RECORDS FOR FARMERS' FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES. 9 



ments the right, this plan is very wasteful of space on the disburse- 

 ment side when followed by a mutual insurance company. The re- 

 ceipts in this business consist of a large number of small sums, while 

 the disbursements, of which losses constitute as a rule the most im- 

 portant class, consist in general of much larger sums correspondingly 

 few in number. Only by using a smaller desk book for the recording 

 of the daily receipts and then transferring the footings of the pages 

 in this book to a regular cash book is it possible without undue waste 

 of space to have receipts and disbursements on opposite pages in a 

 regular cash book. Some secretaries actually follow this latter plan 

 but it has been avoided here in order that the forms and methods 

 presented may be as few and simple as practicable. 



In the cash-receipts book should be recorded every individual cash 

 item received by the company. A representative of the company 

 may, of course, send in at one time a sum representing a dozen or 

 more individual fees and premiums and there may be a temptation 

 to reduce the number of entries by recording only the total sum 

 received. To do so, however, is to make difficult the checking of the 

 fees, premiums, and assessment items in the cash- receipts book against 

 the same items as recorded in the policy register, and such checking 

 becomes necessary in case the totals for the corresponding items in 

 the two books do not agree. 



ANNUAL REPORT. 



The main data wanted for an annual report in the case of a 

 farmers' mutual fire insurance company are as follows: Cash on 

 hand at the beginning of the year; cash receipts and cash disburse- 

 ments during the year, both properly itemized ; cash on hand at the 

 end of the year; amount of insurance in force at the beginning of 

 the year; amount of insurance written during the year; amount of 

 insurance which has expired or been canceled during the year; and 

 net amount of insurance in force at the end of the year. 



The cash on hand at the beginning of the year will, of course, be 

 the same as cash on hand at the close of the preceding year. The 

 itemized cash receipts during the year will be- found by adding up 

 the various columns in the cash receipts book and the sum of these 

 amounts will represent the total receipts during the year. Similarly, 

 by adding up the columns in the cash disbursements book, the losses 

 during the year as well as the amounts paid for expenses of the 

 various kinds indicated by the column headings will be found, and 

 the sum of these amounts will represent total disbursements during 

 the year. To the cash on hand at the beginning of the year is then 

 added the total receipts during the year, and from this sum is sub- 

 tracted the total disbursements. The amount thus obtained repre- 

 sents the cash on hand at the close of the year. 

 150641°— Bull. 840—20 2 



