Arizona republican., 1910-01-06
NJ " RECORD BOOK N
 WATER DEPARTMENT
A. System Devised by J. ]. Franklin That Has All the Appearance
 of Perfection.

the city water department is now equipped with specially made record book embracing all the features of a journal. ledger and cash book, the value of which can hardly be estimated. MT. Franklin. who was once employed in the revenue service at Kansas City. devised a book simplifying the meth ods of record keeping and t proved such d success that it is still in use by the government. MT. Franklin be- ing employed to expert and do some special work on the books of the wa ter department. after familiarising him self with the nature of the accounts. conceived the idea that he could de- wise record that would eliminate a very large part of the bookkeeping of the office and he was told to go ahead and do so.
 The record he has made has now been in use for two months and has been thoroughly tried out. There is no conceivable entry in connection with the bookkeeping of that department of the city's business that cannot be made in this volume. which is l6x21 inches in size, and it's offsetting entry
  just as the records are made in an ordinary ledger. Also. everything is journalized as to item and classifica- ton and the cash totals are always available.
 One of the finest features of the book book is that one may at any time strike balance in ten minutes. show ing the cash received, and from what source. the cash expended and for what purpose. and the balance on hand Heretofore the council from time to time has desired information concerning the water department that could not be furnished except with special work of day or longer to as- semble totals. prove figures and strike balances. Now such information is all ways available on the shortest notice.
 This information always at hand is of incalcuable benefit, and in this case also the records include material, plant valuation and all the details of the busi- ness, aside from cash transactions. How ever not the least value of the new book lies in the simplying of the accounts into one volume that shows 1t all eN- cept the bills. water rental stubs and such other documents as are merely filed for reference. While it does not relieve the counter work of course 1t makes the record keeping not over a third or half of the work necessary under the old system. In working It out MT Franklin took the general form of the combined record book that he made for the revenue service. and in (. ,l, tT. suit the needs of the Phoenix water department.
 Two of the large pages are used at once, there being a debit and credit of everything on each page and one page being a debit or credit against the other, so.- the accounts can be checked and cross checked. For i'm stance, on the left hand page all moneys received on a given date are entered in a total charge against the treasurer in the left hand col umn, while on the same line in the other columns to the right. under prop CT captions are found the sources of the money these entries all equaling the total to the left. In these scgregat- ed columns showing the different SDuTttS Ol lUOutS tit suei oN~o'''s' N- water rentals. penalties, special sales tapping, meter sales, old pipe. store sales and blanks for other funds fl it should be necessary to establish them. each of these funds being credit ed with what they produce. On the opposite or right hand page is a sim liar ruling where the treasurer is cred tied daily with the total of all money paid out, with segregated columns showing the purpose for which each dollar was disbursed. These include general expense and payroll, office ex- pense pumping expense. fuel and power maintenance of pipe lines. sta ble account, store account. old pipe ac- count. Improvements and betterment interest on bonds, insurance, tapping etc.
 In like manner these totals equal the grand total at the left of he page. so one can in a few minutes strike bal ance anywhere showing how the de partment stands not only in its general accounts, but in each branch of the department. what each costs to main- tain and the revenue produced by each.
 Dropping down line or two similar records are made of the storkeeper's s