Hotel accounts

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THE ACCOUNTANTS' LIBRARY."
VOL. XXXVII.
HOTEL ACCOUNTS
LAWRENCE R. DICKSEE, M.COM., F.C.A.
[Professor of Accounting at the University of Birmingham.
^6/
JD ic
LONDON : p-
G E E & Co., PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, 34 MOORGATE STREET, E.C.
1905.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
T^HE object of the series of handbooks that is being published
under heading of THE ACCOUNTANTS' LIBRARY is to
provide, at a reasonable price, detailed information as to the
most approved methods of keeping accounts in relation to all
the leading classes of industry whose books call for more or less
specialised treatment. Xo such series has hitherto been
attempted; but there exist, of course, numerous separate works
dealing with the accounts of one particular class of undertaking.
These separate works are, however, for the most part either too
expensive, or too superficial to answer the purpose that is par­ticularly
aimed at by THE ACCOUNTANTS' LIBRARY, which is
intended to supply the student with that specialised information
which he may require, while at the same time affording to the
trader, banker, or manufacturer who is not in a position to
secure the fullest information for his purpose, knowledge which
can hardly fail to be of the very greatest assistance to him in
the correct keeping of his accounts, upon a system specially
adapted to his requirements, and therefore involving a minimum
expenditure of labour. It is expected that the series will also
be found of material assistance to bookkeepers of all classes.
VI. EDITOR'S PREFACE.
Without aiming at gi\ing an exhaustive account of the
manner in which each separate business is conducted, the
technical points in connection with each industry will receive
as much attention as is necessary in order fully to elucidate the
system of accounts advocated, while each volume will be the
work of one who has made that particular class of accounts
more or less a speciality. It is olnious, however, that to enable
the necessary ground to be covered in the space available, it is
incumbent to assume uj^on the part of the reader a certain
knowledge of general bookkeeping. The extent of the know­ledge
assumed will vary according to the nature of the class of
accounts considered. For example, in the volumes on " Bank
Accounts " and " Shipping Accounts," a thorough acquaintance
with ordinary double-entr}- bookkeeping is not unnaturally
assumed; but in the case, for instance, of " Auctioneers'
Accounts," " Domestic Tradesmen's Accounts,'' and other
similar volumes, such explanations are included as will enable
the ordinarily intelligent reader fully to grasp the methods
described, even although his knowledge of bookkeeping may be
of an elementary description. These explanations are, doubt­less,
superfluous as far as accountants are concerned, but are
necessary to make the volumes of value to the majority of those
specially engaged in these particular industries.
To subscribers for the whole series it may be added that,
when completed, it will form a most valuable and practically
complete library, dealing, at the hands of specialists, with prac­tically
every class of accounts, and illustrating the application
EDITOR'S PREFACE. vu.
of the theory of double-entry as described in general works on
bookkeeping.
The first series (of twenty volumes) has already been com­pleted,
and particulars of the subjects dealt with will be found
on p. i. A second series (which will comprise about thirty
more volumes) is now in progress, which when issued will
complete the scheme. Many of these have already been
arranged for, but the Editor will be glad to receive suggestions
and offers from accountants of experience for the undertaking
of volumes not yet announced.
34 Moorgate Street,
London, E.G.
June 1903.
CONTENTS.
EDITOR'S PREFACE
CHAPTER I.—INTRODUCTION
II.—PRELIMINARY RECORDS
III.—OFFICE
IV.—NOMINAL LEDGER
V.—CELLAR AND BAR
VI.—GENERAL LEDGER
VII.—KITCHEN AND STORES
VIII.—INTERNAL CHECK AND AUDIT...
IX.—THE "SIMPLEX" SYSTEM
X.—RAILWAY HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
INDEX ...
3
9
28
38
45
57
61
67
,68
73
LIST OF FO
NO.
I.—Terms Book
2.—Apartments Book ...
3.—Departure Check
4.—\'isitors' Ledger
5.—Summary of Takings Book ...
6.—Pro forma Visitor's Bill
7.— „ "Chance" Bill
8.—Rough Day Book ...
9.—Waiters' Check Book
10. — Cash Received Book
II.—Accounts for Payment Sheet
12.—Trade Payments Book
13.—Wages Book
14.—Petty Cash Book ....
L I S T OF FORMS. XI.
NO. PAGE
15.—Pro forma List of Nominal Ledger Balances ... 37
i5.—Cellar Book ... ... ... ... 39
17.—Cellar Issues Sheet... ... ... ... 41
18.—Bar Daily Stock Book ... ... ... 43
19.—Pro forma Trial Balance ... ... ... 46
20.— ,, Liquor Trading Account ... ... 49
21.— ,, Trading Account ... ... ... 50
22.— „ Profit and Loss Account ... ... 51
23.— „ Balance Sheet ... ... ... 52
24.— „ Summarised Balance Sheet ... 53
25.— ,, „ Profit and Loss Account 54
26.— ,, Interim Trading Account ... ... 56
27.—Daily Cost Sheet ... ... ... ... 59
HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
IN dealing with the subject of Hotel Accounts in a work of
the size of the present volume, it is inevitable, if the accom­panying
descriptions are to be sufficiently defined to be of
practical value, that an hotel of more or less definite size should
be assumed. Stated shortly, the two chief aims of every system
of Hotel Accounts are to secure (i) promptness of record, (2)
the detection of leakages and extravagances. In connection
with both of these objects, and more especially with regard to
the latter, it must be obvious that the most suitable means to
be employed must depend very largely upon the size of the staff,
and it thus follows that a system suitable to a large hotel would
be found so cumbrous as to be entirely unworkable in one of
medium size; while, again, in a small hotel the system of
internal check would have to be still further abandoned, if for
no other reason on account of the futility of expecting any
member of the staff to keep any effective check ujjon himself
or herself. It is thought, however, that the present work will
be more useful if, instead of merely indicating general prin­ciples,
the case be assumed of an hotel of reasonable size (say
30 to 40 bed-rooms), and a system entirely adequate to the
HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
needs of such an undertaking be described in detail. Those
desirous of applying the system to quite small hotels "will then,
•doubtless, experience but little difBculty in making the necessary
simplifications and condensations; those desirous of applying
it to larger hotels will have to bear in mind that while, on the
one hand, it no longer becomes possible for the manager to
retain such a detailed control of every department as is here­after
indicated, the increased size of the undertaking would,
no doubt, justify the cost of a sufficient number of assistant-managers,
who could be relied upon for departmental detail, and
would each, of course, be severally responsible to the general
manager for their own branch. Another reason for the selection
of an hotel of medium size has been that these undoubtedly con­stitute
a very considerable majority of such undertakings. Of
late years there has, of course, been a considerable increase in
the number of first-class hotels ; l)ut—so far, at least, as he
provinces are concerned—many of these onlv accommodate a
limited number of visitors, and therefore come well within the
scheme that is here described. With the larger kind of medium-sized
hotels some members of the staff here indicated would
have to be duplicated, while in smaller undertakings the duties
•of two may sometimes have to be combined. The former
course will present no difficulty whatever in practice ; but with
regard to the latter, it is, of course, important that great care
should be taken to see that no part of the system of internal
check is destroyed by the removal of one of the " links."
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 3
CHAPTER II.
PRELIMINARY RECORDS.
BEFORE dealing with the actual books of account, it is
perhaps desirable to indicate a few of the more important
statistical books, some of which lead up to the actual
bookkeeping entries.
Arrivals.—
On a visitor arriving at an hotel, apartments are allocated to
him by the manager, or clerk in charge of the office, and at the
same time terms are arranged, either by special agreement or
by general implication. In the absence of any special agree­ment
the visitor becomes chargeable at the ordinary tariff
rates; but if a special arrangement is made on arri\'al most
hotels will i)lace their visitor upon " board terms." Every
hotel will require to keep a " TERMS BOOK," ruled as shown in
the accompanying Form i. In this book is kept a record of
the name and address of every visitor, entered at the time of his
arrival, of the numbers of the rooms allocated to him, and of
the terms with which he is chargeable. As a rule, these terms
are sufficiently indicated by the letter " B." (signifying " board
terms '') or '' T." (signifying " tariff terms "), but in special cases
further particulars should be entered at the time, so as to
provide a definite and reliable basis for subsequent charges.
Arrivals Book.—
This is a book which visitors are required to sign on arrival.
It generally provides space for the visitor's name, address, and
the number of his room, the date being written at the head of
the page. In small hotels the ARRIVALS BOOK and the TERMS
BOOK are combined.
4 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Form I.— TERMS BOOK.
(Date)
Name Address No. of Rooms Terms
Apartments Book.—
The APARTMENTS BOOK is generally ruled as shown in Form
2, a page or folio being made sufficiently large to provide a
space for entries against each bed-room or private sitting-room
in the hotel. Each page (or each folio, as the case may be) thus
represents a day's record. The book may be conveniently
written up by the hall porter, or the night porter, from records
supplied by the chambermaids, its object being to show which
rooms in the hotel were actually occupied each night. 'In
private hotels the name of the visitor is generally recorded, but
in commercial hotels the record does not, as a rule, go further
than indicating which rooms were in use and which were vacant.
The Apartments Book forms a most reliable check upon the
Terms ]5ook, and at once draws attention to any omissions that
there may be in the latter—which, in the case of late arrivals,
are sometimes unavoidable. It should be the duty of one of the
bookkeepers to daily compare the Apartments Book with the
Visitors' Ledger, in order to make sure that a charge has been
made for every room occupied.
• HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 5
F o r m ' 2 .—
APARTMENTS BOOK.
(Date)
1
2
3
i
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
U
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
26
26
27
28
29
80
31
82
83
34
35
86
37 •
88
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
63
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
B
6 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Special Charges.—
In addition to the regular charge for apartments, additional
charges are frequently made for baths, fires, dogs, &c., and it is
the duty of the chambermaid to see that proper " checks " for
each of these charges are handed in to the office as soon as may
be after the service as been rendered.
Visitors' Departure.—
A systematic and smoothly working means of dealing with the
departure of visitors is most important to ensure (i) that bills
are presented promptly on demand, and (2) that no visitor's
luggage is removed until his bill has been paid. In very large
hotels special precautions have to be taken to ensure against
loss through visitors departing without paying their bills, but in
the case of hotels of the size here described no very elaborate
scheme is necessary. The request for a bill is usually made
either to the hall porter or to the head waiter. Each of these
should be provided with a " Bill Required Check Book,"
printed upon distinctively coloured paper, and provided with a
carbon sheet, which enables a facsimile duplicate to be retained.
