There is no mystery about bank bookkeeping. It is about the simplest known. The total amount of your deposit is added to the balance you already have in the bank; then the total amount of your checks, that reach your bank that day, is deducted; the result is your balance.
Right here it is well to emphasize that the great majority of the banks keep no record of the names of the parties from whom you receive checks which you deposit; nor do they keep any record of the names of the people to whom you make your checks payable.
When you deposit a check, the only record generally kept by the banks is the date that you deposited it, the amount, and the town in which it is payable. If it is on a bank in the same city, your bank will keep a record of the name of that bank, but not otherwise.
In handling thousands of checks daily, it can be seen what a stupendous task it would be for a bank to keep a complete record of the drawers and all the endorsers on every check. Its force of clerks would have to be doubled or trebled.
The bank should not be expected to keep your private memoranda, and it is the duty of the depositor to keep a complete record of the parties from whom he gets the checks that he deposits or cashes.
If a check is lost in the mails, the bank has a perfect right, after giving the depositor the amount, the date on which it was deposited, and the town in which it was payable, to charge the amount to the depositor's account until he furnishes a duplicate of the lost check. So, if you cash a check drawn by John B. Smith, for example, and payable to James A. Jones, and then endorsed by several other parties; it is your duty, and not the bank's, to keep a record of the person from whom you received that check, and obtain a duplicate if it is lost before reaching its destination. Also with all other checks which you deposit or cash.
Many retail firms cash checks for customers; and after endorsing, will deposit them for collection; keeping absolutely no record of the sources from which they received them. For example,—Mrs. Brown, of St. Louis, receives a check from her son in Cincinnati. She gets it cashed at the dry goods store with which she deals. Then the merchant deposits it, with numerous other checks, in his bank for collection. If the check is returned unpaid, the bank certainly has a perfect right to call on the merchant to pay it. The merchant then calls on Mrs. Brown to pay him. Now if that check is lost in the mails, say burned in a railroad wreck, the bank has the same right to call on the merchant for a duplicate. And it is no valid excuse for him to say that he has no record of the person from whom he received it.
In short, each person endorsing a check should keep a record of the person from whom he received it, or for whom he endorsed it.
On the last business day of every month your statement is made up and you should call for it as soon after as convenient. Then you should assort your canceled checks according to the dates or numbers of same, and compare them with the stubs in your check book. This is very important in order that you may detect any forged or raised checks and promptly inform your bank. If such checks are not reported to the bank in a reasonable time, you will have to stand the loss. The total amount of the checks not returned by the bank should be the exact amount of the difference between the balance as shown by your check book and your bank book. For example,—you give a check on the last day of the month; it does not reach your bank until the first, second or third day of the next month. It can not be charged to your account until it does reach your bank; therefore, the bank's statement will generally show a larger balance than your check book. The difference is the amount of checks that are out.
Banks do not like to tell the amount of your balance over the telephone. They can not identify you "over the 'phone," and some person, who has no business to know, may be inquiring into your affairs. For the same reason they do not like to state the amount of your balance to any one in person, unless you authorize it. That is a confidential matter between you and the bank, and they make this rule for your protection as much as their own.