RECORDS FOE FARMERS FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES. 3 



extent the essentials of simplicity and convenience with a maximum 

 of readily available information. 



Plan II necessitates a considerable amount of posting or transcrib- 

 ing of items from the policy register to a book of summary accounts 

 or a general ledger. It therefore presupposes a more thorough knowl- 

 edge of bookkeeping principles, and requires a certain amount of 

 additional clerical work. A book of ordinary size soon becomes filled 

 if a page, or even half a page, is allotted to each member. Hence the 

 records become bulky and require a relatively large safe for their 

 accommodation. 



In spite of the many advantages claimed for the card system of 

 records, here referred to as Plan III, only a few farmers' mutual 

 insurance companies have adopted it and some of these have ex- 

 pressed their intention to return to the book form of records. The 

 secretary of a farmers' mutual, in a very large percentage of cases, 

 is neither a trained bookkeeper nor an accountant, but rather a 

 practical farmer by experience who has been induced to devote a 

 part or all of his time to the local insurance company. Under these 

 circumstances it seems that the tendency for a card record to become 

 lost or misplaced more than offsets the convenience with which such 

 records can be systematically arranged, dead records removed, addi- 

 tional records inserted, etc. The essential disadvantages of Plan II 

 in the way of necessary posting or summarizing can also be charged 

 against Plan III. For these reasons Plan I, which is at present the 

 prevailing plan, has been used as a basis for the system here sug- 

 gested, each book of which will be found briefly described as well as 

 illustrated in the following pages. The books comprise a policy 

 register, a book for increases and cancellations, a cash receipts book, 

 a cash disbursements book, and an index book, or its equivalent in a 

 set of index cards. To these books, each of which is practically in- 

 dispensable to the keeping of complete records and the avoidance of 

 needless labor and confusion, there have been added two books in- 

 tended to make possible the keeping of a historical summary of the 

 company's business in condensed form. One of these provides for a 

 periodic summary of policies and risks and the other for a similar 

 summary of receipts, disbursements, and balances or cash on hand. 

 A general ledger and various other books will of course be needed 

 by the larger mutuals, which, as a rule, employ trained bookkeepers, 

 but it is thought best not to complicate this discussion with considera- 

 tions involving technical bookkeeping or accounting. 



POLICY REGISTER. 



The policy register suggested allows for each policy two horizontal 

 lines or spaces running across the two facing pages of the open book. 

 In the forms intended for actual use the two spaces intended for the 

 record of a single policy should be separated by a faint line, while 