This form is so arranged that only the date and the visitor's
number have to be inserted. It can thus be filled up without
any delay, and is at once despatched to the office. The book­keeper,
having noted the visitor's name or number, at once
proceeds to complete the bill, in the meantime, however,
making the following "Departure Checks":—(i) To the
chambermaid, that luggage may be expected to be removed
from rooms Nos. ; and (2) to the " boots," that he will be
required to remove the luggage from rooms Nos. . Before
actually proceeding to the rooms, the boots should on his way
pass by the office, and obtain from the bookkeeper the
Departure Check, which is his authority for removing the
luggage from the hotel. A good form of check is the
following : —
-ii;^5*itv.fe*ïis;4=!ö.
^•^«uwig^.jia.ss;:-' * ' ^ ' ' ^^'
Form 3. DEPARTURE CHECK.
000
Date
Visitor's No
Signature
000 -
EMPIRE
To HOUSEMAID on...
HOTEL.
Floor.
. .is about to depart
000
EMPIRE HOTEL.
To BOOTS.
Proceed to Room No
remove Visitor's luggage.
to
K
O
H
t^
>
n
n
o
d
2
H
tli
PSSlWB"*«(PPBi!p!?
8 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Many hotels make it a custom to place their distinctive label
on all luggage that goes out. This label must, of course, never
he aflixed until the Departure Check has been issued ; its use
materially simplifies the duties of the hall jjorter, who is respon­sible
for loss arising through visitors taking away their luggage
without first paying their bill. As the bill of a departing
visitor is paid, the bookkeeper (or cashier) at once advises the
hall parter, who then allows the boots to take that visitor's
luggage off the premises, receiving from the boots the
Departure Check.
In quite small hotels, where the manager is personally
acquainted with all the visitors, most (or all) of these precau­tions
might be safely omitted ; but in medium-sized hotels—
particularly where the visitors are frequently changing—they
will be found of great value, while in no way delaying the work.
Left Luggage.—
Luggage left behind by visitors, either accidentally or by
arrangement, should be at once recorded in a '' Left Luggage
Book,'' and placed in the charge of the manager. The same
remark applies to articles found on the premises, and to
property of value which has been specially left with the manager
for safe custody. A full record should be kept of each of these
items; and no article must, of course, be parted with, save
in exchange for an acknowledgment signed bv the owner.
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 9
CHAPTER III.
OFFICE.
THE books relating to, and leadhig up to, the Visitors' Ledger
are generally kept in the office, which not infrequently combines
the functions of a bar. In consequence, when—owing to the
smallness of the undertaking—it l)ecomes necessary to combine
the duties of bookkeeper and barmaid, it is important that the
manager should make it his business to very carefully supervise
the bookkeeper's work in detail, as otherwise there is consider­able
scope for irregularity. Tn such small businesses, how­ever,
this will not generally throw too onerous a duty upon the
manager.
Owing to the paramount necessity of so arranging the books
that the account of any visitor may—if need be—be prepared
up to date, and rendered in a few minutes, the ordinary book­keeping
methods are obviously inapplicable. That is to say,
if all charges were to be first entered up in some sort of Day
Book (or other book of first entry), and aftenvards posted into
the Ledger at leisure, whenever it became necessaiy to ascer­tain
the position of any individual account up to date it would
be found that the posting of the Ledger was, at all events, some
hours—if not days—behind. The particular account required
would therefore have to be specially posted up in a hurr}-, and
the bill rendered without any opportunity being afforded of
testing its clerical accuracy. Such a system would naturally
lend itself to either overcharges or omissions, each of which is
almost equally undesirable.
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Form 4. VISITORS' LEDGER. 3RD OCTOBER. THURSDAY.
DEBITS
Brought forward .
Apartments, Board, &c
Boots and Lights
Coals
Breakfasts
Luncheons, &c.
Dinners
Tea, Cofiee, and Milk.
Sherry
Champagne
Claret
Port
Moselle
Hock
Burgundy
Madiera
Chablis and Sauternt
Brandy
Whisky
Gin and Hollands
Rum
Liqueurs
Ale, Stout, &c. ..
Mineral Waters
Lemon S q u a s h ..
Cigars
Sundries
Billiards
Paid Out
Postagt;
Washing
Amusements
Meals in Room ..
Coals
Total ..
CREDITS.
Overcharges
Cash received ..
Personal Accounts
Balance carried forward
Total ..
Folio Personal Ac
cotmts transferred tc
9 I I 13
Shaw
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••
•
:
0
s d
6 0
1,
I 6
3 3
4 0 5 j 4J13 0
4 0 5 1 4 13 0
4 0
Hinchclifle
£
3
0
0
s d
8 10
13 6
0 3
•
4 2 7
4 2 7
44 46
55 60
Jones
£ s d
3 0 6
I 10 0
..
..
"
47
Reynolds
£
I
0
s d
3 2
7 6
4 10 6 j I 10 8
4 10 6
4 0 5 ] 4 13 0 1 4 2 7 4 10 6
i
i
1 10 8
I 10 8
48 54
McKenow i Hasselt
£ s d
. 5 2
0 6 0
0 2 3
o " o 8
0 I 0
'•'•
0 3 J
£
I
0
s d
0 4
6 0
I 18 2 1 1 6 4
i
1
!
I 18 2 1 1 6 4
I 18 2 1 1 6 4
4 9 5 0
Schiseder
£ s d
I 2 6
0 14 0
0 0 6
o o g
I 17 g
I 17 g
I 17 9
55
Bennett
' £
I
0
;
0
0
s d
3 3
6 0
' 0 6
0 3
•
I 10 0
I 10 0
I 10 0
56
Woodcock
£
5
0
•
0
•
s d
6 II
6 0
' 0 8
5 13 7
5 13 7
5 13 7
57
Hellen-brand
£ s d
16 5 oj
0 6 0
0 2 0
0 0 3
6 2
Cusker
£
7
u
s d
10 I
6 0
16 13 3J| 7 16 I
16 13 il
16 13 3j
7 16 I
7 16 1
f i
63 ' -
1
1
Marsh Clowes
£
0
0
s d
10 0
2 0
0 12 0
0 12 0
£ s d
0 10 6
l o o
0 1 0
0 I 6
o o g
64 1 66
Sellars Hirsoh
£ s d
0 15 0
0 7 6
o " 2 6
I 13 9 ' 1 5 0
i
I 13 9
1 5 0
O I 2 o | I 13 9 1 1 5 0
3
, £
4
0
0
s d
I I 2
15 0
2 0
66 75 63
1
Smith ' Hawley
£
12
0
.
0
s d
0 8
12 0
'4 6
£
2
0
0
s d
i g 10
7 6
0 4
5 8 2 12 17 2 1 3 7 8
1 1
5 ' ' 8 2
5 8 2
0 0 4
5 6 3
7 10 7
3 " 7 8
12 17 2 3 78
69 I 70 71
1
Lambert Canard
£
4
0
s d
18 6
6 0
5 4 6
5 4 6
5 4 6
£ s d
I 17 s
0 18 0
0 2 0
0 0 4
2 18 0
2 1 8 0
2 18 0
73
Shannon
£
0
s
'6
J
0
0 6 0
0 6 0
8 2
Humphreys
£ s d
5 3 7
0 6 0
0 5 6
0 0 4
5 15 5
5 13 5
0 6 0 1 5 15 5
821>
Shaw
£
0
0
s d
14 II
6 0
•
•
1 0 II
I 0 11
1 0 II
83
Mulvaney
£
4
s d
5 6
15 0
•
•
5 0 6
5 0 6
86 89 ' 93 96
Alfredson Willmot 1 Williams
£ s d
2 4 10
0 9 Ü
0 0 6
£ s d
10 2 2
u 15 0
2 14 4 1 10 17 2
1
1
i 14 4 10 17 2
5 0 6 ; 14 4 I 10 17 2
1 '
£
5
0
1
0
0
s d
2 6
6 0
2 0
' 0 6
^ I I 0
5 II 0
5 II 0
Hyman
I £ s d
1 7 I 11^
I 0 6 0
::
0 0 6
-
Chance
£ s d
0 2 6
0 I 3
0 2 4
Ü 2 0
7 8 55! 0 8 1
! 0 8 1
7 ' ' 8 5*
7 8 5è 0 8 I
1 DLBITS
i Brought forward ..
' Apartments, Board, &c.
Boots and Lights
Coals
Breakfasts
Luncheons, &c.
Dinners
Tea, Coffee, and Milk .
Sherry
, Champagne ..
i Claret
Port
Mosdle
Hock
Burgundy
Madeira
Chablis and Sauterne
Brandy
Whisky
Gin and Hollands .,
Rum
Liqueurs
Ale, Stout, Sec.
Mineral Waters
Lemon Squash
Cigars
Sundries
Billiards
Paid out
Postage
Washing
Amusements ..
Meals in Room
Coals
Total ,.
CREDITS
Overcharges ..
Cash received..
Personal Accounts .,
Balance carried forward
Total ..
1
Folio Personal Ac­counts
transferred to 1
I
I Total
i
£ s d
i 120 7 0
15 5 0
j 0 2 0
0 4 6
0 10 6
0 0 3
0 0 6
1 5 6
0 g 0
0 2 3
0 0 4
c 8 I
0 2 j
0 4 4
0 2 7
0 2 0
0 2 6
0 2 g
0 0 5
0 6 4
0 0 6
0 I 0
£139 19 7
0 0 4
5 14 4
I 13 g
132 II 2
£139 19 7
'"SBSVW
12 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Visitors' Ledger.—
The " tabular " form of Ledger is so very generally employed
in connection with hotels that it is probably unnecessary to
explain it in detail. Form 4 may be taken as the normal
ruling, although, of course, the particulars of the charges vary
very greatly according to circumstances, and save in the case of
quite large concerns it is a question whether such a large
number of sej)arate headings is altogether necessarj-. At the
same time, it may be pointed out that the less detail there is
comprised in the Visitors' Ledger, the more important becomes
the "Rdugh Day IJook," about to be explained; and as, in the
interests of accurate bookkeeping, it seems desirable to
minimise the importance of the Rough Day Book as far as
possible, the balance of advantage is perhaps in favour of the
somewhat detailed analysis in the Visitors" Ledger.
