32 BULLETIN 1095, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
PURCHASE RECORDS. 
The purchase records should contain a complete history of every 
purchase (other than milk or cream) made by the organization. 
These purchase records should include a purchase requisition, a 
purchase voucher, a voucher register, and a voucher index. 
Before any purchase is made a requisition should be issued and 
approved by the manager or other officer in charge of purchases in 
order that no unnecessary goods may be bought. This order should be 
issued in duplicate, the original mailed to the supply firm and the 
duplicate placed in an unfilled order file until the goods are received. 
When the invoice is received the duplicate purchase requisition should 
be removed from the file, attached to the invoice, and returned to the 
file. When the goods are received the invoice should be taken from 
the file, checked with the goods and with the duplicate of the purchase 
requisition, and entered in a purchase voucher. It is often helpful 
to have a record on the duplicate purchase requisition of the quantity 
on hand, monthly consumption, and last quotation. A purchase 
voucher, which forms a filing jacket in which the requisition and 
invoices are placed for filing, should be filled out and the invoice 
noted thereon; it is then assigned a number and filed until the end of 
the month. But one voucher is made for a single concern for any 
given month; hence a purchase voucher may contain several invoices. 
Vouchers should be filed in numerical order. 
In order that any invoice may be easily located an alphabetical 
index should be kept on 3 by 5 cards. This index should contain a 
card for each company from whom purchases have been made at any 
time. All numbers assigned to purchase vouchers of an individual 
concern should appear chronologically on the index card showing the 
company’s name. 
At the end of the month all purchase vouchers for the month should 
be taken from file and completed by entering in the space provided 
the total amount of invoices included in such voucher, and the allo- 
cations to the proper ledger account should be made. The vouchers 
then should be entered consecutively in the voucher register to the 
credit accounts payable, charges being made as indicated on the 
voucher, after which these should be filed in numerical order accord- 
ing to the number previously assigned. 
The voucher register contains a record of the purchase vouchers. 
It should be provided with a number of columns, so that items of 
frequent occurrence may be collected, thus decreasing the amount 
of work required in posting. 
A memorandum column should be provided on the left-hand side 
for entering the number and amount of checks given in payment as 
vouchers. No detail accounts payable need be kept, as the voucher 
and voucher record afford a convenient record of all such items. 



