2 BULLETIN" 236, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
TYPES OF ELEVATOR ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS. 
Investigations in respect to accounting in cooperative grain eleva- 
tors have established the fact that no system has been generally 
accepted as standard. The idea of double-entry bookkeeping, while 
existing in a thorough sense in only a limited number of elevators, 
is followed more or less vaguely in all, and for that reason there is 
found every variation in type from patented systems to mere hand- 
book entries kept in memorandum form for the benefit of the manager. 
All the systems of bookkeeping now existing in elevators may be 
classified under three general headings: Complete double-entry 
systems kept in the elevator; incomplete systems, consisting of 
reports and memoranda kept in the elevator; and complete systems 
of reports made up at the elevator and sent to some outside agency 
where the records of the company are kept. 
Of the three, the first should prove the most satisfactory for the 
reason that, although the third system may furnish definite infor- 
mation, the details of that information are not, as a rule, within 
easy reach of the men who are most interested in them. 
The benefits to be derived from a complete double-entry system 
of bookkeeping, so constructed that it can be adopted by all ele- 
vators, are: First, the possibility of distributing and interchanging 
valuable statistics among elevators; second, the training of managers 
and bookkeepers, so that they will obtain a cumulative knowledge 
of elevator accounting, thus making it easier to procure competent 
help in these lines; third, the individual benefit derived by each 
elevator from knowing its financial and business condition with 
accuracy at short notice; and, fourth, the benefit to future buying 
in being able to ascertain the average net cost per bushel of operating 
an elevator. 
OFFICE EQUIPMENT. 
No system of accounts can be efficient unless it is properly handled. 
Office equipment is one of the important factors relating to the 
success of office work. An elevator office should be equipped with 
fireproof safes or a vault in which all valuable records of the com- 
pany should be kept. It should have proper filing devices and suffi- 
cient furniture, including a standard bookkeeper's desk, to make 
thorough work possible. When the business of an elevator is large 
enough to justify the employment of a bookkeeper, such trained help 
should be secured, as, in most instances, the elevator manager is 
either without the knowledge or the time to perform the duties of a 
bookkeeper. 
TAKING AN INVENTORY. 
At the end of the business year or at the "cut off," an inventory 
should be taken. This should be an actual physical inventory, taken 