It will be seen that in Form 4 columns are provided for the
record of 30 visitors' accounts upon a single opening, and this
is about the maximum number that can be included upon a
folio of convenient size. Upon days when not more than (say)
30 separate parties of visitors are staying in the hotel, a folio
of the Visitors' Ledger will comprise the whole of the transac­tions
for a day ; and this, it need hardly be pointed out, to a
great extent simjjlifies the record. If necessary, however, two
or more pages can be easily allocated to one day's record ; but
the cross-total for the day thus becomes somewhat awkward, as
it becomes necessary to " carry forward " the figures in the right-hand
column from folio to folio in order to arrive at a daily
total. In the case of large hotels, therefore, where it is the rule
rather than the exception for two or more folios to be neces­sary
for a day's record, it is desirable that there should be three
columns upon the extreme right—the first for the cross-total of
the folio, the second for the total brought fonvard from
the previous folio, and the third for the totals to be carried
forward to the subsequent folio.
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 13
Whichever method he adopted it is thought desirable that
these totals, showing in full detail the various charges debited
to visitors, should in all cases be posted daily into the
" Summary of Takings Kook," the ruling for which is shown
on Form 5. From a bookkeeping point of view there Avould,
of course, be no difficulty in carrying forward these totals from
page to page till the end of a week, or the end of a month, and
then posting them in lump sums to the credit of corresponding
accounts in the Nominal Ledger; in practice, however, there
are two objections to this plan. In the first place, cross-totals
which have, to be carried forward for an extended period
/"very soon reach unwieldy figures, and are extremely difficult to
compute accurately : consequently it is a great convenience to
have the daily record of business done in a separate book.
Secondly, if this last-named book be of portable dimensions,
it can be taken out of the office, either for the perusal of the
manager or of the board of directors, without interfering with
the continuity of the bookkeeping. In view of the fact that
most hotels change hands at a price based upon the amount of
business transacted, it is clear that a separate book, such as that
shown in Form 5, is jiarticularly desirable, apart from the
practical conveniences which it affords.
It has already been explained (vide p. 3) that the charges in
respect of Apartments and Special Services are derived from
the Terms Book, verified by the Apartments Book, and from
the chambermaid's checks. Meals separately chargeable, and
liquors of all kinds, are charged up from waiters' checks {vide
p. 23). It is usually thought preferable to make it a rule that
all liquors sen-ed other than in the coffee room must be jiaid
for in cash; and, if so, the record in the Visitors' Ledger is to
a corresponding extent simi)]ified; but if visitors be allowed
to " book" liquors supplied to them in smoking rooms,
billiard rooms, &c., then the waiters in those rooms must also
be supplied with checks, that the Office may be kept advised
14
Form 5.
HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
SUMMARY OF TAKINGS BOOK,'
Date
1004
Jan. I
2
1
4
"i
Ö
7
8
•) 1 0
I I
12
n
14
i i
1 6
17
18
") 2 0
2 1
2 2
2 1
2 4
2 1
2 6
2 7
2 8
Board
£ s
18 10
18 15
l 8 15
18 16
18 16
17 6
18 I
£129 0
17 13
18 0
17 13
17 18
17 9
17 0
17 7
£123 3
16 I
15 9
15 9
15 3
15 7
15 7
"4 3
£107 3
14 15
15 6
14 16
12 13
13 10
13 0
I I 19
£ 9 6 2
d
3
6
6
0
0
2
2
7
8
8
8
2
2
2
9
3
I I
I I
I I
I
5
5
5
I
=i
.') 5
I I
I I
I
I
3
Chatice
Meals
I s d
0 II 6
' 0 10 6
I 18 6
I 4 6
0 13 0
0 0 6
0 7 0
Is 5 6
0 12 I
1 6 0
I 3 5
0 9 6
I 8 6
0 19 0
0 5 6
£6 4 0
0 3 6
I 4 6
0 II 0
0 II 6
0 2 0
0 15 0
0 4 6
£z 12 0
0 10 4
0 16 6
0 7 2
I 19 10
0 2 0
0 0 6
^ 3 16 4
Wines
£ s
I 13
I ir
2 14
I 19
I 19
I 2
I 13
£ 1 2 14
I 3
2 9
0 15
I 2
I 3
I 14
I 2
£ 9 10
0 7
2 12
0 15
0 12
I 3
0 13
0 15
£ 6 18
0 17
6 19
0 6
0 12
I I
I 6
0 18
£ 1 2 3
d
10
0
0
S
2
9
7
9
0
S
0
b
6
10
I
4
6
9
0
0
3
3
0
9
6
I I
3
0
9
10
9
0
Spirits
£ s
0 12
0 e
0 I
0 4
0 5
0 16
0 3
£ 2 8
0 4
0 6
0 7
0 15
0 I
o 2
0 16
£ 2 14
0 0
0 5
0 0
0 10
0 9
0 8
0 9
£ 2 4
0 5
0 II
0 5
n I
0 5
0 n
0 I
£2 0
d
0
8
0
0
10
0
0
6
10
4
4
8
b
0
b
2
6
b
fa 0
fa b
b
0
0
6
b
0
0
0
0
0
Beers
£
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
£1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
£1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
£1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
£0
s
^ 4
3
3
4
3
2
4
3
2
3
3
3
2
3
2
2
3
2
4
3
I
4
I
2
0
2
2
3
I
I
1 4
d
0
0
2
10
6
0
8
2
6
b
2
10
0
4
8
0
8
2
0
0
2
1 0
fa
4
0
8
8
4
0
10
fa
0
Minerals
£
0
0
0
0
0
0
°
£0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
£1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
£0
0
0
0
0
0
£0
s d
3 3
3 6
. 1 6
I 9
3 10
I 0
3 2
18 0
4 2
3 10
I 9
4 6
6 5
3 2
3 0
6 10 1
3 6
2 3
3 2
2 6
2 10
2 10 1
2 0
19 I
2 4 '
3 6
I 10
0 5
2 0
10 2
*The columns should be headed in accordance with the division of Nominal
Accounts in the Visitors' Ledger, but probably in a somewhat summarised form.
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 15
from ist January 1904 to 28th January 1904.
Cigars
£ s
0 8
0 4
0 3
0 6
0 10
0 4
0 5
£ 2 2
0 5
0 5
0 II
0 8
0 3
£ 1 13
0 5
0 2
0 2
£0 9
d
3
0
6
0
4
I I
5
5
6
0
0
b
0
6
0
5
b
I I
Attsnd-ance
£ s d
0 6 0
0 1 0
0 9 0
0 1 0
0 7 0
0 II 0
0 : 0
£ 1 16 0
c 3 0
0 5 0
0 5 0
0 2 0
0 6 0
0 9 0
0 7 0
£ 1 17 0
• •
0 I 0
0 6 0
0 1 0
0 1 0
£ 0 9 0
Washing
£ 5 d
I 15 3
2 8 5
0 3 0
£4 6 8
2 9 II
0 2 9
£ 2 12 8
0 2 4
0 5 2
£0 7 6
Billiards
f.
0
0
0
0
£0
0
0
£0
0
0
£0
s
2
2
5
2
12
I
4
5
5
I
6
d
9
b
b
0
9
b
0
6
0
0
0
Paid
Out
£ s d
0 0 6
0 I 2
0 1 9
o o g
^ 0 4 2
0 0 6
0 2 3
0 4 2
0 3 6
0 ID 10
2 II 4
^ 3 12 7
0 3 9
0 0 7
0 I 2
0 0 4
0 0 6
jfo 6 4
Coals and
Sundries
£ s d
0 2 II
Personal
Accounts
£ s d
0 0 6 '
0 3 6
0 5 G
0 3 5
£0 15 10
0 5 10
1 0 6
0 3 0
0 4 4
0 0 8
6 5 8
1 0 6
£7 6 'S
0 8 6
0 0 ID :
jf I 15 2 1 ^0 8 6
0 0 4
0 0 3
0 0 4
0 I 3
0 0 2
£0 2 4
Total
£ s d
24 9 6
21 19 II
24 16 4
0 0 9
25 15 4
20 19 5
21 18 3
£139 19 6
20 16 I
25 I 0
22 I I
23 18 7
21 14 5
21 13 3
22 I 2
£157 5 7
17 13 8
20 1 Ï
17 3 I
17 9 I
17 14 10
17 15 0
16 2 5
£123 19 4
0 3 0 , 0 2 0
0 2 0 , 0 3 0
0 2 6
0 4 0
£0 13 6 £ 0 7 0
0 2 6
0 0 3 0 06
£0 3 o £0 3 5 £0 2 II
17 o
24 4
15 18
15 15
15 7
15 4
13 5 lo
£116 15 7
M
J 6 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
of the proper debits to make. In the same way charges for the
use of Billiard Tables are usually payable in cash; but, if
desired, they can be easily booked up by providing the billiard-marker
with a Check Book. Upon the whole, perhaps this
latter practice, if invariably adhered to, is likely to result in an
increased revenue.
The items " Paid Out," " Postage," and " Washing," repre­sent
moneys disbursed on behalf of visitors by the
hotel, the actual entries being in all cases obtained from
the Petty Cash Book {ï'idc p. 35) ; Avhile the last item on the
debit side, "Meals in Room," represents special charges for
meals sen'ed out of the coffee room, particulars of which would
be supplied by the head waiter, without whose authority such
meals could not be served. In some hotels meals served out
of the public rooms are charged for specially as meals, without
any corresponding reduction being made from " boarding
terms"; but in other cases the "boarding terms" cover the
charge for the meal, and the debit under this heading represents
a special charge for extra attendance only.
With regard to the credits, the first item " Overcharge "' needs
no explanation. Under normal circumstances no necessity, of
course, ought to arise for the allowance of overcharges ; but in
order to save alterations in the books provision must, of course,
be made for exceptional cases. The amount involved ought,
however, to be quite trifling, hence the necessity does not arise
to dissect o^'ercharges so as to debit the corresponding nominal
accounts.
The Cash Received is posted from the Cash Received Book
(vide p. 26), while the line " Personal Accounts" enables
accounts which are not likely to be paid in the course of the
next few days to be transferred to the " Personal Lerlger"
hnde p. 25).
