OFFICE WORK OF A GARRISON BATTERY. 
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cash account for January is closed, the next two pages are left blank for the 
balance sheet, and the cash account for February is begun on the 3rd page. 
15. The balance sheet is the final test of the state of the accounts. It 
is not easy to make out fraudulent balance sheets that will escape detection 
month after month, if the Major keeps the cash; while, if honestly and. 
continuously made out, any errors in the accounts are sure to come to light. 
It must contain a statement of every debt due from the battery, no matter to 
whom; and of all cash or claims that can be treated as assets. Thus, a man's 
debt in the ledger is obviously a credit of the battery, while the credits due 
to the men are clearly debts due from the battery. So also with the debts 
and credits in the mess books. The full amount of each item must be set 
down, not the balance only that may result from a counter-claim. For 
example : if the debts in the ledger are £10 and the credits £6, it would not 
be right to put down on the credit side a balance of £4, as you must pay all 
the credits and may not get all the debts. In the Appendix the balance sheet 
is made out for December, 1878, the month previous to that of the specimen 
cash account, to show how the items are worked off. 
16. The form given is very simple, the items on each side being grouped 
under four divisions 1st, the amounts due to or from the Major; 2nd, those 
concerning the men; 3rd, those concerning the Paymaster and Government 
Departments; 4th, those relating to other batteries, and other miscellaneous 
entries. Each item should be kept separate, and if disposed of, should have 
the date of the sum being paid or received put against it, so as to show that 
it is not to be carried on to the next balance sheet. Thus, the debt due to 
Officer Comdg. 6/22 on 31st December, 1878, was paid on 8th January, 1879, 
and is marked off. It will not re-appear in the balance sheet for January; 
but the debt to Mrs. Allan has remained unpaid, and will therefore be 
entered in the balance sheet for January, at the head of the miscellaneous 
items, where it will re-appear, month after month, till paid off. Never allow 
this sheet to be fictitious in any manner. I mean that every item that 
belongs to December, not really paid or received before the 1st January, 
must appear in the December balance; and the sheet must be in exact agree¬ 
ment with the cash account. Thus, the first instalment, £170, for January, 
was not due till that month, but as it actually was received on 29th December, 
it appears in the December balance sheet as a debt, thus neutralising the 
apparent excess of cash in which it is of course included. The canteen bills 
for the last week in December were due on the 31st of that month, but were 
not received or paid then; they thus figure as a debt. 
17. In preparing your balance sheet, first insert all the old items remaining 
unpaid or unreceived in the same order as for the previous month, going 
carefully over your December cash account to see that none of them have 
been wiped out. Payments or receipts made in December for past months 
—November, for example—will not appear in the balance sheet; those for 
future months, of course, must. Then, as the sheet will not be closed till 
some time after the January cash account is open, go carefully over that 
account to see what payments have been made in that month for sums due 
in December. The balance sheet should be all ready, so that the moment 
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