One class of business in which the receipt of returned goods must be handled with extreme care is the installment business. Most installment contracts vest title to the goods in the seller until all payments are made. To avoid payment, a customer may return goods without notice. Acceptance by the seller cancels the contract at once. A safe rule to follow, therefore, is to accept no returned goods until authorized to do so by one in authority.
The receiving slip, Fig. 13, Page 16, is to be filled out by the receiving clerk. One copy will go to the purchasing agent and the other to the stores clerk. From these reports the stores clerk makes his record of material received. In some cases material ordered for the use of a particular department is to be sent direct to the department and not to the storeroom. A third copy of the report should be made which will be sent to the department, from whence it will go to the stores clerk, properly receipted.
22. Deliveries. The stores clerk, being in custody of all stock, is responsible not alone for its safe keeping but for deliveries. He must be in a position to show what stock has been delivered, to whom, and for what purpose.
There is but one method that will insure an accurate record of deliveries and that is, to deliver no goods without a written order or requisition, signed by one having authority to authorize withdrawals.
Each department, or shop, should be supplied with storeroom requisitions, numbered consecutively with the department number or letter; that is, a requisition from one shop might be numbered B 100, another C 100. These requisitions should be made in duplicate or triplicate. When the duplicate form is used, the original is sent to the stores clerk and the duplicate retained by the foreman. When the stores clerk has completed his records and the foreman has received the material, both copies are to be sent to the cost department. One copy acts as a check against the other, making it impossible for either the stores clerk or foreman to make false returns. To make identification easy, the two blanks should be printed on paper of contrasting colors. In the cost department one copy should be filed according to the department in which the requisition originated, keeping the numbers consecutive, and the other under the production or job order number. On completion of the order, the latter copy can be destroyed as it will no longer be needed. The departmental copies may also be destroyed, say at the end of a three months' period.
Sometimes it will be found advisable for the stores clerk to retain a copy of the requisition, in which event the triplicate form will be used, two copies being sent to him. He will file his copy by production order numbers, if for material, or by departmental numbers, if for supplies.
All requisitions should provide for a record of prices and values, these to be entered in the cost department. If this is omitted it will be necessary for the cost clerk to enter the items and extend cost on another blank; when included, he can post values direct from the requisition to the permanent cost records. Place should also be provided on the requisition for the signature of the one who receives the material.
Fig. 23. Requisition for Material to be Used on a Production Order
A form of requisition adapted to the use of the average manufacturing enterprise is shown in Fig. 23. This form shows the department number, the date, the production order number, quantity, description, cost, and value. At the bottom the necessary form of receipt is provided. Usually this form will be found adequate for both material and supplies. When used for supplies, the purpose for which they are intended is to be inserted in place of the production order number. Special forms for supplies and repair material are used in some plants. These should differ in color from the material requisitions. A form of this character is illustrated in Fig. 24.