Page images
PDF
EPUB

panies, all advertising and customers' credits should be under the supervision of the sales manager, and he should be responsible for such supplies as labels, box shook, nails, strap iron, silicate, etc. He should have an assistant and a personal stenographer.

The purchasing agent will have supervision of the purchase and distribution of all supplies and materials for both the factory and the office. His department should be assigned a place in the general office convenient for outside salesmen to reach. He will have more callers than any other department. The purchasing agent will have supervision of the storeroom, and if the company is large enough the storeroom will have an assistant to the purchasing agent in charge. In the smaller companies the storeroom can be handled by the green-fruit receiving clerk.

The purchasing agent will keep records of prices and quotations, trace shipments and deliveries of all goods purchased to insure prompt arrival at the factory and to the proper department, and his assistant, the storekeeper, will receive and sign for all supplies and raw materials purchased except the green fruit and produce.

Upon receiving a requisition signed by the head of a department and O.K'd by the general manager, or by some person authorized by the general manager, he will make out a purchase order in triplicate. The original copy will be sent to the firm from whom ordered, the duplicate will be kept by the purchasing agent and the triplicate will be given to the storeroom clerk, or the receiving clerk. When the goods are received the storeroom clerk will check them against his copy of the order and will make return to the purchasing agent of all goods received on the receiving slip form. All shortages, breakage, bad orders, etc., will be noted on this return. In larger companies another copy of the purchase order will be made for the use of the traffic department. As soon as all the goods covered by the order have been received the storeroom clerk will file the order by its number in a file to be provided for that purpose.

The purchasing department will secure all invoices for goods purchased from the vendor in triplicate.

In cases where the bills and invoices are not received in triplicate, as is the case usually with water, power, drayage,

express and other service bills, the purchasing department will make the necessary copies of the bill on an invoice copy form to be provided for the purpose. These copies need not be in detail, but sufficient data should be used to make an audit of the bill possible.

The clerk will then attach across the top of each copy of the invoices a gummed sticker in size about 2 by 81⁄2 inches. On this sticker will be printed, in spaces provided, "Date Due"; "Control No."; "Purchase Order No."; "Receiving Slip Number"; "Audited"; "Invoice No."; "Payment Approved"; "Paid by Check No."; and four lines under "Distribution" subdivided into "Account No." and "Amount."

The purchasing department will fill in the space printed "Due Date" with the date the invoice becomes due, so that any discount allowed can be taken advantage of; the space printed "Purchase Order No." with the number of the purchase order sent to the vendor; the space printed "Receiving Slip No." with the number of the receiving slip received from the storeroom clerk; and the space printed "Prices O. K," with the initial of the person who O. K'd the price.

The purchasing department will retain one of the three copies for their own files, and the original and one copy, with the stickers attached, they will send to the cost department for distribution of the charge to the proper accounts.

The cost department will make up a list of control numbers for vendors. In making up this list all vendors doing business with the company will be given numbers, and these will be listed both alphabetically and numerically so that any vendor's control number can readily be determined by reference to the alphabetical index and the vendor of any control number can readily be determined by reference to the numerical list of numbers ranging from one up. All vendors doing a continuous business with the company should appear first on the list and those with whom an occasional transaction is made should be listed last.

The cost department will then put the control number on the stickers of both copies of all invoices in the space printed "Control No." and make the necessary distribution of the invoice in the space printed "Distribution Record," filling in the number of the accounts to which the distribution is

made and the amounts to be charged to each account. The clerk will then list the invoices on the transmittal sheet, which is a sheet 81⁄2 by 12 inches, printed on high-grade paper, which shows at the top the date and number and is ruled across with twenty-six lines with columns ruled off and headed "Control No."; "Invoice No."; "Date of Invoice"; "Vendor"; and "Amount."

Each invoice listed will be given a number, these numbers running consecutively from one up. The transmittal will then be filled out in duplicate, the invoices separated, the originals attached to the original copy of the transmittal and the duplicate to the duplicate copy of the transmittal.

