STATISTICAL DEPARTMENT
One of the chief functions of the comptroller's office is to gather statistics which tell what is being done in every branch, department, and division of the business. The purpose of these statistics is to show the results of these activities—the gross volume of transactions, the cost, and the result in net profits. When assembled in the form of intelligent reports, these statistics present an understandable history of the business.
The statistical department may be considered as the cost department of the commercial branch. Manufacturers recognize the necessity for comprehensive statistics in the manufacturing branch; they realize that they must know what their goods cost to manufacture; but in comparatively few enterprises is the importance of commercial costs recognized.
In the factory, costs are figured down to the most minute detail; what it costs to perform each operation on every part of the completed whole is known; the efficiency of every man—what he costs in wages, in power, and general expense, and the cost of every bit of material he uses—all of this is told by the cost accounting system. What it costs to sell the goods is usually a matter of guess work.
To know what it costs to run a business—to know commercial costs—is just as important as to know manufacturing costs. Both are necessities if the business is to attain its greatest possibilities.
What are the actual profits of this or that department?
How much net profit is there in handling this commodity?
Does it cost more to send a salesman to that little town, ten miles off the main line, to take Jones' order than the profits on his business?
Is there as much profit in working this territory as some other?
Measured by the standard of net profits—not volume of sales—is Brown a profitable salesman? Compared with White, what is his efficiency?