AUXILIARY STATEMENTS 1. Schedule of accounts receivable.—The reader has already noted that the principal statements which the manager will receive at the end of a stated period —say, a year, will be the balance sheet and the profit and loss, or income statement, covering the business as a, whole for a given period. As a rule, these state ments will be submitted in comparative form, and they will be supported by schedules that will show the operation of each department.
The manager of a business will quite often require statements that will give information of the business in a form that will enable him to study certain fea tures. This will depend, of course, upon the nature of the particular business. Frequently, the schedule of accounts receivable is prepared to show the amount due from each customer and the time when the amount is due. Often, this schedule is prepared in a form to show the amount of the balances from one to thirty days old, from thirty to sixty days old, and over sixty days old. • When the number of accounts receivable is large and the amounts involved are comparatively small, it is not advisable to have a detailed schedule. In such cases it is better for the manager to provide an auto matic separation of the delinquent accounts from the accounts that are in good standing, and to provide for a proper system of control, both for the delin quent ledger and for the ledger containing the ac counts in good standing. By analyzing the delin quent accounts and referring to the amount of each, as compared with preceding periods, the manager will be able to check up the efficiency of the collection dep artment.
2. Statements of new manager may often find it advisable to require reports on the num ber of new accounts opened during the business pe riod and the amount of sales to the new customers. He should, at the same time, have reported to him the names of old customers who have not purchased during the period, or whose purchases have fallen be low those of previous periods. Usually a sufficient amount of attention is not given to this particular feature of a business. Investigation, however, may
disclose unsatisfactory conditions that would other wise not be brought to the attention of the manage ment. The preparation of such a list will act as a sort of internal check on conditions that may inadvertently have escaped the eye of the management.
Complaints from customers, in some cases, are not brought to the attention of the manager. A customer of a house feels disgruntled at the treatment he has received; he may not make any complaint, but will place his future orders with other concerns. If the manager has before him the information mentioned above, namely, new accounts opened and old ac counts from which no business has been received dur ing the present period, it must prove invaluable to him.
3. Importance from management standpoint of notes taken from customers.—When it is the custom to take notes from customers in settlement of their ac counts, it is advisable that the amount of notes received from each customer be reported at regular intervals. It is also advisable to have reported at the same time the amount which such customers owe on open ac counts. In addition, if any of the customers' notes have been discounted and have not as yet matured, the information on them should also be included. It will be readily seen that a report of this character will, at all times, disclose to the manager the condition of a customer's account. This is especially true if the account is one which is being "nursed" by the management.
4. Schedule of inventory.—It is advisable that the management pay considerable attention to the in ventory schedules that are prepared. It very often happens that department managers allow dead stock to accumulate—a condition which would have been disclosed had the manager properly examined the detailed inventory. The author recommends that a schedule be prepared showing the amount of the in ventory located in different departments or different warehouses, the amount of insurance carried on each warehouse, and so on.