176 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar., 1899. 
BALANCE-SHEET TO 
LIABILIvrEs. ASSETS. 
Debts owing by me as per list £ Cash at bank 
Bank overdraft (ifany) ... £ Cash in house 
eee noaelne by corte ce pbs ‘ Valuation as per list ... Ay 
Debts owing to me Fed £ 
To know the result of the year’s transactions and to supply the link with 
the balance-sheets at the beginning and end of the period, it is necessary to 
keep a profit and loss account, which is practically a summary of the business 
transactions for that period. The business a farmer does with the outside 
world is mainly for cash either for present or future payment, consequently it 
is evident that a cash acconnt must be the backbone of the system, and that a 
correct cash account is essential to a true account of the profit and loss. The 
cash account is then the first point to insist upon in farm bookkeeping; and ifa 
bank account be kept, it will be found to bea great convenience and safeguard. 
Let all the payments and receipts, wherever possible, pass through the bank 
account, but also let all particulars of receipts and payments be first entered in 
the cashbook, and, if it be not possible at the moment to do so, they should be 
entered ina notebook, to be transferred to the cashbook at the first opportunity. 
If the payments are by cheque, the particulars in the counterfoil will give the 
necessary information for the cashbook. The bank passbook should, from 
time to time, be compared with the cash account, and any corrections made 
that may be required. Where no banking account is kept, the farmer cannot 
be too particular in seeing that all transactions are entered as they occur, for 
the safeguard of the banking account will in such cases be wanting. The 
balance of the cash account, if the receipts exceed the payments, should be the 
same as the credit at the bank, or, where no banking account is kept, as the 
cash in hand; but this balance is not, of course, the exact balance of the profit 
and loss for the period. For it may be that some or the whole of the money 
at the bank is borrowed money, or there may be an overdraft at the bank for 
the purpose, say, of improvements. To produce a profit and loss account a 
further step is necessary, and that is to summarise the cash entries under the 
various heads of receipts and expenditure, distinguishing what are merely 
expenses from payments for purchases or improvements. ‘This summarising is 
generally done by means of a ledger to which the various accounts are posted, 
but a plan, where establishments are not large (and it is for such that this 
paper is written), is recommended—viz., to provide extra columns in the cash 
account for an analysis of the entries, a plan which will be better understood 
by the following example :— 
CASH ACCOUNT. 
REcEIPTS, 
2 ANALYSIS OF RECEIPTS, 
Date. ANG NS Amount ce SS Sp — ta rane ee 
Particulars. eT Crone Li Dairy and 
rops. Live Stock. Poultry. Sundry 
- A <a - —— 
£ 8. | a £ | 38. | a. £ | s.| a. £ | 8. | d. £ | 8. | a 
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