Bills Payable and Receivable 45 



closed book accounts due him and other evidences 

 of moneys uncollected. If he holds a mortgage 

 on his neighbor's farm, this may be placed with 

 his assets at the beginning of the year. 



This, to be sure, is not the usual way of keep- 

 ing track of these accounts; but when accounts 

 are not extended and there is no trained book- 

 keeper, we may strain the ordinary rules of 

 accounting and carry several kinds of similar 

 accounts under these two heads of Bills Receiv- 

 able and Bills Payable : one implies an account 

 of the amounts we owe, and the other an account 

 of the amounts which others owe us. Simplicity 

 and ease of reference will be greatly aided if 

 the amounts of all our debts, except the mort- 

 gage, be thus gathered together under one head, 

 and all amounts due us, except the mortgage, be 

 gathered under another coordinate single head. 

 However, when the business is large and compli- 

 cated it is necessary to open a greater number of 

 accounts for these items, one with notes, another 

 with interest, and others with the different persons. 



The word "to" follows debtor and the word 

 "by" credit: thus, -Peter Brown debtor to; Or- 

 chard credit by. Usually the words are not 

 repeated, since the name or account standing 

 at the left is debtor and the account standing at 

 the right of the page is creditor. 



It is believed that these explanations will clear 



