LABOR SAVING DEVICES 1. Guides in developing labor saving devices.—No standard form of record and no standard method of carrying on work has ever been devised which would be equally well adapted to one business house as to another. In developing a system of accounting for any business its particular needs must be es pecially provided for.
Accuracy, speed and sufficient information are the only requisites to a good system. The data may be scattered in various books, ledgers may not balance, (if the balancing data is readily available), books may be added, or books may be omitted, forms may be varied at will, ledgers and posting media may be com bined into a single volume, different ledgers may be found within the same covers, and so long as the re sulting system serves its purpose with satisfaction all such combinations are permissible.
A centralized control of the system is necessary. A standard routine for handling the work must be developed and no change made in this routine ex cept upon approval and authority. This routine must be such as will bring full data to the bookkeepers for their use without waste of effort or -time.
2. Satisfactory records.—Intelligent records which can be interpreted by persons not familiar with the particular system are of importance. Intricate and elaborate systems which furnish complete informa tion in intelligible form and with but slight effort to the bookkeeper may be of no value to the manager or to outsiders when they attempt to go over the rec ords. No set of accounts should be dependent upon the knowledge of one man for their interpretation. Speed must be sacrificed to clearness if necessary.
The work involved in keeping these records should be made as automatic as possible. Every operation should be reduced to a single step. For example, if a bookkeeper is posting let him do nothing but transfer the amount from the posting media to the ledger account. He should post only one side of the account at once. If he must keep watch on the con dition of the account to which he is posting or for other information, he will be more likely to pass over an amount or to make an incorrect posting. If the post
ing, checking, drawing off information from the ac counts which have been posted, and the like, are per formed in separate operations and at separate times, increased accuracy is certain to result.
3. What is meant by a labor saving is perhaps difficult to say that any particular operation or routine ought to be classified as a special labor saving device. The labor saving devices of one pe riod become standard practice, in the next. With out doubt, columnarized books of preparatory entry, controlling accounts and the like were all regarded as labor saving devices worthy of special mention when they were first put into use. Nowadays this part of bookkeeping routine has become so standard ized that a treatment of the principles of accounting would be incomplete unless these forms of books or these methods were discussed.
In every line of business particular methods will be followed which are adapted to that line alone. Bankers, for instance, have evolved a very elaborate and accurate method of handling their work whereby they are able to take off a balance sheet daily, within a short time after the day's work is ended. They have methods of checking and proving their work so that little or no time is spent in looking for errors.
Let us approach the subject from the following viewpoints : 1. Books and forms used 2. Accounts and accounting forms 3. Records of original entry 4. Posting media 5. Ledgers 6. Mechanical aids.
4. Forms of books.—It has become the established custom to make use wherever possible of loose-leaf books in which the sheets may be detached, transferred and changed at will. When new accounts are added, it is only necessary to insert a new sheet in the book. Such books have the advantages of cheapness, corn pactness, uniform order of accounts, and a possibility of various combinations within one binder.