method is by far the better.

Forms 5 for the month should be preserved until the auditor has finished with them, and it is perhaps advisable to keep them until after the next visit of the inspector. Our Forms 4 are very important and should be kept until after the inspector has inspected the accounts of the Exchange, if not indefinitely. Forms 6, 7 and 9 are a part of the permanent records of the Exchange and should be preserved indefinitely.

The foregoing description of this system of handling charge accounts may sound formidable to the layman, but in reality, it is not so. As shown in the graphic chart (Fig. 10) it is a logical system, proceeding in a simple, orderly way from the charge sales slip to the ledger and the customer’s bill. It belongs to the class of book-keeping called “controlled accounts”—each part of the system knits evenly into the others, and there is a continual process of summation going on throughout the records. There is no duplicated work and every step is one of definite progress towards the goal. It will be found to fulfil the requirements we imposed at the beginning of this essay. It has actually proved its worth wherever installed. It is equally adapted to the large and to the small Exchange. Due to the many available opportunities for checking the correctness of results, mistakes are easily located and corrected. However, if the checks described are applied, especially those relating to Form 4, there should be little excuse for a mistake to appear in any of the higher accounts.

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