ward the balance for each room from day to day, there will be a column for balance, columns for room, tailor, laundry, café or dining-room, telephone, transfer, cash and sundries. The sum of these items, excluding the balance in the second column, is placed in the total column, which represents the total charges for the room to the front-office accounts receivable. Following the total column of the charges is a section for credits, containing columns for cash, allowances, delinquent ledger, transfer and total. The sum of the credit columns is inserted in the total column and represents the credit to front-office accounts receivable. Where the cumulative method is in use the debit total column is added to the balance column, from which is deducted the credit total column, thus giving the new balance, which is inserted in the last column headed "balance," which forms the new balance to be inserted in the second column headed balance on the summary sheet for the next day. As before mentioned, these summary sheets are arranged by floors, so that valuable statistics can be prepared therefrom as to room earnings, floor earnings, house count, etc.

The chief peculiarity of the night auditor's duties is that he verifies each transaction independently of the guests' ledgers and finally reconciles with them. The usual procedure is to take the reports from tailor, laundry and telephone, and the cash receipts and cash disbursements sheet, enter all charges and credits on the summary and then prove the result against the original records. He abstracts the charges for dining-room from the dining-room cashier's report, previously described, and posts the charges to the respective rooms. The point here is that the front-office bookkeeper charges the guests' ledger from the dining-room checks, which are sent to him during the day by the dining-room cashier, whereas the night auditor posts his summary sheet from the diningroom cashier's report. Here the night auditor commences to verify the work of the front-office force. He checks the guests' ledger by room numbers and on his summary enters the room revenue for the day, which he obtains from the room book or account, as the case may be, the rate being entered on the room book or guest's account. While performing this operation he checks each charge or credit on the guest's account with the charges and credits for that room on his summary, and in this manner verifies all the charges and credits to the individual guest at one time, thus handling the ledger sheet or room book once. This method, whereby he

assembles all the charges and credits independently, reduces the likelihood of passing over an error in posting on the part of the bookkeeper. The number of rooms producing revenue on the summary may be confirmed by checking the summary with the room rack, which contains slips for all rooms occupied. It is also advisable to check the rate shown by the slip in the room rack. As a further provision against failure to account for all revenue, the register sheets may be compared with the room rack, which will disclose the presence of a guest registered for whom an account has not been opened. The accuracy of the room rack may further be verified by the housekeeper's daily report, which is a list of all room numbers, on which are noted all rooms actually occupied each night. The column for delinquent is for transferring to the ledger unpaid charges, which are part of the front-office accounts receivable, and is used for keeping charges for departed guests. When a delinquent guest comes to the hotel, these charges are transferred to the guests' ledger.

When the night auditor completes accruing the room earnings and checking all charges and credits he carries the totals of each sheet to a recapitulation sheet, which is arranged in the same form as the summary sheets, and this recapitulation is the basis of the entry placing the revenues on the general books. This sheet is usually provided with a control for the front-office accounts receivable, arranged to show balance yesterday plus charges for today according to the recapitulation sheet, less the credits for today, according to the recapitulation sheet. The result is today's balance, and a trial balance, if taken, should be in agreement therewith. In hotels in which the cumulative system is used, it is possible to have a trial balance each day, as the night auditor's summary sheet will reflect the balance opposite each room, and if the amount as shown by the room book or guest's account is in agreement, there is automatically a trial balance each day, as the summary sheet is in reality the guests' ledger in another form. This method entails more work and requires additional night auditors for a given number of rooms, but the added expense is repaid by the satisfaction of knowing that the front-office accounts are correct. A journal entry is prepared from these daily summaries compiled by the night auditor, charging front-office accounts receivable and crediting room revenue, dining-room, tailor, laundry and telephone revenues.

