ACCOUNTING RECORDS FOR COUNTRY CREAMERIES. 5 



alone the determination of financial standing, but also the determi- 

 nation of the results of operation during any specific period. A 

 system of accounting, to fulfill these requirements, should show at 

 any desired time the assets and liabilities of a business, supplies on 

 hand, expenses incurred, receipts and disbursements of cash, pay- 

 ments made to patrons, profits and losses, and the details of the 

 various transactions affecting operating results. 



This information, which is essentially necessary to efficient control 

 and sound management, should be compiled periodically, preferably 

 monthly. It should be recorded in condensed and clarified form on 

 monthly statements, giving full details regarding all items of oper- 

 ation, through the use of properly drawn books of original entry. 



An accounting system, however, does not consist merely of books 

 and forms, but, in its broader sense, includes the whole working 

 environment of the office. The best results are obtained with any 

 accounting system when the office is properly equipped with modern 

 appliances, approved and used by the great majority of institutions, 

 namely, proper filing devices, an adding machine, a typewriter, and 

 other facilities for the usual routine of office work. 



AUDITING. 



The importance and desirability of an audit is especially apparent 

 in companies operated on a cooperative basis, since in such companies 

 the patrons are, in a sense, copartners. 



The audit should be made by an accountant familiar with creamery 

 accounting and competent to render advisory service -to the organi- 

 zation. In some cases creameries employ the services of members 

 to make periodical audits, but as a rule this method is not satisfactory, 

 either to the manager or to the patrons, since audits of this character 

 are at best seldom founded upon any extended knowledge of account- 

 ing. Aside from the value of proper accounting itself, probably no 

 other feature in cooperative business enterprise serves to bring about 

 more confidence or create greater business stability than a periodical 

 audit by competent accountants. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE FORMS. 



The forms comprising this system of accounting have been adopted 

 after exhaustive investigation as to their time-saving quality and 

 adaptability to the needs of country creameries. 1 While differences 

 in creamery requirements may suggest changes in some of the auxil- 

 iary forms, such as cream and milk receiving sheets, it is not probable 

 that alterations will be necessary in the main features of the system. 



1 With the close cooperation of the Dairy Division of the Bureau of Animal Industry of this department, 

 this system has been developed in actual operation in creameries selected by that division. 



