48 BULLETIN 381, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Produce. 
Most cooperative stores buy produce in limited quantities from 
farmers. It is almost the unanimous opinion of retail stores that 
produce is unprofitable. For this reason, and for statistical purposes, 
a separate account should be kept of this branch of the business. The 
original entry may be made either on the regular credit memoran- 
dum, or, preferably, on a special slip for this purpose. These slips 
may be totaled at any time to ascertain the volume of produce bought. 
If the produce is left by the customer for credit, all the credit slips 
must be posted to the respective accounts, and the total produce 
entered in the Journal in the same manner as sales. 
If the produce business is very large, a special book may be used as 
a Produce Register, having the same form as the Journal. Coupons 
may be used to advantage in handling produce, as explained under 
Cash Payments. 
Accounts Payable. 
Accounts Payable are amounts due others from the association. 
If possible such accounts should be avoided entirely and every bill 
discounted, in which case no creditor's ledger is required, the orders 
and remittances being handled as illustrated on page 29. "Where 
accounts payable records are kept, the original entry is the creditor's 
invoice. As the invoices come in they are checked, entered in the 
Invoice Register (Form 26), and filed in the tickler numbered 1 to 
31, corresponding to the days of the month. An account is kept 
with each creditor in a special ledger, the items being posted to the 
credit of the respective accounts from the Invoice Register. At the 
end of the month or as often as desired the register is totaled and 
the amount entered hi the Journal as follows: 
Merchandise S2, 000. 00 
Accounts Payable $2, 000. 00 
Purchases as per Invoice Register, Numbers 150 to 195. 
When payment is made on account of creditors, the invoices are 
listed on a voucher check (Form 15) or on a remittance blank (Form 
16). A record is made in the cash payments, and the amount is 
entered in the total and accounts payable column (Form 17). The 
items appearing in this column are posted to the debit of the various 
accounts in the Creditors' Ledger, and Accounts Payable is debited 
from the annual summary entry in the Journal. The total of the 
balances in the Creditors' Ledger equals the net balance of the con- 
trolling account in the General Ledger, if the work is correct. In 
auditing this account great care must be exercised to check the bal- 
ances with the creditors' monthly statements. 