OTHER DEPARTMENTS

Many hotels operate coffee rooms or lunch counters, and these are conducted in some ways like the dining-room. Each room has its cashier and the customers' checks are in serial numbers for which there must be account; but as these places are conducted to give quick service, the food is not checked out of the kitchen as it is when sent to the dining-room. The greater part of the food is kept behind the counter and served by the waiters or waitresses. Unduly large portions or items omitted from the customers' checks are left to the superintendents to detect. Payment for all service is usually made in cash. The cashier rings up the sales on a cash register, which is proved by running an adding machine list of the checks and seeing that all checks are turned in. As each customer pays his own check, as a rule, there are, of necessity, some "walk outs"; but as long as the missing checks are within reason it would seem that the receipts are properly accounted when the checks turned in agree with the cash register readings. The cashiers make daily reports from the checks turned in, and the amounts are verified by the night auditor, who makes a reading of all registers nightly. The daily reports as made by the cashiers are turned in with the cash receipts to the general cashier, who charges his cash and credits lunch room revenue on his cash receipts book.

The barber shop, cigar stands, beauty parlor and soda stands are on a cash basis, with a cashier for each stand, and as all sales are rung up on a cash register, these departments present no unusual features. The several cashiers make daily reports which are turned in with the receipts to the general cashier, who credits the respective revenue accounts through the cash receipts book.

STOREROOM

The storeroom does not present any accounting peculiarities, although it contains many features unlike a general storeroom that make the reconciling of the inventory on hand very difficult. It is charged through the voucher register with all purchases and is credited through the issue journal with all withdrawals. The supporting bills for the vouchers go through the regular course and must be approved by the proper persons. All goods and materials are withdrawn on requisitions properly authorized. These requisitions go to the auditor's office, are checked as to price and extensions and are entered in an issue journal, crediting the store

room and charging the department receiving the goods. It would seem that the reconciling of the storeroom account on the general ledger would be simple, as all withdrawals are on requisition, but on account of the perishable nature of much of the stores and the amount of breakage which is not covered by requisitions, the physical inventories are usually at great variance with the book figures, and it is always difficult to overcome these discrepancies. AUDITOR'S OFFICE

The general accounting offices in a hotel are usually referred to as the auditor's office. Here all transactions are verified before entry on the general books, and in a well organized office the check on all departmental activities is very thorough.

The general cashier ordinarily is in this department. He receives the daily reports from all the cashiers in the house, checks the amount of cash turned in and enters it in the general cashbook, which is provided with columns for each source of revenue. At the end of the month the totals of the various revenue accounts in the cashbook are credited to their respective revenue accounts in the operating ledger, and the total receipts, are charged to the various banks in the general ledger, all receipts being deposited intact each day.

The voucher register contains columns for each department and class of expense. All bills are properly authorized for payment and are handled like vouchers in any other business.

Cheques issued in payment of vouchers should be prepared by someone other than the cashier and be entered in the cheque register in the usual manner.

Requisitions should be audited each day. They should be assembled, and a summary should be prepared of the preceding day's business, the total of which will be entered in the issue journal. This is simply a journal entry. At the end of the month the totals of the various columns of the issue journal will be charged to the departments concerned, and the total of all issues will be credited

to storeroom.

It will be found that practically all hotels have income from rents, concessions, etc. These should be accrued monthly by a charge to the debtor and a credit to the particular revenue account.

Where the power plant is giving service to outsiders, this service usually will be authorized by proper contracts, and the

charges to the customers will be made monthly from the report of the chief engineer, who reports power generated and used, which, of course, can be verified by the meter records. In order to keep a check on the cost of operating the power plant, it is usual to credit the power plant with the amount of power used at a rate somewhat less than that at which it could be purchased from a power company, and this will show as a departmental revenue, but it will be offset by the operating cost of the plant, the revenue from outsiders being the actual revenue.

The payrolls require close attention, and on account of the many changes from week to week the advances on payroll are usually very large. The payrolls should be handled on a time-clock basis and, apart from the heavy advances, have no special features.

All hotels have general ledger accounts for fixed assets, equipment, furnishings, silverware, etc., and these are handled as they would be in any other line of business, with the exception of the furnishings and equipment, which are subject to heavy depreciation and consequently require generous provision for repairs and renewals.

There are many internal checks on departmental activities which are quite complex and interesting but do not come within the scope of a paper on accounting.