464 RECORDS, ACCOUNTS, AND ADVERTISING 
work. The keeping of such a record will not only tell the poultry- 
man just where he stands financially, but tend to develop in him 
a spirit of economy. 
If the poultryman has no time for this work, his wife or one 
of the children may perhaps be interested in the business and 
may keep the accounts. A good way to cultivate business habits 
in the children is to give them a small flock of birds and require 
them to keep an exact record for the year, thus ascertaining the 
actual profit from the flock. In this way the keeping of records 
and accounts will gradually become a mere matter of routine. 
2. The system of accounts should include a yearly inventory, 
‘the importance of which has been shown on page 458. 
3. The system of book-keeping should include the balancing 
of the books at stated periods to determine the financial con- 
dition of the plant. 
Methods of Accounting.—There are two recognized methods 
of keeping accounts,—namely, single and double entry. The 
latter involves considerable clerical work, as separate accounts 
are kept for each branch of the business. It necessitates entering 
every transaction twice, once as a debit and once as a credit 
item. This method has the advantage of checking against mis- 
takes. Every trial balance shows just how each department of 
the business stands. The work involved is so great that it is 
suitable only for large plants where one person is employed solely 
for the accounts and office work. 
The single entry is very simple and adapted to any poultry 
plant. In this system entries are made but once, every trans- 
action being either a debit or credit, against or in favor of the 
poultry plant. 
In this system the inventory value is placed on the debit 
side of the account. Also on the debit side are entered, as they 
occur, all items of expense, such as feed, labor, repairs, stock, 
and tools. On the credit side of the accounts are entered all 
products sold and all incoming cash,—for example, eggs and fowls 
sold or consumed at home. Such an account may run for a month 
or longer before balancing, but the best rule is to balance it each 
month, in order more closely to watch the expenditures. When 
it is balanced, both sides of the account are added, the difference 
is determined, and this difference is entered as a new balance. If 
the credit column is greater, a profit is shown; but if the debit 
column is the larger, the difference will be the amount of loss. 
