the date, month and year, so that this one page will run a month. It is designed to take in the previous month's totals and to give a grand total for the period and therefore runs a year at a time. It is taken by the auditors and from it the verification of the general ledger is made. One of the most important parts of the hotel is the room clerk division. The room clerk should know at any time what rooms are occupied, what rooms will be vacated during the day and what rooms have been reserved. At the end of the day a night shift is put on and a night auditor with them. The night auditor goes over the room rack and makes up the room record, which is arranged numerically and gives the total capacity of the house. Opposite each room number, where the room is occupied, is placed the price at which it has been let; so that he can, at the end of the day, make up a statement for the house for that day. That statement comes to the head bookkeeper. It comes to the comptroller and along with it he receives a report of the housekeeper, also numerically arranged and by floors, showing what rooms are occupied. That method prevents sleepers from crawling in. Very often guests leave and, if the management is not watchful, the rooms are allowed to be left vacant because they are thought to be occupied. The carriage, laundry, newspaper, theater ticket business, and everything else of the kind is run on the same general plan. People very often buy such things as newspapers and have them charged up, which makes a great deal of bookkeeping necessary. We have seen, therefore, that from the comptroller we obtain a statement of all income for the general books. The head bookkeeper knows the total income every day just as the comptroller knows it. He gets a statement from the treasurer or cashier of the receipts and the disbursements, similar to the one he gets from the comptroller. The head bookkeeper, you see, is a man to be looked up to. He knows what charges have gone through against accounts of guests, and, as a result, knows the amount to be charged against all accounts receivable. He knows from the front office what payments have been made by guests who have charge accounts. He has the verification from the comptroller. Deducting one from the other, together with the allowances if any, he knows the balance of accounts receivable, which you should find on the guest ledger. I do not mean to say that you can make this balance come into agreement to a penny in a large business, because a hotel is never at rest. It is unlike any other business in that respect. Any other business that we know anything about, except a railroad, closes down once in a while to find where it stands, but a hotel must keep going. There is always something overlapping. A man comes in at one o'clock in the morning and wants something to eat. If you should take off a balance before or after that, it would be inaccurate. As a rule, the guest ledger is a little closer to the situation than the comptroller's record. The bookkeeper behind the counter has to enter on his guest ledger every item that is chargeable to a guest. When the guest wants to depart he has to have a bill ready. If a guest wants his vouchers, they have to be found in the comptroller's office where they are kept. We have provided in one instance, and with great success, a billing machine. As fast as the charge checks come through the bookkeeper takes them, enters them on his ledger and makes the bill. In other words, he keeps his bills right up to date, as mercantile houses very often do now, so that the bill is ready for the guest whenever he comes for it. It is a good thing to have the bills ready when the guest is ready to go, because it prevents the accumulation of large accounts receivable on the books. If a bill is not made out when a guest wishes to leave, the transient ledger is relieved of that item and it is put into another ledger. Transient items are entered, where the accounts are alive and the guest has not left the place. There are many devices covering the entrance of employees into their place of employment. There is one means of keeping a record in the main office, which will go with any of these devices. It is always necessary, of course, to have some one charged with the duty of making the contract of employment and of keeping track of the men in and out. Cards are provided, on the back of which is the contract of employment, which is signed by the employee. The card gives the department in which he is to be employed, his number, locker number, occupation, wages he is to receive, date on which he was employed and name of the person authorized to hire. Attached to the card is a stub, on the back of which is the name of the employee, his department and number and his signature for identification. This card is sent to the paymaster in the head office. He fills out the face of the card, giving the employee's name, date of employment and salary. At the end of the month, or sooner if the man or woman is dismissed or retires from employment, the absence of the person is noted on this card; that is again apparently getting the record the wrong way, though, as a matter of fact, it is not. So far as the head office knows, this man is in the employ of the hotel though he may have left two or three days before; but when he leaves the date of his leaving is marked on the stub, which he must produce in order to get his balance. His time is made up from the time books of the department in which are noted days of absence, then the absent days and any charges for