ACCOUNTS, MEMORANDA AND TAHLBS. 147 



The chief, and to some people the only, accounts are 

 those relating to cash. But the manager has materials 

 and products to look after as well as money. He can no 

 more account for the proper disposal of the coal, lime, gas, 

 coke, tar, etc., without proper technical accounts than he 

 can record the receipts and expenditure without a cash- 

 book. And, more than that, he requires a considerable 

 amount of information, such as make per ton of coal 

 carbonized, cost per thousand cubic feet of gas sold, etc. 

 Whatever the nature of the account, the object is an 

 accurate record, either as between " Dr." and " Cr.," or as 

 an item of information. And for purposes of account it is 

 necessary to have impersonal items. In order to keep 

 account of the coal used, for example, it is necessary 

 to have a coal account, in which "Coal" is debited 

 with the coal purchased and credited with that carbonized 

 or sold, just as Mr. Smith or Mr. Brown may be credited 

 with coal bought from them or debited with gas sold 

 to them. It is also necessary that the books should show, 

 or at least furnish easy means of ascertaining, the profits 

 and position, and enable an intelligible annual statement to 

 be prepared, in a form that enables the reader to get some 

 insight into the character of the business done, and to 

 ascertain if the operations have been properly or skilfully 

 conducted. To that end, the principal items of income and 

 expenditure are set out as in the following example (p. 148). 

 The usual form in which the accounts are set out is the 

 double page or ledger, the " Dr." on the left-hand and the 

 " Cr." on the right-hand page. But it is convenient for 

 many purposes to have the records on one page. The 

 " Cr." is in all cases entered first, because money must be 

 received before it can be spent. 



