Currency is received by express and registered mail. The bank's organization may be such that these packages come direct to the paying teller or through the note teller. If the currency comes in either way to the note teller, he receipts for it and makes record, and then passes the packages to the paying teller against receipt. The record kept of these shipments covers the trans actions with great minuteness and is carefully verified. Credit tickets are put through to the bookkeepers, and letters of advice are despatched through the transit department advising the shipper of the receipt of the package. These letters are ordi narily stamped "Subject to count," for the amount stated on the strap of the package may not agree with the actual contents, and the first count of the money department is not considered final; this proviso gives a certain amount of redress if a shortage is found in the final count, which may be a few days later. After all details in connection with the receipt of the shipment are executed, the money is turned over to the money department for sorting and counting.
The paying teller's department prepares weekly statements for the press and ticker and for the cashier, chief clerk, and gen eral bookkeeper's department, of all receipts and shipments of gold and currency to the East, West, Middle West, and South.
Payments at the Clearing Balances at the Clearing House in New York were formerly paid by the actual transfer of lawful money, or currency certifi cates based on deposits of lawful money. For this purpose the paying teller prepared. according to the clearing house require ment, packages containing large round sums. But during 1917 a new method was adopted in New York and in many other clear ing houses whereby such balances are now adjusted by book en tries, instead of carrying the money through the street to and from the clearing house. The federal reserve bank makes the settle ment for the member; in case of a debit balance it pays the money to the clearing house and charges the member's account, and in case of a credit balance receives the money and credits the mem ber's account. Corresponding entries are made on the member's books. In any city where the old method is still used the paying teller has the duty of making settlement of balances.
Another duty devolving upon the paying teller is to prepare the pay-roll of the bank. The names of the employees and the amount due each will likely be prepared through the chief clerk's office. One member of the paying teller's department, designated "paymaster," will then prepare the envelopes containing the proper amounts and distribute them to the employees. Some
banks have undertaken to make up the pay-rolls of certain de positors and outside employers, and in such cases this duty is incumbent upon the paying teller. It is a voluminous and tedious task and involves the bank in high responsibility. Hence many banks refuse to undertake it.
The Paying Teller's Proof The paying teller's records are relatively simple. His proof (Figure II) consists of balancing the excess of receipts over pay ments, against moneys in vault.
The amounts paid to and received from the various tellers are obtained from a debit and credit slip kept for each of the tellers. On these slips all items that pass between the departments during the day are listed. At the close of business these slips are totaled, and the amounts proved with a corresponding slip kept in each department.
The source and disposition both of paid checks and of cur rency may be summarized as follows: Currency is received over the counter, by shipments, and from the receiving teller, note teller, and city collection department, and is put into the vaults. The assembly rack department charges the clearing house ex changes to the paying teller and he receives the credits from the clearing house. All checks received over the counter are fied into three groups: (r) checks by domestic customers on the bank, (2) checks drawn by foreign customers on the bank, and (3) all other checks. This third class is turned over and charged to the note teller through whom they are collected; the foreign class is entered in the foreign book and sent along with the domestic class to the check desk department.
The Payment of Checks Although many other kinds of items are paid by the paying teller, the great majority are checks. The high responsibility of the paying teller appears when he cashes a check. Against him are pitted the cleverest wiles of forgers and crooks. After paying out cash he has no way of detecting an error till proofs are drawn at closing time, and even then he may be able only to know that an error somewhere in the course of the day's work has been made. If an underpayment has been made, the payee will most likely make claims later, but the likelihood of an overpayment being returned is much less. Payments on forgeries, raised checks, postdated checks, stop-payments, checks drawn without proper authority, overdrafts, stale checks, and payments to unwarranted parties, may cost the bank heavily, and the chief protection in this respect is afforded by the acumen and shrewdness of the paying teller.