17. Ledger afford many possi ble combinations which result in a time saving. Card systems, loose-leaf records, combinations of various ledgers, and the like have already been touched upon. It is not necessary to have all the data in every ledger. Offsetting accounts may be found in other books so long as they are available for quick reference when desired. The cash account, for instance, is frequently found only in the cash book.
If loose-leaf records are used, accounts should be transferred to transfer ledgers as fast as they are paid up, so that the current ledger is never burdened with superfluous information. Whenever accounts are transferred from the general ledger to subsidiary ledgers, if loose-leaf ledgers are used, it will be neces sary to make an entry, but it will be unnecessary to make all postings.
18. Boston ledger.—The Boston ledger is a com mon form used in banks. It affords an easy means of obtaining a daily balance, and a complete record of all transactions affecting the account. It is usu ally a controlling record, the details of which must be given elsewhere. Storage warehouses, real estate agencies, and other businesses whose patrons are many but in which the monthly transactions are few, have made frequent and satisfactory use of the Bos ton ledger. Its chief advantage is that whenever er rors occur they may be easily located.
A form of the Boston Ledger sheet is shown on page 261. A new sheet must be added each month, but by the use of short sheets and binding on the right, it is unnecessary to rewrite the names of the account. The balance at the first of the month is brought forward and the debits or credits from the various books of preparatory entry are posted in the appropriate column. If an error has occurred, we may total the columns and prove them with the books from which they came. Many accounts are on a page and hence proof is made comparatively easy.
19. Mechanical aids.—Little can be said here of the possible aids which may be obtained from various ma chines which have been, and which are continually being, introduced. Billing machines and adding ma chines are perhaps the most common aids. Their use will vary with each business. They can be used in the writing of bills, preparation of customers' monthly statements at the time of posting, and the like.
The billing machines now in use make it possible to post the ledger account and prepare a statement of each customer at the same time. The statement is, of
course, a mere abstract of the ledger with certain in formation omitted. The addition of each account may be done at the time the posting is made, and a continuous record of the amount posted carried in the machine so that, at the end of the day, the day's work may be checked.
If the machine total, for example, shows that $49, 900 have been posted, while the sales books items for the day total $50,000, the bookkeeper knows at once that an error has been made. He does not have to wait until the trial balance is drawn off before know ing that an error has been committed.
Many types of adding machines are now on the market which will not only add and subtract, but which will multiply and divide. If many percentages are to be figured as a part of the preparation of finan cial statements, the use of such machines is almost a necessity.
20. Automatic features of a good accounting sys tem.—An accounting system, to be successful, must be founded upon a satisfactory routine. No matter how extensively the work is subdivided, no matter how advanced the various books may be, the routine by which the information is gathered, classified, recorded and reported, must be complete or the system will fall down.
Bookkeepers should not be required to seek in formation. Standard forms should be prepared on which all other departments will report to the ac counting department, data which the latter must re cord. Standard times should be set for the perform ing of every operation and the work so subdivided that each clerk will be busy all the time, but not be es pecially rushed at any particular time. Good refer ence files in which the information can be filed will be of inestimable importance.
21. Standard methods of proving simplest method of verifying the accuracy of a book keeper's work is, of course, that of checking over what he has done. Disturbance and fatigue exact their toll in the form of errors no matter how capable a bookkeeper may be, while inattention and incom petency are always fatal to accuracy. The check on the bookkeeper's work may be made either by the book keeper himself or by some one else. It is probably safest to have somebody else do the checking, for a bookkeeper has a certain natural tendency to repeat an operation in exactly the same way in which he first performed it. If he checks his own work it is not unlikely that he will pass by an error that he has previously made.