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 17
It is, perhai)S, unnecessary to add that, however large the
hotel may be, and however many folios of the Visitors' Ledger
may be necessary to record the charges for a single day, each
separate folio can (and must) be regularly balanced off
separately. The cross-addition of the totals of the various
columns must in all cases agree exactly with the total of the
Total column; and at the end of each week at least the total
balance carried forward (as shown in the Total column) must
be agreed with the balance of the " Visitors' Ledger Account''
in the Nominal Ledger. This last-named account is a record, in
total, of the whole of the Visitors' Ledger, and is what is known
to accountants as an " Adjustment Account."
Although visitors' accounts are not, as a rule, rendered more
frequently than once a week, they should in all cases be kept
written up, and agreed with the Visitors' Ledger, at least once
every day. In a large undertaking it is convenient that they
should be written up twice daily—namely, after breakfast and
before dinner, those being the times when bills are most likely
to be called for in a hurry. The details in the bill should
correspond exactly with the various items of debit in the
Visitors' I^edger. A very common form of bill is shown m Form
6. This form,, it will be seen, provides seven money columns,
one of which is devoted to the debits of each day during a
week; the form, therefore, covers the total charges against the
visitor for seven days.
With regard to " chance " customers—that is to say, visitors
who are at the hotel, say, a couple of days, or less—a smaller
number of columns may be found convenient, and a supply of
bills will be kept to meet such cases. Form 7 represents a
specimen of such a bill.
In connection with these " chance " accounts—and also in
connection with the cash takings in the smoking-room, billiard-room,
bar, &c.—it is perhaps desirable to add that all such
i 8 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Form 6.
PRO FORMA VISITOR'S BILL.
No Name
T H E E M P I R E H O T E L,
KENSINGTON, \ V.
Propyietoys - _ _ , pjie Empiye Hotels, Lim.
Telephone No. 100,000 Central. Telegrams: "Perfection, London,'
NO RECEIPT IS VALID UNLESS ON PRINTED FORM.
£ s d
Brought forward ..
Board
Apartments and Attendance
Breakfast, Luncheons, Din­ners,
Teas and Coffee
Burgundy
Champagne
Claret ..
Hock ..
Moselle
Port ..
Sherry
Sauterne
Spirits ..
Liqueurs
Ale and Stout
Mineral Waters
Cigars ..
Fires ..
Boots and Lights
Washing
Stationery, Postage
Stamps
Billiards
Paid out
Meals served in room
£ s d
Carried forward
£ s d ' £ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d
Bills are rendered weekly, when prompt payment is respectfully requested.
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 19
Form 7.
• C H A N C E " BILL.
T H E E M P I R E H O T E L,
Kensington, W.
OLD-ESTABLISHED FAMILY AND COMMERCIAL HOTEL.
Telegrams :
'PERFECTION, LONDON."
Accoujits Rendered Weekly.
M.
THE EMPIRE HOTELS, LIM., Proprietors.
Cheques not received in payment.
ROOM NO
Brought forward
Apartments
Attendance
Breakfasts
Luncheons
Dinners
Teas
Suppers .
Ale and Stout
Wines
Liqueurs.
Spirits
Minerals
Cigars
Fires
Lights
Baths
Washing
Paid Out.
Stamps
Posting
Sundries
Servants' Board
Carried forward
£ s d £ s d t ^ s d
20 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
items are included in the Visitors' Ledger under a. single
column, which is ordinarily headed " Chance." This column
thus records in the aggregate each day's charges and takings
from " casual" customers, and under no circumstances, of
course, ought there to be a balance to be brought forward at the
end of the day. Visitors actually sleeping in the hotel, even
for a single night, would not be included under the heading of
" Chance."
Rough Day Book.—
A reference to the Visitors' Ledger {vide p. lo) will, of
course, show that if, in the course of a single day, one visitor
has to be debited with two or more charges in respect of the
same class of item, it becomes necessarj' either to interline som.e
of the charges, or to provide an intermediate record to collect
those charges before making any entry in the Visitors' Ledger.
As has already been explained, it is desirable that, so far as
practicable, every charge should be debited direct and forth­with
in the Visitors' Ledger ; but in order to avoid interlinea­tion
(which would greatly increase the difficulty of making
correct cross-additions) it becomes necessary to employ some­thing
in the nature of a Rough Day Book {vide P'orm 8). This
Rough Day Book should be regarded as a subsidiary—and
informal—Ledger, employed'merely for the sake of collecting
such charges against any one customer as it may be desirable to
aggregate before passing them into the Ledger. For example,
if a visitor orders only one bottle of a particular kind of wine
in the course of a day, the entry may be made direct into the
Ledger from the " Cellar Check"; if, however, two or more
bottles have been ordered at different times, it is expedient to
collect the details in the Rough Day Book before making the
entry in the Ledger. Indeed, there is some advantage in
invariably passing all bottles of wines and spirits through the
Rough Day Book, so that, in case of need, a record may be
HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Form 8.—
No. 47.
517 i 62
529 i 107
4/-
12/-
16/-
ROUGH
No. 31.
520
540
DAY ]
i 6 2
f 62
3O0K.
7/6
15/-
22/6
22 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
also kept of the number of the check which constitutes the
authority for the debit.
The -pro -forma entries upon Form 8 will, it is thought, clearly
show the working of this book. It may be added that when the
entry is transferred to the Visitors' Ledger the corresponding
square in the Rough Day Book is cancelled by a blue pencil
" cross " extending over the whole of its area. It can thus at
any time be seen at a glance what entries have been provisionally
made in the Rough Day Book and not as yet posted into the
Ledger. This is, of course, im.portant when the necessity arises
to get out a visitor's bill at an odd time ; and at the end of each
day the whole of the entries in the Rough Day Book for the day
must be entered up into the Visitors' Ledger, and duly cancelled.
Waiter's Check Book.—
Form 9 shows the ruling of a waiter's Check Book, which is
a simple foolscap book, each page of which is divided into 12
slips (or checks),, upon which charges may be recorded. By
means of a carbon sheet a duplicate of each entry made in the
Check Book can be permanently retained for reference in case
of need—i.e., should the original be lost or become illegible.
To facilitate rapid and accurate bookkeeping it is desirable
that Check Books employed for different kinds of charges
should be clearly distinguishable. In some cases the plan is
adopted of printing them upon differently tinted papers, but as
records made in pencil upon a tinted paper are somewhat
difficult to decipher in an indifferent light, the balance of
advantage will be found to lie with a coloured line printed
across the face of the check rather than with a special tint of
paper. This also lends itself to the carbon duplicates in the
Check Book being upon a tinted paper, which is an advantage
as materially reducing the risk of the carbon sheet being placed
between the wrong pair of pages, in which case, of course, the
original and the duplicate would not bear corresponding
numbers.
HOTEL .'iCCOUNTS. 23
Form 9.— WAITERS' CHECK BOOK.
693 I 689
696 690
697
698
699
700
691
692
•
693
691
C 2
24 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Separate sets of Check Books, distinguished by different
coloured bands, or a different number of ruled hands, would
be required (a) by waiters, for orders for liquors; (b) by
waiters, orders for special meals, &c.; (c) by chambermaids, for
" extras " ; (d) by hall porter and smoking-room waiters, for mis­cellaneous
supplies {e.g., smokes, drinks, &c.) ; (c) by bar-keeper,
for drinks from cellar. These checks, as has already been
explained, will all in due course find their way into the office
and be charged up against customers, the various items being,
if necessar\-, first collected through the medium of the Rough
Day Book.
Cash Received Book.—
All bills paid by customers should be acknowledged on a
special form of receipt, preferably of the adhesive counterfoil
variety. From the counterfoil of such Receipt Book the Cash
Received Book {vide Form lo) is written up hourly, the postings
being made forthwith to the Visitors' Ledger, or the Personal
Ledger, as the case may be. As smoking-room waiters, and
other members of the staff who are authorised to receive money,
go off duty, they should be required to account to the office
for their takings, which should, of course, be agreed with the
selling-price of the-goods supplied to them respectively. It is
convenient that the bookkeeper should give each waiter a
formal receipt out of the counterfoil Receipt Book for the
amount so received from him, which will be entered up accord­ingly
in the Cash Received Book and posted in the " Chance "
column of the Visitors' Ledger. If necessary, the Rough Day
Book may be utilised to summarise the various amounts received
from different waiters in the course of the day. If there is a
fair drink trade the waiters should account to the bar-keeper
for drinks and smokes, as explained in Chapter V.
The hotel receipts, as shown by the Cash Received Book,
should be banked at least once a day, at a definite specified
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 25
hour; and if the daily takings are considerable it is desirable
that they should be banked twice a day, say, as soon as possible
after breakfast and just before the bank closes in the afternoon.
The amounts paid into the bank from time to time may be
conveniently entered upon the right-hand side of the Cash
Received Book, and on the total of the " Visitors' Ledger"
column being extended into the Personal Ledger column
the balance should agree with the cash then in the office till.
For convenience of giving change, however, it is usual to provide
a floating balance of, say, £,LO to ^-£2^ in the office till, and in
that case the money there should always be a corresponding
amount in e.xcess of the balance shown in the Cash Received
Book.
Personal Ledger.—
As has already been explained (vide p. 16), in order to avoid
the extreme inconvenience of retaining unpaid accounts in the
Visitors' Ledger over an extended period of time, a Personal
Ledger is usually provided, to which may be transferred, when­ever
desired, accounts which it -is no longer convenient, or
expedient, to keep recorded in the Visitors' Ledger. Such
accounts will include the accounts of visitors who for any reason
have left the hotel without paying their bill, and the accounts of
specially privileged persons {e.g., directors, &c.) who are
frequent occasional visitors, and in who»e favour the rule of
payment before departure is relaxed. It need hardly be added,
however, that the manager should make a point of looking
through the Personal Ledger at least once a week, and noting
the state of the outstanding balances, as they are otherwise
very apt to be lost sight of.
Nothing should be debited to the Personal Ledgei, save
by way of transfer from the Visitors' Ledger ; that is to say,
under no circumstances should any additional charges be made
Form 10.—
No. of
Receipt
No. of
Visitor
CASH
Name of Visitor
(if required)
RECEIVED
(Date)
S o
T3 o
<UC£4
• J
Visitors'
Ledger
£ s d
BOOK.
Personal
Ledger
£ ^ d
Allowances
£ s d
Time Paid into Bank Amount
Banked
£ s d
>
o
n
O
C
2
H
•—^iMfïÉniftirtiiii
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 27
direct to the Personal Ledger. When an account in the Per­sonal
Ledger is paid the posting should be made direct from
the Cash Received Book, but care must be taken to see that
such items are properly entered in the middle left hand column
of the Cash Received Book, and the daily totals of the
" Visitors' Ledger " and " Allowances " columns must, of course,
be agreed each day with the corresponding totals in the Visitors'
Ledger.
