2 BULLETIN 811, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



if the highest degree of success is to be attained. Accordingly a 

 Bystem of accounting was devised by the Bureau of Markets for 

 country elevators and pubUshed in 1915. This system has now 

 been adopted by a large number of elevators located in all of the 

 grain-producing States. 



With the passage by Congress of the Grain Standards Act, and the 

 consequent promulgation by the Secretary of Agriculture of oflB.cial 

 standards for grain, a revision of the former bulletin has become 

 advisable. The present bulletin describes the Bureau of Markets 

 system of accounting for country grain elevators, which has been 

 developed in conformity with these standards. In this revision, 

 several features suggested by the practical operation of the system 

 during the last three and one-half years are incorporated. 



TYPES OF ELEVATOR ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS. 



No system of accounting in gi-ain elevators has been generally 

 accepted as standard. While the principle of double-entry book- 

 keeping is correctly followed in a limited number of elevators, every 

 variation in type is found, from patented systems to mere handbook 

 entries kept in memorandum form for the benefit of the manager. 



All systems of bookkeeping now existing in elevators may be clas- 

 sified under three headings: Complete double-entry systems kept 

 in the elevator office ; incomplete systems, consisting of reports and 

 memoranda kept in the elevator office; and systems of reports pre- 

 pared at the elevator and sent to some outside agency where the 

 records of the company are kept. 



Although the third system may furnish definite information, the 

 details of that information, as a rule, are not within easy reach of 

 the men who are most interested in them. For this reason a complete 

 double-entry system kept in the elevator office will be found most 

 satisfactory. 



The benefits to be derived from a complete double-entry system 

 of bookkeeping, so constructed that it can be adopted by all elevators, 

 are: First, the possibility of determining, on short notice and with 

 accuracy, each elevator's financial condition; second, the advantage 

 of having readily available statistical data relating to operating 

 costs ; third, the possibility of distributuig and interchanging valuable 

 statistics among elevators; and, fourth, the training of managers 

 and bookkeepers so that they will obtaia a cumulative knowledge 

 of elevator accounting. 



