be varied to suit requirements. This application of the card index idea to card ledgers is equally suitable for a small or large list of accounts. 267. Subscription Records. The form of record card shown herewith is convenient for keeping publishers' accounts with subscribers. - The guides shown are alphabetical under each state, but often bear the names of towns, and when so made are called geographical guides. It will be noticed that the record cards have small semi-circular projections on their upper edge. These are called tabs and serve to indicate the months in which the subscriptions expire. All those subscriptions that should be renewed in June can be easily found without referring to the records on the cards. A still further classification is possible by the use of colored cards. Take for example a daily paper, publishing morning, evening, and Sunday editions. Let white cards be used for subscribers to the morning, buff for the evening, and blue for the Sunday edition. It will be seen that this secures three separate, readily distinguished classifications: alphabetical under town or state, chronological according to monthly expiration tabs, and descriptive of classes of subscribers according to colors of record cards. 268. Numerical Indices. These are for the purpose of keeping in strictly regular order cards referring to the numbers under which the desired entries may be found in a book or larger card index. Book indices to ledgers or other records are cumbersome. They become rapidly filled with useless names and therefore are not permanent. If cards are used, the division into open and closed accounts explained in section 266 should be observed. Each person or firm is allowed a card, and on this is entered the ledger page and a brief memorandum of their financial standing. From time to time the new information accumulated is entered on the card, and it soon becomes valuable to the credit department as well as to the bookkeepers. 269. Signature Records. This is a form of card index particularly useful for banks and trust companies. Signature books fill up and have to be rewritten, contain old and useless signatures, leave no room for future data, and are open to inspection by each new depositor when signing his name. A card index will enable each depositor's signature to be taken on a separate card, the card to contain plenty of space for data to guide the paying teller. As depositors withdraw, their cards are removed and destroyed or filed in another index. The cards are usually arranged alphabetically according to the customers' names. 270. Employee Records. This form provides a desirable arrangement for indexing and classifying employees and ex-employees, with the necessary information regarding each. Such a record is especially important where men are employed by the foreman, who is apt to trust to his memory alone. This method is not only uncertain, but it leaves. his successor entirely uninformed regarding conditions with which he should be familiar. Usually two sets of alphabetical guides are used, one for employees and one for ex-employees. The indexed list of past employees is very valuable for reference. EXERCISE XX. FILING SYSTEMS. 271. A File. In its commercial and professional application a file is defined as "an orderly collection of papers arranged and classified methodically for preservation and reference." The file may consist of a drawer, case, box, or other receptacle used for storage, but the essential features are the arrangement or classification and the method or system of indexing. 272. Indexing. Whether the alphabetical, numerical, chronological, or geographical system is used, the object is always the same; namely, that of elimination. In this way the search for the particular paper or record desired is reduced to one page or compartment in the file. A dictionary or city directory may contain hundreds of thousands of names, yet with the perfect system of indexing any particular name may be readily found. In indexing letters, documents, catalogues, books, pamphlets, photographs, drawings, patterns, samples, etc., the underlying methods are essentially the same. The following sections will briefly describe various systems of filing and indexing as applied to commercial correspondence. 273. Alphabetical Indexing. With this system the leaves or guides (for illustrations of these refer to the descriptions of appliances on succeeding pages) are furnished in various subdivisions of the alphabet, so arranged as to prevent too many papers accumulating under one guide, and designed to distribute the contents evenly throughout the drawer. This is accomplished by subdividing certain letters according to the frequency with which each occurs in common use. This system is unquestionably the simplest and most practical for a limited filing capacity. 274. Numerical Indexing. In this system a number is assigned to each correspondent or subject, and all papers are filed in a folder or envelope bearing that number, and arranged consecutively throughout |