At the bottom of the transmittal sheet will be printed spaces for the accumulation of the distribution as shown on the individual invoices attached. There should be enough spaces provided for distributions to enter at least twenty accounts in order to accommodate the distributions made on the twenty-six invoices attached to the transmittal.

Debit and credit memorandums will be treated in the same manner as invoices, being given invoice and control numbers and listed on the transmittal in red ink.

The total of the invoices listed on the transmittals less the debit and credit memos listed is the total of the transmittal.

The total of all transmittals for the month will equal the total of the accumulated distributions for the month.

The original copy of the transmittal, with the original copies of the invoices attached, will then be passed to the auditing department, where they will be checked and audited, the initial of the person making the audit being put in the space on the sticker printed "Audited."

Any errors will be corrected on both copies of the invoice. and transmittals, and then the invoices, detached from the the transmittal, will be passed to the accounts payable bookkeeper, who will post them to the credit of the vendors'

accounts.

The auditor will keep the transmittals on file, and the total of these will be a control over the accounts payable ledger.

The invoices will now be passed to the person who finally approves for payment, who will initial the space on the

sticker "Approved," and a check will be drawn and mailed to the vendor, the number of the check being placed in the space on the sticker printed "Paid by Check No." The auditor's record and the payment record will appear only on the original copies of the invoices, the duplicates being kept by the cost department.

When all accounting records have been completed the original invoices, with record of payment properly made, will be filed under vendors' names and the duplicate copies kept by the cost department will be filed numerically by invoice numbers.

This will complete the system whereby any invoice can readily be located either by number or by the vendor's

name.

The cost department will then file, numerically, the transmittal forms, properly filled out and with invoice amounts properly distributed, in a binder to be provided for this purpose, and at the close of the accounting period will accumulate the distribution made on the individual transmittals on a "Monthly Distribution Sheet," which will be filed in the binder following the last transmittal for the period.

The general ledger accountant will then post the accumulated distribution to the proper accounts in the general ledger.

If preferred a "Distribution Ledger" can be kept and the cost department will make their distribution from the individual invoices to accounts in the distribution ledger having corresponding numbers and titles to those in the general ledger. The general ledger accountant will then post the totals at the close of the period to the general ledger accounts. This method is considerably more work than the former and is no better except that it possibly furnishes a more detailed record.

The distribution ledger sheets should be about 11 by 12 inches in size, being ruled across into seven columns, each column being divided into columns for the control numbers, invoice number and the amount. This provides seven columns to be filled up before the sheet is full.

Both alphabetical and numerical lists of the vendors' numbers can be kept in the front of the distribution ledger

made up on the regular distribution sheets. If the former method is used a cheap, loose-leaf, indexed book can be provided for the control numbers.

In handling invoices received from customers for swell accounts, the sales department will make out a credit memorandum which will be filed in the sales binder. The invoice received from the customer will be handled and passed for payment as is provided for invoices covering purchases.

The cost department will charge accounts receivable and the credit will be to the customer's account payable.

When the invoice is paid the customer's account payable will be charged and cash credited. From the sales register the customer's account receivable will be credited and swell account will be charged.

The cost and statistical department should have the use of a private office, as already explained. Of late years this department is coming to be recognized as one of the important departments of the organization. It is the department of valuable statistics and of secret formulas and information.

Every detail of the business should be subject to investigation by the cost department, and through these investigations a great mass of vital information will be gathered which will be of the greatest value to the management in deciding the problems of operation in advance of and during the packing season.

The control of production, control of office and factory expense, of payrolls, of sugar, supplies and raw material, and control of sales will all be simplified by the information reflected in the reports of the cost department.

In the case of very large corporations the sales department will maintain its own statistical force, and this force will compile statistics of sales showing the gross and net returns on sales of each variety or commodity packed, but in the smaller companies this work can be done by the cost department.

The department will then be in a position to compile reports showing the cost, sales value and profit on each commodity, or variety, and grade packed during the year. Cost records showing the cost of buildings, machinery and equip

« PreviousContinue »