134 



MILK SURVEY OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER 



TABLE No. 64 

 OFFICE FORCE 



The present cost of the bookkeeping which is being done is $42,263.35 

 per year. An inspection of the work performed by the companies in 

 Table No. 64 shows a most remarkable difference between the cost of 

 bookkeeping in company No. 8, and the cost in all of the other com- 

 panies. This low cost might be attributed to a difference in wage scales 

 if one overlooked the number of bookkeepers employed, but an inspection 

 of the table shows that plant No. 8 employs only nine bookkeepers to 

 keep accounts for 43,070 quarts of milk, which is at the rate of 532 

 quarts per man hour. No other company in the list employs so small a 

 number of bookkeepers for the volume of milk. It might also be as- 

 sumed that the books of company No. 8 were not properly kept. This, 

 however, is answered by an inspection of the costs in all other depart- 

 ments of the business. A review of the tabulations will show that in the 

 majority of the labor costs plant No. 8 has lower costs than the other 

 companies, and this is convincing evidence that the business in plant No. 

 8 is well managed. 



The real reason for the low cost of bookkeeping in plant No. 8 is 

 in the system of accounting which has been adopted. There is such a 

 thing as too much bookkeeping and too much detail in the accounts which 

 are kept of the milk business. What is required is to keep only such 

 accounts as will furnish to the management the information necessary for 

 administering the business in the most efficient manner. This seems to 

 have been accomplished to a remarkable degree in the business of com- 

 pany No. 8, consequently with such results in mind it seems proper to 

 assume as a basis for a centralized system such a system of bookkeeping 



