The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-10-07
IMPLICATIONS Of
A CHARGE ACCOUNT
What Happens When Goods That
Should Not Have Been Bought
Are Returned.

are ktGfUFneu.
Young Mrs. J. Hoppington Smith
had an alliterative and overwhelming
passion for two things-sweets and
shopping. Because of her great liking
for the former her figure had assumed
proportions that could not in all hon
esty, be called lithesome; her love OF
the latter brought her pretty close to
being PERSONA non grata in more
+ than one retail shop and store The
reason for this was that while she
bought great quantities of things, and
! kept many of them, she had mania
+ for buying hats gowns, coats, and
what not which she had no idea of
using. Consequently she returned
( them, and to such an extent did she
carry this habit that only the size OF
/ her account saved her from CONNER
cial ostractsm.
/ Spending most of her leisure time
I in the stores and shops, young Mrs.
Smith naturally was exceedingly well
posted as to what was what in the
matter of style. Therefore when the
new hustle silhouette appeared on the
horizon. nothing Would do but that
! she must follow the mode. She spent
half a day at Jones department store
/ looking over the pretty things to be
seen there, and finally came away af-
ter ordering dress of the most ultra
hustle type sent to her home.
! The Mortified Friend.
f 1t has been said before that young
Mrs. smith was fond of sweets, and
that her indul-Nnce in them had
rounded her fgG e to the type which
is seen chiefly in women who have
reached the Comfortable age" The
result was that when she bedecked
herself In the new hustle dress in her
boudoir even her sedate young maid
could barely suppress smile. Her
dearest friend. who was present,
took greater liberties, as was her privi-
lege.
j "Oh, my dear" she advised, in a
Mortified voice, take it off Why, it
makes you look simply immense. 4"
One glance in the mirror was even
more convincing than the shock ed
voice OF the friend. or came the
dress, with the terse order to the
maid, Send 1t back"
Now, this seemed simple thing to
Mrs. Smith, even though 1t was ex-
asperating not to be able to adopt the
new mode. But this is what il did at
the store:
What Had Happened
When Mrs. Smith ordered the gown
sent home, the clerk who made the
sale took her name and address on
charge check and sent this check to
the package desk, where the dress was
wrapped. The address label on the
charge check was then torn Off and
pasted on the package, after which
both the package and the check went
! TO the delivery department, where the
charge was authorized because the ac-
! count was In good standing.
| Having passed this stage. the pack
age was then routed and given over
hRityApN n he y.Ax 4.
original OF the charge check, which
had been made out in duplicate by the
clerk at the time of the sale, had been
filed at the authorization desk The
duplicate had been sent out IN the
package containing the dress But
even here the transaction did not stop.
Pretty soon a messenger from the au-
dltlng department came to the authori-
cation desk and took the check, among
others, back to the audit office. Here
II was sorted out and put with others
from the ready -to-wear department
The next morning II was compared
! with the clerks book. In order to see
that all charges were accounted for
and that there were no discrepancies
In the amounts.
/ And That Was Not All.
And yet the matter was not ended
After this and other charge checks for
/ tnat day had been accounted for they
were all sorted according to ledgers
by the bookkeeping department. Each
ledger was then debited with the total
amount of charge sales made to the
persons whose names appeared on 1t.
( On the day Mrs Smith bought her
: hustle. dress there had been rrorn than
10000 charge sales made, the work of
/ recording which was by no means
light.
sim the routine Of the sale of Mrs.
smiths dress travelled on, and her
charge check, with the others. next
went TO the head hookkeeper's stan,
7 VINO distributed them to a force OF
girls for folio numbering After the
numbering was completed. the checks
were sorted numerically for each lede-
er. Following this they were sent to
the bookkeepers for posting, and. once
posted, they were bundled up and filed
for reference.
1t so happens that the bookkeeping
at Jones's ia done pretty largely hv
machinery, which simplifles the work
considerably hut even at that every
/ bookkeeper has several hundred ac-
tive accounts TO look after each month.
/ The physical labor of doing this work
Is by no means small. and a mental
strain is present also. in spite of the
! mechanical accuracy Of the machines.
For when the posting of the ledgers
Is completed the total charges must
agree with the amount charged
against that ledger by the auditing
department. This agreement of to-
tails must be assured each day, and
any error results in the work being
checked back by the person who
makes IL until 1t is found. If young
Mrs Smith had ever had to hunt for
an error OF this kind at the emo of a
perfect day" she doubtlens would not
have bought and returned dress that
her own Judgment must have told her
she could not wear-thereby cempli-
eating the bookkeeping process and
+ increasing the chances of a mistake
creeping In.
So far so good. But at Jones's the
boss wants to be able to know at
any time, on any day, Just what each
charge customer of the store owes
T The importance OF this is obvious in
the conduct of a charge business. but
IL does not tighten the work any. For
against the amount charged To any
customer must each day be deducted
any payments made or any credits
that may be allowed in the case of
returned goods. So again Mrs Smith
and others like her make unnecessary
work for the bookkeeprrs
| Now comes the time when the bills
t must be sent cut to III tfuigent~ nus
bands, fathers. etc. At Jones's these
bills are made out in duplicate, the