2 BULLETIN 236, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



TYPES OF ELEVATOR ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS. 



Investigations in respect to accounting in cooperative grain eleva- 

 tors have established the fact that no system has been generally 

 accepted as standard. The idea of double-entry bookkeeping, while 

 existing in a thorough sense in only a limited number of elevators, 

 is followed more or less vaguely in all, and for that reason there is 

 found every variation in type from patented systems to mere hand- 

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



All the systems of bookkeeping now existing in elevators may be 

 classified under three general headings: Complete double-entry 

 systems kept in the elevator; incomplete systems, consisting of 

 reports and memoranda kept in the elevator; and complete systems 

 of reports made up at the elevator and sent to some outside agency 

 where the records of the company are kept. 



Of the three, the first should prove the most satisfactory for the 

 reason that, although the third system may furnish definite infor- 

 mation, the details of that information are not, as a rule, within 

 easy reach of the men who are most interested in them. 



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

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

 vators, are: First, the possibility of distributing and interchanging 

 valuable statistics among elevators; second, the training of managers 

 and bookkeepers, so that they will obtain a cumulative knowledge 

 of elevator accounting, thus making it easier to procure competent 

 help in these lines; third, the individual benefit derived by each 

 elevator from knowing its financial and business condition with 

 accuracy at short notice; and, fourth, the benefit to future buying 

 in being able to ascertain the average net cost per bushel of operating 



an elevator. 



OFFICE EQUIPMENT. 



No system of accounts can be efficient unless it is properly handled. 

 Office equipment is one of the important factors relating to the 

 success of office work. An elevator office should be equipped with 

 fireproof safes or a vault in which all valuable records of the com- 

 pany should be kept. It should have proper filing devices and suffi- 

 cient furniture, including a standard bookkeeper's desk, to make 

 thorough work possible. When the business of an elevator is large 

 enough to justify the employment of a bookkeeper, such trained help 

 should be secured, as, in most instances, the elevator manager is 

 either without the knowledge or the time to perform the duties of a 



bookkeeper. 



TAKING AN INVENTORY. 



At the end of the business year or at the "cut off," an inventory 

 should be taken. This should be an actual physical inventory, taken 



