A SURVEY OF TYPICAL COOPERATIVE STORES. 17 
Table VI. — Showing business practice, accounting, and auditing. 
Question. 
Yes. 
No. 
Month- 
ly. 
Quar- 
terly. 
Semian- 
nually. 
Annu- 
ally. 
Remarks. 
Satisfactory system 
20 
36 
9 
42 
12 
10 
10 
40 
34 
21 
17 
8 
9 
5 
28 
3 
27 
32 
34 
9 
8 
22 
26 
27 
15 fair. 
Double entry 
Total cash deposited daily 
Sales slips used 
Cash coupons used 
Billing ledger used 
Cost accounts kept by depart- 
ments. 
Manager reports regularly 
Are audits made regularly 
By committee of members 
20 
11 
1 
2 
18 
3 
9 
10 
8 report both monthly 
and annually. 
3 weekly; 3 bimonthly. 
By professional auditor 
Axe members competent 
Cost per year 
High, $300; low, $30; 
Cash register used 
39 
20 
25 
24 
29 
10 
17 
6 
23 
19 
20 
15 
34 
26 
average, $56. 
Customers account file 
Typewriter 
Adding machine , 
Satisfactory filing equipment 
Overhead carrier 
Check protector 
One thing that impressed the investigator was the lack of uniform- 
ity of systems, forms, and equipment. This lack made it very diffi- 
cult to secure statistics which would give a comparative estimate of 
the success of the stores. The investigation conducted by Harvard 
University in its attempt to bring about standardization of accounts 
and office methods disclosed the same lack in practically all other 
retail stores. 
Among cooperative stores, a beginning in the right direction has 
been made by two or three promoters who are attempting to install 
uniform systems of accounting and auditing for the stores they 
organize. An examination of the work of these promoters, however, 
tends to show that the good they are accomplishing is largely offset 
by the fact that they have started many stores for which there was 
not sufficient demand in the locality, and which were therefore 
doomed to failure from the start. Moreover, they have frequently 
advised an association to purchase an old and sometimes failing- 
business, and in many of these instances the cooperative association 
found itself in possession of a large stock of shopworn goods and a 
tradition for inefficiency in the store which was hard to live down, 
although it had been paid for as "good will." 
'No less than 36 of the stores reported that their books were kept 
by double entry ; but where it was possible to get at the facts, it was 
found that the systems were very imperfect, and that in many cases 
it would have been difficult to secure a trial balance from the records. 
It is probable, however, that the fundamental weakness is in the 
bookkeepers rather than in the systems of accounting. This is shown 
in a number of instances where systems of accounting, installed by 
experts, have become entirely disorganized through the inefficiency 
