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 properiy 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 1s 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.! While differences 
im 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. 