Although the number of separate accounts in the Personal
Ledger ought at all times to be quite small, it is convenient
that this Ledger should contain an " Adjustment Account,'' as
by that means the material may be readily pro^ddt-d for any
adjusting entries that may be necessary. Thus when it becomes
necessar\' to give credit for an allowance off an account in the
Personal Ledger, or to write off such an account altogether as
bad, all that the bookkeeper has to do is to make a transfer in
the Personal Ledger crediting the account of the individual
and debiting the Adjustment Account. The manager can then
(by inspecting the Adjustment Account) see at a glance what
amounts have had to be written off from time to time ; while
the chief bookkeeper, or secretary, in charge of the Xominal
Ledger will find in such an Adjustment Account all the material
necessary to enable him to balance the visitors' accounts with
his own Adjustment Account in the Xominal Ledger, and to
pass through the necessary transfers in respect of Allowances,
Bad Debts, &c.
28 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
CHAPTER IV.
NOMINAL LEDGER.
IN quite small hotels it will not he necessary or desirable to
separate the Nominal Ledger from the Private Ledger. In the
majority of cases, however, this separation will be considered
desirable ; as, apart from the fact that by this means the
manager (or proprietor) may he saved unnecessary bookkeep­ing,
it enables the more private portion of the accounts to be
kept from the cognisance of the general staff. The Nominal
Ledger would consist chiefly of the various nominal accounts,
representing in detail the income and expenditure of the hotel
and the Visitors' and Personal Ledger Adjustment Accounts :
various Stock and Stores Acrounts will also find a place here.
The postings in the Xominal Ledger may be conveniently made
from (T) the Trade Payments Book, (2) the Petty Cash Book,
(3) the Summary of Takings Book, (4) the Nominal Journal.
In the case of the vast majority of hotels the rule will be
rigidly enforced that all purchases are made upon the lowest
cash terms, with a view to securing the best possible prices,
and to enable purchases to be made in the best markets. Under
these circumstances the Bought Ledger, which is an essential
part of most commercial businesses, becomes quite unnecessary.
Accounts, being paid either daily or weekly, can be readily
verified by the manager, who has had the ordering of the goods,
and the necessity for keeping Personal Accounts for each trade
creditor does not therefore arise. The Delivery Tickets will be
sent up to the manager's office from hour to hour by the kitchen
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 29
clerk, after having been certified by him as being in accordance
with the goods actually received and ordered. These will be
compared by the head bookkeeper with the accounts received
from the creditors, and eventually scrutinised, and finally passed
by the manager himself. If necessarj-, the manager would be
provided with a sufficient floating balance to cover cash pay­ments
; l)ut in any event he would in due course apply for a
cheque to reimburse him in respect of such payments, thus
restoring his original floating balance. The entry of the pay­ment
in the books of account may thus conveniently begin with
the drawing of a cheque in payment.
The current accounts having been carefully checked, a
Requsition Sheet should be made out for the cheques which it
is necessary to draw to cover the past week's accounts. Form
II i.s a sjjecimen of such a sheet in the case of a company.
In the case of a private undertaking it is, however, still desirable
that these sheets should be prepared weekly and systematically
filed, although, of course, in that case the form will necessarily
vary slightly.
Trade Payments Book.—
The Trade Payments Book is a list of all cheques drawn in
pa\ment of Trade Accounts. A convenient ruling is shown in
Form 12. It should be added up weekly, and the totals of the
various analytical columns may then be posted to the debit of
the corresponding accounts in the Nominal Ledger. On the
right-hand side is provided under the heading " Miscellaneous "
space for the record of payments that do not occur sufficiently
frequently to make it worth while to provide a special column
for each. The amounts appearing in this column are posted
individually to the Nominal Ledger. The total of the " Total"
column is inserted in the General Cash Book, and the cross-references
should, of course, be folioed, to enable the items
3° HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Form
HEATHFIELD MANSIONS HOTEL.
ACCOUNTS FOR PAYMENT SHEET.
For the Week ending IQO. .
Cheques are required for the following Tradesmen's .Vccounts, which
have been duly checked by us and are correct.
£ s d
Manager.
Boolikeeper.
The above Accounts were duly passed for payment, and Cheques
ordered to be signed at a Meeting of the Board held this
i g o . .
CJiairman.
1
Ï S
Q .
Ï S
a
V-,
ö*
ï*^
-'
t s
a.
t*->
!fi G-ï
^
&-
i ^
Ui
Cu
f*-)
•J>
p -
i+^
P '
^ - 1
c
i+-^
ü)
CU
Ï+-1
Cfl
^
Date
i
o
•-P«
fD
Voucher
No.
Total
Meat
Fish and
Poultry
Sundry
Provisions
Wines and
Spirits
Beers and
Minerals
Cigars and
Cigarettes
General
Stores
Fuel
Cutlery,
Glass, &c.
Repairs
Linen
> "o"
^ o
>
o
3
s
s 2.
ë a)
•n
o
H
>
Ö
m
>
n
i t ' •SIK'nODDV 751X011
32 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
to be readily checked. It is immaterial whether cheques drawn
in payment ni Wages and of Petty Cash are included in the
Trade Payments Book, or whether they be posted direct from
the General Cash Book into the Xominal Ledger. Probably, how­ever,
it will be found more convenient to pass them through the
Trade Payments Book, as then it will not be necessary to make
any postings direct from the General Cash Book into the
Xominal Ledger, and the separate balancing of the Ledgers can
tlien be more readily tested.
Wages Book.—
In any event, it is important that a separate Wages Book
should be kept, containing full particulars showing how the
total of the wreck's wages is made up. A convenient ruling is
shown in Form 13, which provides a space for each employee
to sign for his wages when he receives them. The Wages Book
is a purely statistical book—that is to say, it does not enter
into the regular double-entry iDookkeeping. It may, however, be
regarded as the voucher verifying the weekly total of wages
a])pearing in the Trade Payments Book, and in the " Voucher
Xo." column of the latter the folio of the Wages Book should
appear as a reference. The Wages Book should, of course, be
added up, so that it may be seen at a glance that the total of
the wages actually paid agrees with the total in respect of which
a cheque has been drawn, and against the total in the Wages
Book should appear a reference to the folio in the Trade
Payments Book in which the item appears.
Staff Register,—
This is another statistical book, the object of which is to keep
a record of every member of the staff. It may be in any con­venient
form, but the best will probably be found to be one
with an index cut right through the l)r)ok, so that the entries
HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Form 13,—
WACIES BOOK.
Week ending 190
Amount Signature
ma}' b e readily made in alphabetical order. The record should
include the following items : —
Name of employee and position held.
Salary paid.
Names and addresses of references.
Date of commencing employment.
Notes as to manner in which employee discharged his
duties.
Date of leaving.
Reason for leaving.
Names and addresses of persons to whom references have
been given.
34 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
For obvious reasons it is desirat)Ie that this book should be
kept by the responsible manager, or the proprietor himself, and
it is, as a rule, expedient that the book should be provided
with a spring lock like an ordinary Private Ledger.
Petty Cash Book.—
The Petty Cash Book should, if possible, be kept by a clerk
other than the one receiving payment of accounts from visitors,
as it is very desirable that under no circumstances should the
two tills become mixed, for, if they do, the difficulty of
accurately balancing from day to day is greatly increased. The
clerk in charge of the Petty Cash should be required to keep a
" Daily Balance Book,'' thus showing that he has balanced his
cash every day, and that the balance agrees with the actual
ymount of money in his possession. Such a Daily Balance Book
is also most useful in connection with the Cash Received Book.
The Petty Cash Book should be in columnar form, the exact
headings depending somewhat upon the exact nature of the
business. Unless, however, it is necessary that a large number
of Trade Accounts should be paid by cash, the ruling shown
in Form 14 will doubtless prove sufficient. It will be noticed
that a column is provided for Wages. The necessity for occa­sionally
paying wages through petty cash arises when an
employee is discharged without notice, in which event his wages
have, of course, to be paid forthwith, without waiting for the
customary pay-day.
The Petty Cash is posted in exactly the same way as the
Trade Payments Book into the Nominal Ledger, and at the end
of each week (or each month) a cheque should be drawn for
the exact amount of Petty Cash disbursed, which cheque would
• ^
f S
C/5
Q .
i^-i
w
0^
ts
en
D.
ï*^
tfi
Q .
i^^
(/3
CL
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CL
t ^
W)
Cu
i ^
Ui
Cu
i S
en
a.
i ^
Cfi
Q .
ï ^
-^
ö
P
re
Cheques
Received
0
p
re
^
p
n. o
c_ p
3
Voucher
No.
H
o
E
Visitors'
Accounts
Provisions
^
^
re
ern e
•T3
P
J
Printing
and
Stationery
General
Expenses
Postages
and
Telegrams
Newspapers
>
o
o^
>
o
S-o
rSTo ^
D
O
c
se •sxNnooDV laioH
36 HOTEL ACCOUXTS.
be included—along with the rest—in the Trade Payments Book.
In the Kominal Ledger there will be a Petty Cash Account,
which will be started with a debit entry representing the floating
balance in the hands of the petty cashier. Subsequent postings
to the debit of the account would be made from the Trade
Payments Book, and the postings to the credit would be the
weekly totals of the " Total'' column in tlie Petty Cash Book
itself.
In the Nominal Ledger an account should also be opened
for "Visitors' Accounts." This will be debited with the weekly
total of that column in the Petty Cash Book. Prom the Petty
Cash Book corresponding charges can be made to the visitors in
respect of the payments made on their behalf: these items
would appear under the heading of " Paid Out." The corres­ponding
total appears, of course, in the Summary of Takings
Book, and from that book is posted to the credit of the
" Visitors' Account" in the Xominal Ledger. If the clerk in
charge of the Visitors' Ledger has performed his work
accurately, this account will show no balance. The object of the
account in the Xominal Ledger is, of course, to check the
clerical accuracy of the work.
