CASH SALES.
In the light of the preceding discussion of charge sales, our methods of handling cash sales can be disposed of in a few words. In all cases of such sales, the clerk simply gives the customer his goods, receiving the money therefor, makes change if necessary, rings up the amount of the sale on the cash register and places the cash therein. The most important part of this transaction, insofar as our system is concerned, is described in the next-to-last clause. If the salesman once rings up the correct amount on the cash register, the store is sure that the transaction is closed, and closed properly. Means to this end will be discussed under the heading of “Cash Registers”.
It is customary to loan, secured by various kinds of receipts, a suitable sum to the heads of the various departments of the Exchange for the purpose of making change. In some cases, it may be advisable to require them to make a cash deposit to cover these amounts. When the Cashier or Steward is under bond, it is feasible to turn the “change money” of the whole Exchange over to him, taking his note for it.
After closing at night, each clerk enters his cash sales on his sales report (Form 5, Fig. 4) and hands it, together with the cash receipts, to the Steward or other authorized recipient. The latter counts the cash immediately, checks it on the clerk’s report and places it one side until the total cash is checked. He then transfers the item to his own Form 4, (Fig. 5) and compares the totals for each department with the cash register readings for those departments, entering the latter, if they are shown separately for each clerk, on each clerk’s report in the spaces provided for that purpose. Discrepancies are handled as previously explained under Charge Sales.
Cash Book.
When the cash is checked and the Steward’s report is correct, he copies the amounts of cash sales for each department into the Cash Book, putting each amount in its proper column. All the cash receipts from all the departments for any one day go on the same line in the Cash Book. On the other hand, credit nothing in the Cash Book to a department except a cash sale. Every other receipt of cash from whatever source is recorded in the Cash Book, also, a separate line being given to each transaction. For instance, as before explained, whenever one of our charge customers pays his bill, we give him a separate line in the Cash Book, entering this amount in two columns, first under “Net Cash” and also under “Customers”.
The Cash Book should have on the “Received” or debit side (the left side) columns for the following items:—Date, Explanation, Vou., Net Cash, a column for each department of the Exchange, Customers, Creditors, Interest and Discount, and at least two spare columns for entering the pay-day collections, etc. The books should not be too bulky as many cash books are, and should, of course, be built on the loose leaf plan. A cash book cannot be designed to suit all cases because of the varying number and kind of departments pertaining to different Exchanges. However, it is easy to secure uniformity of principle and method, which is the main thing. The only point that need vary between different Exchanges is the number of columns in the book and the headings to same.
