It is customary to divide the city into sections, assigning a collector to each section, the number depending on the size of the city and the number of accounts. It is necessary to use as many files as there are collectors, with an office file added for those who prefer to pay at the office.
Every morning each collector is given the cards on his route, on which payments are due. On his return, he turns in all cards to the cashier with the amount collected. If a back call is necessary, the card is filed ahead a day or two.
The cards in the office file are placed on the cashier's desk each morning and payments are recorded as made. Those on which no payments are recorded are kept on the desk, and after a reasonable time are given to a collector to follow up.
When payments have been recorded in the cash book, all cards are again placed in the files under the next collection dates. They are then ready for the collectors.
Fig. 28. Receipt for Installment Collections
Collector's Receipt. Some method is, of course, necessary for checking up the collectors, and to insure the turning in of all money collected. A very satisfactory plan has been devised by the cashier of a western music house, in the form of a duplicate receipt as shown in Fig. 28. These receipts are bound in book form and numbered in duplicate, the original being perforated.
The receipt is especially convenient for the customer, as it shows exactly how the payment is to be credited. For the same reason, it is equally convenient for the cashier. All of the numbered receipts must be accounted for; if one is spoiled, it must be turned in, which provides an effective check on the collector.
Mail-Order Installment Collections. An increasing volume of installment business is now done by mail. An established principle of the mail-order business is that customers must be given an opportunity to inspect the goods before they can be expected to make a binding contract for their purchases. Beginners in the mail-order field are quite likely to look on this as an impractical plan, fearing the loss of goods, but experience soon teaches them that it is the only plan on which the business can be successfully conducted.
When experienced mail-order men, with the courage to try out a new idea, experimented on the plan of allowing customers to return goods, they found that the more liberal the offer, the more business they did. This led to the giving of an absolute guaranty, offering to ship goods on approval with the privilege of return for any reason within certain time limits.