Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-05-25
Report of Auditing Committee.

report OF Auditing C0nii1lttee.
In planning the system Of accounting
for the Portland, Maine, Chapter of the
dation WAS laid
l. Everything must be 50 arranged thai
all income and outgo may be easily and
directly traced from the original record
through to the treasurer.
>. Wherever possible serial numbers to
be used as an aid to accuracy.
g. The system should be such that il
can be carried out by volunteer workers
without previous business training. But
complete enough for its purpose even if
some time has to be devoted to training
! the workers.
| A. A certain amount of statistical rec
ords are as important as records Of cash
| transactions.
! ;. 1t is more important to spend money
for ample records than to save a small
amount of money and obtain inadequate
records The effect of the saving upon
the amount of overhead charges will not
compensate for the lack of real knowl-
edge of conditions.
6. The office Of the Chapter is exactly
as important as the office of a business.
In fact, Rel Cross work is n business ana
must be treated as such
! With the above principles established
the auditing committee laid out the sys-
TEN. The committee is composed of three
mea, each having experience in account
ing for corporations and each devotes
the necessary amount of time to the
work. They agreed among themselves at
the beginning Of the work to put the &C
| counting through even at some disad-
vantage to themselves. Experience has
since made it very plain that it can be
done in no other manner.
| 1t was recognized early that all the rec
ords and other papers must be preserved
carefully. Plans were made that nothing
! shall be destroyed even though space is
taken up by the papers. 1t is much
easier to store papers when needful than
it is to reconstruct them should occasion
require. To the end that the most i'm
portant records should be protected
against loss by fire, Safe Cabinet safe
was borrowed from a dealer. In this is
kept the records of the membership, the
general books, and all other things Of a
like nature.
It has been found possible to arrange
with the printers at Portland to do the
printing for the accounting system at
cost, in some instances the printers have
donated a certain amount of work free
before making a charge for their work
On this basis, and while the supplies OF
printing have been ample, the cost has
not been unduly large.
The ledger and journal. in which the
general accounts are kept, and certain Of
the committee cash books, are ordinary
stock books of small cost. The cash
book and all of the statistical books are
ordinary record books hand ruled as re-
quired. Certain of the blanks are pre-
pared for duplicate records and in each
instance the printer inserted a sheet of
carbon paper, in each pad in order that
fresh carbon might be had for each pad
and also to be certain that carbon paper
was always available.
A description Of the various books and
blanks follows:
Ledger and Journal-The ledger con-
tains accounts with each class of mem
bership for each kind of donation. the
sale of Red Cross pins, and each other
class of income The account with the
treasurer charges him with all cash re-
ceived and credits him with all cash paid
out. and numerous accounts are set I'D
for the expenses Of each committee, ad-
ministration expenses, etc.
Postings are made from the Journal