COMPLETE SET OF COST ACCOUNTS 479 



as illustrated in the set of accounts, is the sensible way 

 of keeping accounts on an ordinary farm. The items are 

 entered once for all. They never have to be rewritten. 



285. Double or single entry. If a complete set of 

 accounts is kept, as illustrated on the preceding pages, it 

 will be by the double entry method if a cash account is 

 kept, as this is the only account lacking. On most farms, 

 over three-fourths of the transactions are cash. By omit- 

 ting the cash account, such items are written once instead 

 of twice. If this account is omitted, the work is reduced 

 by one-third. The cash account adds practically nothing 

 to the value of the book. The time spent in keeping it is 

 better employed if spent in a more careful study of the 

 separate accounts, or it may be spent in raising some more 

 crops. The argument for keeping the cash account is that 

 the cash on hand may be checked with this account and 

 that the total debits in all accounts can be checked with 

 the total credits. These are very important considerations 

 when one is doing ordinary bookkeeping, but are of no par- 

 ticular value in a set of cost accounts. Cost accounts 

 cannot be exact. ^They are full of estimates. It is foolish 

 to spend time with the refinements in methods of book- 

 keeping that are designed to check exact work to the last 

 cent. 



When the farmer and his wife spend money out of the 

 same pocketbook for personal expenses and the farm, it is 

 almost impossible to make the cash check exactly, as some 

 items are almost certain to be omitted. It does not matter 

 if some small errors do occur. In fact, it is attempts to 

 find insignificant errors that often disgust persons with the 

 whole question of accounting. 



When a cash account is not kept, there is a means of 

 checking the whole set of accounts at the end of the year. 