Trial Balance.—
The following form shows a representative list of accounts
in a Nominal Ledger, and the various foot-notes will, it is
thought, sufficiently explain any items which have not been
already dealt with in detail. As has already been stated, it is
not, as a rule, necessary to make the Norninal Ledger self-balancing
independently of the General Ledger. It will, there­fore,
be seen that the totals of the following List of Balances
do not agree. Upon reference to p. 46, however, it will be
observed that these totals are carried into the General Ledger
Trial Balance, which is thus completed, and provides a check
upon the clerical accuracy with which both Ledgers have been
kept. If it should be desired, however, to make each of these
two Ledgers balance separately, no difficulty will be found in
so doing, as they are posted up from quite distinct books of
first entrv.
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 37
Form 15.—
NOMINAL LEDGER BALANCES, 31st December 1904.
\1
14
17
23
37
56
70
89
lOI
125
140
160
180
ig8
219
224
272
289
307
320
342
360
376
382
3S4
390
401
410
441
447
450
453
472
490
494
498
501
503
509
512
514
517
525
527
530
541
545
Visitors' Ledger (A)
Personal Ledger (A)
Wines (B)
Spirits (B)
Minerals (B)
Beers (B)
Cigars and Cigarettes
General Stores
Rooms
Meals
Chance Meals
Attendance Charged
Washing Charged
Billiards Charged ..
Paid Out iC)
Coals and Sundries Charged
Petty Cash (D)
Meat
Fish and Poultry ..
Sinidry Provisions .
Fuel
Repairs to Premises
Renewals of Glass and China
„ Furniture, &c. (E)
„ Cutlery and Plate
Linen (E) ..
Wages
Upkeep of Billiard Room
Bad Debts
Reserve for Bad Debts ..
Bar Stock (F)
Laundry
Licence and Telephone ..
Gas
Electric Light
Floating Cash (D)..
Printing and Stationery ..
Newspapers
Hire of Plants
Liveries
General Expenses
Outstanding Creditors (G)
Payments in Advance (G)
Advertising,
Kitchen Stock (G)
Stock of Stores (G)
.(E)
(E)
;f sd I
125 o o-
20 o O-
2,230 O O-
1,200 O O-
425 O O •,
480 O O-
75 o o.
1,500 o o .
5 0 0 .
1,300 o o,
1,050 o o.
800 o O'
400 o o.
48 o o.
lOO o o^
50 O o-
50 o O.
80 o o,
1,000 o o.
10 o o.
5 0 0 .
32 o O'
320 o o,
100 o o.
250 o o-
3Ö0 o o.
20 o o,
40 o o.
20 o o.
70 o o.
75 o o.
520 o o.
100 o o.
150 o 0-'
50 o o.
150 o o'i
£ s d
1,440 o o .
J.410 o o .
660 o o .
730 o o .
100 o o é
4,000 o o .
7,000 o o
1,250 o o
750 o o '
50 o o ;
80 o o ,
130 o o •
^^13,230 o o £17,9^5 o o
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
(F)
(G)
The Adjustment Accounts for these two Ledgers {vide pp. ly and 27).
These provide the data for the Liquor Trading Account {vide p. 49J.
This account should show no balance {vide p. 36).
Balance in hand.
As to method of providing for depreciation {vide pp. 63 and 64).
This is at Selling Price : a Reserve is included in the General Ledger balances
{vide-p. 42). To avoid fluctuations the Bar Stock should be made up to a
definite uniform amount at balancing time.
The Nominal .Accounts affected by these balances have already been modified
accordingly : no further adjustment for outstandings is therefore required.
D
38 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
CHAPTER V.
CELLAR AND BAR.
THE books kept for the purpose of recording the stock in
both cellar and bar are statistical only, but they are checked by
—and serve to explain—the corresponding accounts in the
Nominal Ledger.
Cellar.—
The Cellar Stock Books are in the majority of cases kept in
quantities only. The form may be slightly varied according
to circumstances, but Form i6 will be found a useful ruling.
When (as is not infrequently the case) there are several
cellars, it is convenient that there should be a separate Stock
Book in respect of each. Probably, however, it will not be
found necessarj- to have more than one account in the Nominal
Ledger for each class of liquor—e.g., " Wines," " Spirits," &c.
Frequently a firm of wine merchants arrange to stock the
hotel cellar (or one of its cellars) with their own goods, they
remaining the property of the wine merchant until sold. The
cellar is in the first instance stocked with a definite supply
of each number—say two dozen bottles of each, and a larger
quantity of the numbers in most general use. On the first day
of each month the wine merchants' representative calls, and
takes stock with the hotel manager or head cellarman, which
(the shortage in the stock having been agreed between the two)
Form ló.— CELLAR BOOK, for the Month of igo....
Stock
on
First
of
Month
Quan­tity
Re­ceived
Date
Re­ceived
Bin
No.
I
i
i
&c.
Quantity Issued
I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 . 0 11 12 13 H 15 16 17 18 19 30 21 22 23 24 25 26 2728 29 30 31
Total
for
Month
Break­ages
and
Ullages
Stock
on
last of
Month 1
o
H
O n
o
d
H
4° HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
supplies the data for the account rendered by the wine mer­chants
in respect of the consumption for the past month. Along
with that invoice are forwarded goods of a similar quantity
and description, which, when placed in the cellar, restore the
stock to the original figure. It will be obser\-ed that under this
arrangement the " wine merchants' " cellar is practically worked
on the " Imprest" system, which will be found extremely
convenient in practice.
Such an arrangement with a firm of wine merchants as that
just described does not call for any special system of account­ing,
and need not therefore be separately described. The
following general system will be found applicable to all normal
cases, although it will of necessity require slight adjustments
where the staff is either verj- large or very small.
The cellarman is responsible for the stock in the cellar. He
is accordingly required to pass all invoices for goods received,
and, upon initialling them, becomes responsible for a corres­ponding
quantity of goods. His discharge for goods issued by
him is represented by checks on the prescribed form. Such
checks may be issued by the waiters (or in some cases by the
head waiter alone), by the bar-keeper, or by the manager. In
some hotels the cellar only issues goods to the bar, which, in its
turn, retails them to visitors; but it is thought that, as a rule,
it is better to keep the Bar Accounts as simple as possible, and
to arrange for all sales of bottles or half-bottles of wines or
spirits to pass through the cellar.
The Waiter's Drink Check Book is a plain numbered counter­foil
book, the leaves of which are distinctively coloured to
indicate that only orders for drinks are to be recorded thereon.
It is only necessary that the quantity and the number of the bin
should be mentioned, thus 1^62, or J 67. The sign 1 (signify­ing
a whole bottle) should be used in preference to the
HOTEI, ACCOUNTS. 41
simple " I," which might easily be confused with the bin
number and be mistaken (in the case Just mentioned) for No.
167.
The cellarma.n issues wines, spirits, and minerals against these
checks, which at the time are filed for further entrj'. As soon
as the meal has sufficiently progressed the cellarman should
get forward with his booking, sorting together all checks relating
to the same bin number, so that at the end of the day the total
quantity issued from each bin may be entered in the Cellar Book
in one figure. At the close of the day, or the first thing next
morning, a return should be sent in to the office in the following
form : —•
Form 17.—
CELLAR ISSUES SHEET
for day 190..
^
Quantity * Bin No.
I i
i
2 i
i
&c.
@ Selling Price
£ s d
* These figures stiould agree with the figures in the column relating
to the same day of the month in Form 16.
The above form represents the cellarman's account of the
goods issued by him, priced out at selling prices. These should
42 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
be at once agreed by the bookkeeper with the aggregate amounts
charged to ^-isitors in the course of the day, and with the total
debited to the bar. When (as is frequently the case) it is the
custom to supply drinks to the staff, these should also be passed
through the Visitors' Ledger, a separate account headed " Staff"
being opened for that purpose. Save in the case of large
hotels, it will be usually found economical not to provide
draught beer for the staff, which is probably not sold in the
ordinary way to visitors. Should draught beer be supplied, the
best plan is to place the cask in charge of some responsible
kitchen hand, who will be expected to make it last the required
time, ha^-ing regard to the number of hands employed, and in
such cases the consumption of staff beer need not pass through
the cellar books at all.
When the whole cellars are stocked by a wine merchant
under the arrangement already described, the wine merchant's
stocktaking provides all necessary check upon the cellarman;
but if the cellar (or any part of it) be stocked by the hotel, the
manager should make a point of himself taking stock at least
once a month—not, of course, necessarily at the end of each
month.
Bar.—
From the bar will be supplied all "broken" drinks, and—
for convenience of serving—a sufficient supply of minerals will
be kept at the bar to be supplied with such drinks. The bar­keeper
is debited with the stock issued from the cellar at
selling prices, and is expected at all times to be able to account
for either a corresponding quantity of stock, or its equivalent
in money or debits. It is convenient to, as far as possible, make
the bar trade a cash trade : but " broken" drinks served to
visitors in the coffee or dining room must, of course, be charged
up through the Visitors' Ledger in the usual way. In respect
of these, checks will be issued by the waiters and retained by
the bar-keeper as a voucher in re.spect of a corresponding
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 43
quantity of goods supplied. At the end of each day the Bar
Daily Stock Account should be prepared in the following
form : —
Form 18.
BAR DAILY STOCK BOOK.
. . .day, the igo..
Stock at
beginning
of Day
Stock at
close of Day
Received
from Cellar
Consumption;
during Day , '-'* Selling Price
BALANCE IN HAND:—
Gold
Silver
Coppers
Notes
Checks
Total •• £
The above Balance should be agreed daily with the selling price of
goods consumed during day, and handed over to the bookkeeper. All
drinks sold for cash are entered in the Visitors' Ledger under " Chance."
44 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
At the end of each month (or oftener if desirable) the stock
in the bar must be taken., and agreed with the stock shown
by the Daily Stock Book, the bar-keeper being responsible for
all deficiencies.
It will be obseryed that the Daily Stock Book shows the
total yalue of liquors sujiplied in exchange for checks. Tliis
total is, of course, capable of being agreed with the total
amount charged to \isit(u-s in respect thert-of, and should be so
agreed at least daily. Waiters requiring drinks for smoking
rooms, billiard rooms, &c., should preferably be instructed to
obtain payment therefor at the time. To saye dela\', they may
pay the bar-keeper for the time being, either in checks of a
different colour to those employed in the coffee or dining
rooms, or in counters, such checks or counters being, of course,
redeemed by each waiter at the end of the day. In large hotels
it is usual to employ counters which the waiter has had to buy
at the office before proceeding upon his duties, and this, of
course, proyides an effectiye safeguard against loss through the
inaccuracy or dishonesty of a waiter.
