14 BULLETIN 660, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



keeper's accounts. The ledger, it is well to recall, contains only as 

 debits the funds received or appropriated and as credits the pay- 

 ments made from those various funds summarized from a record 

 which carries the distribution of these expenditures according to 

 subheadings or primary accounts. It is usual to classify accounts 

 as far as possible by departments, or with respect to certain functions 

 for which funds are provided. Such a classification of accounts pro- 

 vides the first division for the cost keeper. This division gives what 

 usually are known as the general accounts. Numbers or letters 

 are used to represent these accounts, and in these letters or symbols 

 we have the beginning of a code for cost keeping. The following 

 classification and corresponding letters show a departmental division 

 of accounts and a letter code suitable for highway work : 



GENERAL ACCOUNTS. 



C. Construction. — M. Maintenance. — R. Reconstruction. — P. Plant. — 

 A. Administration. 



The first three of these, it will be observed, have to do with certain 

 road operations. It will be found upon analysis that they consist 

 of the operations necessary to produce or preserve road parts. A 

 subdivision of these general accounts produces what are called the 

 primar} 7 " accounts. Such a division is shown below. The accom- 

 panying numbers give a development of the cost-keeping code: 



C, M, AND R. CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE AND RECONSTRUCTION. 



00 to 09. Right of way. 



10 to 19. Grade and roadside. 



20 to 29. Roadway. 



30 to 39. Ditches and drains. 



40 to 49. Bridges and culverts. 

 50 to 59. Supplementary parts. 

 60 to 69. Engineering and supervision. 



70 to 79. Plant accounts. 



A. ADMINISTRATION. 



80 to 99. Administration accounts. 



The numbers preceding the primary account give the range of 

 class numbers for the final cost-keeping code. Thus 30 to 39 are 

 the inclusive numbers for class costs of ditches and drains. This 

 first division of the general accounts would serve very satisfactorily 

 for a simple cost-keeping system. In such case the first set of num- 

 bers could be omitted and ditches and drains would be represented 

 by 39 instead of the range of numbers from 30 to 39. 



