keeper cannot easily overlook it.

These duplicates are kept and used daily for a week or two, after which time the date of the check will of itself put the bookkeeper on his guard against paying it without investigation.

THE GENERAL BOOKS.

If a general system of proofs, such as that described in connection with figures 124 to 127, is in use, the first form needed by the gen

eral bookkeeper for the record of the day's work is his proof, a form of which is shown in Figure 146. On this proof he lists the items received from or sent to the other workers, in the same manner as has already been described for the tellers' proofs, figures 124 to 127. When all of the items (except the bookkeepers' totals) have been entered, the totals are listed in the places indicated under the heading "Summary" at the right of the bottom of the proof: and if the work has been done correctly, the total of the debit items will agree with the

total of the credit items. The bookkeeper then has a proof of the correctness of his work for all items except the totals to be furnished him by the individual bookkeepers, draft tellers, etc. When such totals are received they are entered in their designated places under the heading "Summary" at the left of the bottom of the proof, where are also entered the totals of the general book items listed on the proof. Meantime the general journal is written up, and the correctness of the work there is indicated if the total debits and total credits agree with such totals as shown by the final "Summary" on the proof. The difference between these totals shows the amount of "general cash" at the close of the day's business; and with this figure the amount of "general cash" shown by the paying teller's summary of general cash, figure 126, must agree.

For a general journal many companies still use the old-style twocolumn journal with debit and credit pages. Figure 147 shows the lefthand or debit page of such a journal. The right-hand page is ruled in the same way, having the heading "Cr." instead of "Dr." Much more convenient than the old form is the improved general journal shown in Figure 148, in which debits and credits are entered on one page, and the names of the accounts, being in the center, need not be repeated for debit and credit entries. The width of the page is about 1812 inches. Figure 149 shows another form of one-page general journal, having a different arrangement of the amount and explanatory columns.

For a general ledger, the old style ruling, without balance columns, is still in use by some companies; but ledgers having balance columns

are decidedly preferable, and are in general use. Figures 150 and 151 show two forms of such a ledger-that shown in figure 151 being the better of the two, because it more distinctly separates debit and credit items. These ledgers may be either permanently bound or in loose leaf form.

The general bookkeeper enters the balances from the general ledger in the daily statement (or balance) book, which serves the double purpose of a daily trial-balance of the general accounts and a condensed statement, which enables the officers to see the condition of the company at a glance.

In its simplest form this book is merely a list of the balances of the general ledger accounts, so arranged that separate footings may be taken of the debit and credit balances, to show their agreement. Figure 152 shows an old form of daily statement, in which the accounts are listed in the order in which they are found in the bound general ledger.

As

will be seen, two columns are required for each day's statement; and the book is usually arranged to show a week's work on each double page. By having some of the pages "cut short" along the line just after the names of the accounts, the frequent rewriting of the names

may be