Coffee, for which payment will be required in cash, should
not be supplied from the bar, as it is practically impossible to
keep any effectiye check on the quantity sold : by diluting the
stock of coffee a bar-keeper might misapply spirits of equal
value without detection, but dilutions of spirits can always be
readily detected by means of an hydrometer.
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 4^
CHAPTER VI.
GENERAL LEDGER.
As has already been stated, in small concerns the Nominal
and General Ledgers may be combined ; but were the hotel
sufficiently largt- to render the separation desirable, the General
Ledger will contain merely those accounts which (for any
reason) it may be thought desirable, or convenient, to withhold
from the knowledge of the clerk keeping the Nominal Ledger.
In the case of privately owned hotels, these would include the
partners' Ca]3ital and Drawing Accounts, Trading and Profit
and Loss Ac<"ounts, the various real accounts, the nominal
accounts relating to Depreciation, Interest, and the like, and the
Balance Sheets. In the case of hotels owned by companies, the
distribution of accounts would be upon the same lines
mutatis mutandis ; but here, of course, additional Share Ledgers,
i t c , would be required to keep record of the holding of each
member.
Branches. —
When several hotels are owned by the same proprietors, it will
usually be found convenient to have only one General Ledger
in respect of all the hotels. In such cases, however, there
would be a separate Nominal Ledger for each hotel, and that
Nominal Ledger must under these altered circumstances be
made self-balancing. The Adjustment Account in the Nominal
Ledger will be called "Head Office Account," and in the General
Ledger (kept at the Head Office) the corresponding Adjustment
46 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Account will be known by the name of that particular hotel.
With a view to keeping these Adjustment Accounts clear of
details, it will probably be found convenient to open separate
accounts recording Remittances both ways, and also Goods (if
any) issued from the Head Office to the various hotels. As a
rule, however, each hotel will arrange for the jjurchase of its
own goods, as in the absence of such an arrangement no very
high measure of responsibility can reasonably be expected from
the manager.
Trial Balance.—
The following Trial Balance is given pvo forma as repre­senting,
with the List of Nominal Ledger Balances shown on
p. 37, the material from which the usual periodical accounts
may be prepared.
Form 19.
TRIAL BALANCE, 31st December 1904.
3
5
10
H
17
22
30
36
40
43
52
54
60
65
70
Private Ledger.
Capital Account
Mortgaf;;e Account
Lease Account..
Furniture and Fittings
Glass and China
Linen
Cutlery and Plate
Rent and Insurance .
Law Costs
Rates and Taxes
Reserve on Bar Stock
Audit Fee
Salaries
interest ..
Outstanding Creditors
Payments in Advance
Nominal Ledger
General Cash Book
£
27,000
4,883
462
315
3.7^
125
5
420
105
400
600
100
34 > 786
13,230
3.045
£51,061
s
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
d
0 »
0 -
0 ,
0 .
0 >•
0 •
0 .
0 •
0 .
0 .
0 -
0 .
0
0
0 ,
0
£
17.500
15,000
16
630
33,146
17,915
;C5i.o6i
s
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
d
0 •
0 .
0 .
0 ^
0
0
0
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 47
General Cash Book.—
The General Ledger—like every other Ledger—should have
its own books of first entry, namely, a General Cash Book and
General Journal, both of which will follow the usual form of
ruling. The General Cash Book records (eliminating all
unnecessary detail) the whoh of the receipts and payments. The
bulk of the receipts will be recorded in detail in the Cash
Received Book, and in consequence only the daily totals need
appear in the General Cash Book. As, moreover, these totals
do not require to be posted daily into the General Ledger, an
inner column may be usefully employed for the purpose of
collecting them into monthly totals. The Visitors' Ledger
Adjustment Account being kept in the Nominal Ledger, no
necessity arises to post even these totals at all in the
General Ledger, unless both Nominal and General Ledgers are
to be made independently self-balancing. All moneys received,
other than those which pass through the X^ash Received Book,
must be entered in the General Ledger'in detail, and posted
from there to the credit of the proper accounts in the General
Ledger. On the credit side of the General Cash Book will
appear, in total only, those payments made by cheque which are
passed through the Trade Payments Book. Any payments not
passing through the Trade Payments Book should be recorded
in the General Cash Book in detail, and posted to the debit of
appropriate accounts in the General Ledger.
General Journal.—
This book is employed to record entries affecting the accounts
in the General Ledger which do not involve the receipt or the
payment of money, and therefore do not pass through the
General Cash Book. These would consist chiefly of the adjust­ing
entries usual on the periodical balancing of a set of books,
and the " closing entries" if they be journalised. If it be
desired to withhold the contents of the General Ledger from the
48 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
clerk in charge of the Nominal Ledger, it is desirable that ali
such transfers as have to be made from the latter to the former
at balancing should be passed through both Nominal and
General Journals, the contra side of l)oth being cross-folioed for
reference puq)oses in cases where these two Leilgers are not
independently self-balancing. When both Ledgers are kept by
the same person, there is, however, no objection to the Nominal
and (Jeneral Journals being combined, provided the combined
Journal, as well as the General Ledger, be provided with the
usual spring lock.
'I'he following pro forma accounts are compiled from the
Trial Balance already given on pp. 37 and 46. They are in
a form which will be found useful to proprietors, directors, or
managers ; but which is far too detailed for submission to
shareholders.
Form 30.—
Dr. LIQUOR TRADING ACCOUNT, for the year ended 31st December 1904. Cr.
To Stock, ist Jan.
1904 ..
„ Purchases
„ Gross Profit .,
Percentage of Profit
• Wines
£ sd
^ 1,480 0 0
' 750 0 0
720 0 0
^2,950 0 0
50-0%
spirits
£ sd
/ |C0 0 0
' 800 0 0
700 0 0
;f i,goo 0 0
497%
Beers
£ sd
80 0 0
- 400 0 0
, 285 0 0
£765 0 0
38-3%
Minerals
£ sd
100 0 0
• 325 0 0
' 400 0 0
£825 0 0
6o-6%
By Sales ..
„ Stock, 3ist Dec.
1904 ..
Wines
£ sd
- 1,440 0 0
. 1,510 0 0
3^2,950 0 0
Spirits
£ sd
• 1,410 0 0
• 490 0 0
^£•1,900 0 0
Beers
£ sd
• 730 0 0
• 35 0 0
^765 0 0
Minerals
£ sd
- 660 0 0
. 165 0 0
£S2S 0 0
o
H
IS
n
n
O
a
H
Form 21.—
Dr. TRADING ACCOUNT, for the
To Meat
^ Fish and Poultry
„ Sundry Provisions
„ General Stores
„ Wages
„ Rent and Insurance
„ Rates and Taxes
„ Fuel
„ G a s
„ Klectric Light
„ Laundry
„ License and Telephone
„ Printing and Stationery
„ Newspapeis
„ Hire of Plants
„ Liveries
„ General Expenses
„ Advertising
„ Salaries
„ Repairs, Maintenance, and Deprecia­tion
:—
Lease
Premises
Furniture, &c.
Glass and China
Cutlery and Plate
Linen
„ Balance, carried to Profit and Loss
Account
£ s d
^ 1,300 0 0
. 1,050 0 0
800 0 0
£ s d
. 1,500 0 0
• 125 0 0
420 0 0
• 4,650 0 0
, 1,000 0 0
' 400 0 0
250 0 0
380 0 0
• 320 0 0
f 100 0 0
40 0 0
20 0 0
70 0 0
• 75 0 0
• 520 0 0
' 150 0 0
' 520 0 0
* 48 0 0
' 2,870 0 0
» 400 0 0
t 2i0 0 0
^ 150 0 0
80 0 0
100 0 0
• 1,148 0 0
. 3,112 0 0
^13,180 0 0
year ended 31st December 1904.
By Rooms
„ Meals
„ Chance Meals
„ Attendance
„ Washing
„ Coals and Sundries
£ s d
, 4,000 0 0
' 7,000 0 0
. 1,250 0 0
. 750 0 0
50 0 0
• 130 0 0
Cr.
£ ^
r13,180 0
EiiaHo 0
d
0
0
o
W
>
nn
o
d
I
I
Form 22.—
Dr. PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT, for the year ended 31st December 1904. Cr.
To Bad Debts
w Law Costs
„ Audit Fee
„ Interest
„ Balance, being Net Profit for the year
£ s d
• 5 0 0
5 0 0
' T05 O O
' Coo o o
£
• 715
. 4.617
£5,332
s
0
0
0
d
0
0
0
By Gross Profits, viz: —
General Account
Liquors
Cigars and Cigarettes
Billiards
£
* 3.112
• 2,105
. 45
70
s
0
0
0
0
d
0
0
0
0
£ s d
. 5.332 C 0
£5.332 0 0
w
0
H
t-i
n
n
0
a
Porm 33. ËALANCE SHEET, 31st December 1904.
Liabilities.
Capital Account
Mortgage at 4 per cent.
Sundry Creditors
Profit and Loss Account
£ sd
• 17,500 0 0
•^ 15.000 0 0
> 930 0 0
. 4,617 0 0
;C38,047 0 0
Assets.
Leasehold Premises
Less Depreciation
Furniture and Fittings
China and Glass
Cutlery and Plate
r_.inen ..
Stock on Hand, viz. :—
Wines
Spirits
i Minerals
Beers
Cigars, &c
Kitchen
Stores
Bar
Sundry Debtors
Payments in Advance
Cash—At Bank
In Hand
£ sd
•• 27,000 0 0
520 0 0
• 1,510 0 0
4(}0 0 0
' 165 0 Ü
35 0 Ü
20 0 0
50 0 0
150 0 0
16 0 0
' 3."45 0 0
25 0 0
• ^ Sd
26,480 0 0 -
4,683 0 0 ,
412 0 0 .
341 0 0 .
295 0 0 ^
2,436 0 0 •
130 0 0 *
200 0 0 .
3,070 0 0
£38,047 0 0
1-H
0
r^
>
n Ü
a^ H
The following accounts (which have been condensed from the preceding) indicate approximately
the amount of detail which would usually be thought desirable in the published accounts :—
Form 24,—
BALANCE SHEET, 31st December 1904.
Liabiliiies.
Nominal Capital {in £1 shares) ..
Subscribed Capital, 20,000 Shares of £1
each, 17/6 per Share paid up ..
Mortgage at 4%
Sundry Creditors
Profit and Loss Account
£ s d
25,000 0 o
s d
17.500
15,000
930
4,617
£3^.047
A ssets.
