604 PARKS 



how the general information is by degrees broken up into its more detailed 

 and usable forms by the use of funds, general accounts, primary accounts 

 and sub-accounts. Incidentally these will give the names of classifications 

 which will be found to be of interest to all park departments. 



In this particular case the funds are each conceived to be broken up 

 into what is known as general accounts. These accounts pertain to the 

 individual parks and to overhead and general items. The general accounts 

 are in turn broken up into primary accounts which add to the detailed 

 functions of activity and items of expenditures. Where these are not of 

 sufficient information or detail, sub-accounts are necessary. All of these 

 accounts are independent of a separate classification, referring to the classi- 

 fications under the general park budget. 



Performance Records and Business Statistics. 



1. In general. Cost is always an important factor in determining the 

 degree to which records should be kept. No records should ever be kept 

 which are not worth the cost of compiling and keeping them. However, 

 quite frequently it happens that records which are of extreme importance 

 in a large and general way are not kept because they are not of current 

 interest and importance. In the business enterprises of a park department - 

 and this is also true of any business enterprise certain tendencies which 

 are so gradual as to be unnoticed from season to season prove to be the 

 making or the breaking of the enterprise itself. These tendencies are seldom 

 charted but where they are charted their trend is guided by the hand of 

 the manager. The records necessary for this charting process are ordinarily 

 considered not important, and from day to day they are not important, 

 but from year to year it is seen that they are quite essential. Of late years 

 many business institutions have realized the desirability of such records 

 and some of them have gone to the other extreme of fatally overdoing a 

 good thing. The office manager must therefore pursue a very careful and 

 sane course in these matters, having a very definite reason and a very 

 definite purpose for each class of statistics kept. A few of these types of 

 statistics are here discussed in not a very thorough or detailed manner but 

 in a suggestive way which will open up the field to greater possibilities. 



2. Pertaining to financial records. All statements submitted to the 

 executive department heads should show comparative figures. Figures 

 unaccompanied by any measuring stick are of little interest and of little 

 information to either the busy executive or the general public. Operating 

 costs, maintenance costs, etc., should be compared with the previous year's 

 performances; construction costs, with costs of other city departments, 

 local contractors' costs, and costs from other cities; revenue from taxes 



