Fig. 6. A Working Chart for the Guidance of the Employes in One Department
To properly systematize the routine, the department head should first study his department to find out what the routine tasks really are—what work must be done each day or each week. He should then list these tasks and assign them to certain clerks to be performed at certain stated times.
This can be best presented by means of a chart as shown in Fig. 6. This chart covers the work of a typical general accounting department. At the top, the general or routine tasks are listed, grouped under proper divisions. From each task listed a line is extended to the time when it is to be performed: daily, the day of the week, day of the month, or the month. The letters at the end of the lines indicate by whom the tasks are to be performed, C representing clerks, B, bookkeepers, and A, cashier.
Taking the collection division as an illustration, we will suppose that it is Monday, the 2nd of the month. The chart shows that on Monday notices of notes and accounts due are to be mailed. On the second day of the month, past due accounts must be taken up and disposed of. In addition are the daily tasks as indicated by the lines extending to the daily line.
When a task is to be performed two or three times in a month, the line is broken and the letter inserted at each break. Even the time of drawing off a balance sheet, once every three months, is indicated. A similar chart should be made to show the routine duties of each department.
Such charts, supplying, as they do, complete working schedules for the routine of each department, soon reduce the time taken by routine tasks, which is of no little importance in the conduct of a well regulated department. They fill a place in office routine analogous to that of the working plan in the shop. The same idea can be carried out, and will prove equally valuable, even in an office where the bookkeeper does all of the work.