uniforms or breakages are deducted and a balance struck. When he receives. the balance, he receipts for it on the card. Of course at the end of the month or on such days as regular payments are made pay envelopes are made up and the man can, by producing his credentials, receive his money. All of this is grouped on statements giving the total wages, deductions for uniforms, breakages, absence and cash interim payments, and showing balance to be finally paid on the pay day. It is better to have accounts with all tradesmen than to employ what is known as the voucher system. We want to know how much we buy from each tradesman, what amount of money we pay, what discounts we get off, and the voucher system does not tell. In addition, we have a voucher register so that we record the vouchers, crediting the voucher account on our general ledger. The cashier merely reports the number of vouchers paid, but does not classify his payments. We have seen how all the departments must report to the head bookkeeper. He is supposed to keep nothing but the general ledger. That general ledger is arranged with about twenty or twenty-five different rulings, making, as it were, twenty-five separate ledgers all bound in one cover. It is so ruled that he can put down daily under the headings what has transpired in each division, and is so arranged that it may be added up and balanced daily, the balance being thrown out into a balance column. The head bookkeeper produces a statement, the first two columns of which show the changes in the general ledger accounts during the day. It is a rule to enter all cash transactions in red figures, book entries in black. The next two columns are profit and loss for the period, and the next two columns show the assets and liabilities. The statement is so arranged as to have the assets and liabilities at the top of the sheet and the profit and loss account below for convenience. The question may arise in your minds as to whether this is an expensive system or not. It is the most economical to be found. It necessitates keeping every department and every book up to date. If there is a laggard, he is found out at once. If there is an error, it is found out at once, not thirty days or six months later when the information is of no use. Even for the largest houses three or four men will do all the work, including the treasurer's business in the main office. It is the system, the inevitable thing to be done every day, that makes it a success and easy to run, easy to look after; and of course, it is a pleasure for the proprietor to know how he stands all the time. With a system of this kind, of course, you must take stock periodically to prove the storeroom accounts, but you have a check on that stock if you have kept your accounts properly. Out of stocks running up to nearly $100,000 the rule is to come within $200 of the amount at stock taking; and that stock is taken not only by the parties who have control of it, but by auditors who have nothing to do with the running of the place. I have not gone into the question of returns of merchandise because you all understand that the entries being the reverse of the receipts of goods, the record is the same as with receipts, except that it is treated on the other side of the account. In regard to the question of allowance to guests, which is sometimes important, I may add that allowances of every kind must be made. by the management. A record of the item is made in an allowance book which is initialed by the manager or proprietor. The Journal of Accountancy Published monthly under the auspices of the EDITOR JOSEPH FRENCH JOHNSON ASSOCIATE EDITOR W. H. LOUGh, Jr. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE-$3.00 a year; single numbers, 25 cents; post paid to any address in North America. Foreign subscriptions, $3.50 a year; single copies, 30 cents. ADVERTISING RATES-$20 a page; all other spaces in proportion; special positions when open, 25 per cent. additional. No discounts are allowed for time contracts or amount of space occupied. Rates for classified advertisements appear under that heading. The JOURNAL is Published by the Accountancy Publishing Company, at Thirty-two Waverly Place, New York City. Secretary and Treasurer, THOMAS CULLEN ROBERTS; Business Manager, FRED H. LANCASTER. EDITORIAL. The American Association and Business Education. AS THE JOURNAL pointed out last month, the American Association of Public Accountants is undertaking through its committees to accomplish much good work for the public. Here we find the strongest evidence that the Association has its roots, not in selfishness, but in public spirit. Some of the busiest men in this country, men whose business often consumes their evenings and not infrequently spoils their Sundays, have shown praiseworthy willingness to serve on the Association's committees, and to shoulder responsibilities which cost them a great deal of time and money. One of the most important of these committees is that on education. It is important because of the opportunity it has to determine the quality and character of the education which the accountant of the future shall receive. Commercial education at the present time, not only in the United States, but all over the world, is in an experimental stage. There is a great dearth of properly qualified teachers, and among professional educators there is much ignorance as to the real educational needs of the business man. Furthermore, among practical business men there is very little keen or intelligent interest in the subject. There |