COOPERATIVE MILK-DISTRIBUTING PLANTS. 35 



All supplies purchased for future use should be kept in the store- 

 room and charged to the storeroom account. These supplies should 

 be recorded on an inventory sheet. As supplies are required for use 

 a storeroom requisition should be made by the employee needing 

 these supplies, such requisition showing the quantity, size, and 

 other information necessary to identify the supplies desired. The 

 requisition must be approved by the factory foreman or manager 

 and presented to the storeroom keeper, who will deliver the mate- 

 rial to the employee. The storekeeper should then fill in the price 

 and at intervals record the requisitions on the inventory sheet. At 

 the end of the month the value of the material withdrawn from the 

 storeroom is credited to storeroom accounts and charged to the 

 various accounts affected by the use of this material. 



THE JOURNAL. 



All the information recorded in the records heretofore described 

 is classified monthly and made ready for posting into the general 

 ledger in a book called the journal. This book is all-important, and 

 is a connecting link between the original record and the ledger from 

 which all information is secured to compile financial and operating 

 reports. All general ledger posting must be made from this book 

 (the journal) and from no other records.^ 



THE GENERAL LEDGER. 



The ledger is the book of accounts. After the transactions of the 

 business have been recorded in the journal, the debit and credit items 

 arising from such transactions are posted (or transferred) to the 

 proper accounts in the ledger. In this manner all the facts concern- 

 ing the particular subject are collected under its name and can be 

 viewed as a whole. 



Any system of accounting, to be of maximum value to those who 

 control the business, must have a very carefully planned and clearly 

 defined classification of ledger accounts, and the person charged with 

 keeping these accounts must adhere rigorously to this classification. 



THE STATISTICAL REPORTS. 



Inasmuch as the entire bookkeeping is carried on for the purpose of 

 accumulating and presenting information concerning the operation 

 of the business, too much care and attention can not be given to the 

 preparation of statistical reports, chief among which are the income 

 and expense statements, and the balance sheets, and the cost sheets. 



^ In large and well-organized milk-distributing plants it is equally satisfactory to make 

 postings direct from the original records ; in the average milk plant, however, this is not 

 advisable. 



