INTRODUCTORY SUGGESTIONS. The following directions and forms are given as examples to aid in drill exercise. They can be carried to any extent desired, by a little effort on the part of teachers and educators. All scholars who can use United States money should commence a course of training in making and receipting bills, in keeping and posting simple accounts, in writing business letters, orders, notes, drafts, bank checks, etc., until they are thoroughly familiar with them. To do this readily requires a long practice. It cannot be acquired by pupils in one or two terms, but demands years of continued drill. Hence every pupil of the grammar-school grade should be instructed in some of these methods. They are not only helpful in learning business forms, but in many ways this training is of great service to the scholar in school work, as well as through life. (1) It is an efficient method of learning to write. A scholar may write single-line copies all his school days, and then not make a page of promiscuously written words look well. He must have such practice as book-keeping and letter-writing give him to secure this end. (2) It is a most practical way of learning to spell, since this practice requires the use of such words as are common in business life, and in a way in which pupils will need to use them both in, and after leaving school. School Committees have frequently assured the author that applicants for positions as teachers often spell well, orally, who cannot, when asked, write the words correctly. (3) This business practice also acquaints scholars with a correct use of capital letters. The older systems of book-keeping used capital letters promiscuously, but it is better in all these forms to follow the ordinary rules of grammar. (4) It teaches a correct use of punctuation marks. (5) With the letter-writing and business models given and suggested in this work, it aids scholars to express their thoughts correctly and easily. (6) It also develops a practical and rapid use of numbers. (7) It trains the pupil to do business in a correct and efficient way. 1 If time be limited, the work can be carried on as a part of the Arithmetic lesson. Each week's record, given in the first form, is brief and can be as easily managed as any ordinary problem in arithmetic. So with most of the examples given through the book. The first form is an easy way to keep a simple cash account. In its use great care needs to be taken to place the money received, and paid each in its proper column. It is better, for convenient reference, to enter the balance on hand in red ink each time it is drawn. Many balance the account of "receipts" and "payments" each day, in order to discover and enter any omissions which may have occurred. Never allow it to run over a week. The balance should correspond with cash on hand. In the accounts for January and February write a receipt for each payment of board such as the person furnishing it should give you, signing the name of the one who is supposed to receive the money. REVIEW QUESTIONS. (1) Name the seven special advantages given above which result from this practice. (2) If limited in time, in what way can one carry on this work? (3) What care is especially necessary in keeping an account according to the first form? (4) Tell why it is best for each person to keep account of receipts and cash paid. See Preface. CASH ACCOUNT. The following represents, as far as allowed to copy it, a clerk's cash account, who proceeds with his earnings and expenditures on a well-outlined and consistent business plan. From early education he makes it a rule to buy only as he has means to pay for what he gets, to give one-tenth of his income for public improvement and as a partial compensation for the advantages of society, to save and invest a certain amount weekly or monthly, to make a daily reckoning of his "receipts" and "payments," and each Saturday night to balance his account. By this plan, and with prudence, he has now, at twenty-two years of age, over $2000, well invested, while most of those employed with him have not a dollar saved. Many of them have received a larger salary than he, but usually it is all promised before received. This clerk, with his pay recently increased, carries out the same system of saving and investing. In a few years he will be able to provide his family with a finely furnished house, free of debt, and give them many privileges, while his companions will not have done so well in making provision for the future. (For continued memoranda and drill exercises, see page 39-55.) Carry forward the above balance, $7.95, enter receipts and amount paid out each week for March as in previous months and strike the balance each Saturday night. At the close of the month, i.e. of the quarter ending March 31st, make a summary of all the receipts for the three months and enter in the column for the receipts; also a summary of all "paid," keeping amount of bank deposit or investments in one sum, and the other amounts paid out as another item, then add the two items of the paid together, and subtract from the amount of receipts to get at the cash on hand March 31. In a similar way enter amounts received and paid from time to time for each of the remaining months of the year, showing the total amount received and paid out at the end of each quarter. At the close of the year, Dec. 31st, make a summary of the whole year's transactions, and show the total "received" and "paid" and the full amount deposited in the bank or otherwise invested. NOTE. From March 31st it is advised to pass to page 39, taking up examples from pages 39 to 54 before taking up the Day Book and Ledger work commenced on page 5. REVIEW QUESTIONS. (1) Give in your own language the method of keeping the above account. (2) What is done in closing each week's account? (3) How do we find the balance on hand? agree? (5) With what colored ink should the balance be entered, and why? (6) What is required to be done at the close of the first quarter? (7) What is the special advantage of this summary account ? (8) How is the work to be carried on the remaining months of the year? (9) What should be done at the close of each quarter? (10) What should be done at the close of the year? |