Leasehold Premises, Furniture, Fittings,
and General Equipment (less De
preciation)
Stock-in-Trade
Sundry Debtors and Payments in advance
Cash at Bank and in hand
s d /
32,211
2,436
330
3,070
£38,047
s
0
0
0
0
0
(1
0
0
0
0
0
ffi 0
H
W
0
0
00
Form 35.
Dr. PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT, for the year ended 31st December 1904. Cr.
To Salaries, Office Expenses, &c
„ Interest
„ Auditors' Fee, Law Costs, and Bad Debts
„ Balance available for Distribution
£ sd
500 o o
600 o o
115 o o
4,617 o o
£5.832 o o
By Gross Profits.
£ s d £ sd
5,832 o o
£5,832 o o
o
W
> n
o
O zd
H
I
\
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 55
For the management of an hotel to be effective, it is obvious
that the accounts must be able, in some form or another, to
produce the results—or at all events the approximate results—
of the trading at far more frequent inten'als than once or twice
per year. It is usual for an InterimWorking Account to be pre­pared
either weekly or monthly upon some such lines as Form
26. The columns on the left-hand side of the narration show,
in each case, the income, or cost, per visitor per day in shillings,
pence, and decimals of a penny. Of course, it is not to be sup­posed
that these decimal figures will remain constant, or even
approximately constant, from month to month; but, for all that,
they are extremely useful for comparative purposes, as enabling
the skilled manager, or proprietor, to readily see where
undesirable tendencies are creeping in.
I' 2
Form 26.
Dr.
Cost per Head,
per Day
a
1.20
g.6o
8.40
2.40
3 9.60
I 0.00
2 9.00
4.20
0.00
4 1.20
3 6.00
j 12 4.80
INTERIM WORKING ACCOUNT, October 1904.
Average Number of Visitors 64*5 per day.
To Meat
„ Fish and Poultry
„ Provisions
„ Stores ..
„ Wages ..
„ Standing Expenses
„ Salaries ..
„ Maintenance ..
Estimated Profit
£ sd
n o o 0
80 o o
70 o o
120 o o
275 o o
35 o o
100 o o
£ sd
380 o o
100 o o
410 o o
350 o o
£1,240 o o
Receipts per
Head, per day
d
0.00
0.00
0.00
7.20
2.40
0.60
7.20
4.B0
3.00
1.80
0.60
1.20
12 4.80
By Rooms
„ Meals
„ Chance Meals
„ Attendance
„ Washing
„ Coals and Sundries
Gross Profit on Wines
Spirits
Minerals .
Beer
Cigars ..
Billiards..
300 o o I
600 o o j
100 o o
60 o o
20 o o
5 0 0
60 o o
40 o o
25 o o
15 o o
5 0 0
10 o o
Cr.
£ sd
1,085 o o
155 o o
^1,240 o o
o
H
PI
O
n
O
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 57
CHAPTER Vil.
THE KITCHEN AND STORES.
UNQUESTIONABLY that department of an hotel which it is
most difficult to suj)ply with a really effective, and at the same
time simple, system of accounting is that relating to the Kitchen
and General Stores; and as the undertaking increases in size
this difficulty increases, on account of the practical impossibility
of the manager of a large concern relying exclusively-—or even
mainly—on his own memory and obser\-ation. In the case of
most hotels of the size chiefly considered in this book, it is
thought, however, that the less accounting is relied upon as a
check upon the Kitchen and Stores Departments, and the more
the responsible manager himself continuously supen-ises these
departments, the better will be the result.
Stores.—
So far as general stores are concerned, a Stores Ledger
should be kept recording in quantities, and under suitable head­ings,
the various classes of stores in stock, debiting each
account with further supplies received from tradesmen, and
crediting the account with stores issued against checks signed by
properly authorised persons. It should be possible for this
Stores Ledger to be balanced ver\- fairly with the actual
quantities of stores in hand from time to time. A weekly
summary should be made of the quantity and value of all
stores issued, and to whom; and this should be submitted as
soon after the close of the week as possible to the manager for
his consideration.
58 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Kitchen.—
So far as the Kitchen is concerned, the '' golden " rule to be
at all times borne in mind is that under no circumstances what-evet
should anyone who is entitled to receive money in payment
of bills be also entitled to sign checks on the kitchen for the
supply of goods. If this precaution be overlooked, it becomes
a very easy matter for waiters, chambermaids, &:c., to supply
" extras" to \'isitors, and receive payment therefor without the
hotel receiving any benefit for the service rendered. If, how­ever,
the person entitled to receive payment is invariably distinct
from the person who is able to render the service, no fraud can
take place without collusion ; and with a reasonable amount of
supervision, and an occasional change in the respective duties
of the staff, risks of collusion may be very greatly minimised.
In the kitchen—as elsewhere—the ultimate test of successful
administration is the results achieved, and these can, without
any undue elaboration of accounting, be readily arrived at daily
by means of a Daily Stock (or Cost) Sheet. This may be pre­pared
in any convenient form, and the following skeleton is
given merely as an indication, of what is intended. Doubt­less
each hotel manager will modify it somewhat to meet his
own views as to the requirements of the case ; but its essential
object is to show almost immediately after the day's work has
heen done the actual cost of the materials consumed, as against
the number of meals supplied and the amount taken in respect
thereof. Like all other statistical figures, these Cost Sheets are
of but little use to those who have no practical knowledge of
the subject; but to the skilled manager they supply the one
thing which he is unable to determine with certainty from his
own observation—\'VL., the e.xact prime cost of production, as
against the gross revenue received fcr contra. Leakages arising
from injudicious catering, from bad carving, from wasteful cook­ing,
and other causes should be apparent from an intelligent
perusal of these sheets.
Form 37.—
Description
of Goods
(In this
column
would be
printed, in
groups, all
usual items.
Special items
can be added
m space
reserved at
end of each
group.)
In
Stock
from
previous
Day
DAILY
Received
during Day
(The entries
COST
In
Stock
at close
of Day
in this column
should be
agreed with .
Delivery
Notes, and ,
Storekeepers'
checks.)
SHEET
Day's
Con­sumption
^
day, the . . ..
Prime Cost
£ s d
(The total of
this column
represents
the estimated
prime cost
of all meals
served.)
Menu
(The menu
meal through
day should
corded here.
n u m b e r s
should be co
with the fo
columns. Sta
should be r
at the foot.)
No. of
Portions
Served
!
1
of each
out the
be re-
The
No. of
\'isitors
a la
Carte
served
mpared
llowing
fi meals
ecorded
d'
1 9 0 . .
No. of
Visitors
pension
m Amount
Charged
£ ^ d
(Both visitors
a la carte
and visitors
en pension
should be
extended into
this column,
so as to show
one total
agreeing with
charges as
per Visitors'
• Ledger.)
Remarks
6o HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Staff Meals.—
The jirovision of meals for the staff is sometimes kept
entirely separate from the hotel cuisine ; but as a rule (particu­larly
in medium-sized concerns) it will be found more econo­mical
to, so far as possible, provide the staff meals out of
made dishes left over after the hotel meals have been finished,
as by this means no little waste is avoided, and it becomes
practicable to i)rovide a greater variety to \dsitors—a most
important consideration in connection with small hotels which
happen to be not more than half full. Such considerations as
this may, of course, very easily tend to cause considerable
fluctuations in the Daily Cost Sheets ; but with good manage­ment
extending over a reasonable period (say a month), no
very material fluctuations should be apparent.
A Monthly Summary of the Daily Cost Sheets, along with the
monthly Interim Working x\ccount described on p. 56, should
always be placed before the directors of a company owning
an hotel at their board meetings.
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 6l
CHArTER VTII.
INTERNAL CHECK AND AUDIT.
FROM what has already been stated, it will be observed that
the chief weaknesses in connection with a. system of Hotel
Accounts lie not so much with the cash transactions as with
those which involve the handling of goods without any corres­ponding
entry in the books of account themselves. As a con­sequence
it follows that the books of account may appear to be
in all respects in order, and yet there may be such serious
leakage.s as to effectually prevent any profit being shown on a
large amount of business done.
Without going fully into the vexed question as to how far
the Auditor may be reasonably expected to go behind the books
of account in search of the actual facts, it seems desirable to
point out that unless some system of check exists (and is effec­tively
and continuously employed) irregularities, and consequent
loss, must in the ordinary course of events be expected. The
system which so usually obtains of underpaying hotel employees
—if, indeed, they are not expected to pay to go in—naturally
encourages a frame of mind in which these employees consider
themselves entitled to practically all that they can get; and, in
many hotels, at all events, this seems to be about the point of
view from which the matter is approached by proprietors,
managers, and employees alike.
62 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
Internal Check.—
It may well be questioned whether the most ingenious system
of accounts, and the sharpest of managers, could in such cases
hope to be entirely successful in their endeavours to remove all
traces of irregularity and loss arising through waste, leakage, or
actual dishonesty. Xo really effective system of control can,
it is thought, be employed where the whole onus of carrying
out that system rests upon the manager, with perhaps one or
two underpaid assistants. Systems of internal check, to be
effective, require it to be assumed that at all events the majority
of the employees may be safely relied upon to be con­scientiously
looking after the interests of the concern; and it
may well be questioned whether this is not too large an
assumption to be made with safety in the case of many hotels.
With very large concerns, owning two or more hotels, the best
system is probably to employ a Staff Auditor, or Auditors—
entirely independent of each hotel and each hotel manager—
to visit each hotel in succe.ssion not less frequently than once
a week, and (as thoroughly as may be practicable) check all
entries leading up to the Visitors' Ledger on the one hand and
the Trade Payments Book on the other. That is to say, verify
all checks, vouchers, &c., with a view to making sure (i) that all
services rendered have been duly charged to visitors in the
Visitors' Ledger ; (2) that no payments have been made through
the Trade Payments Book, or the General Cash Book, without
value being received. If the Staff Auditors thus vouch these
important books in detail, the actual " audit" becomes greatly
simplified, and can without difficulty be made really effective.
In the case of those smaller hotels with which this volume is
chiefly concerned, it is thought that the best—and, indeed, the
only really practical safeguard—is to establish better relations
between employers and employed, so that, with reasonable
supendsion, irregularities may be reduced to a minimum. If the
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 63
bookkeepers be not overworked, it is by no means impossible
for them to keep a very fairly effective check upon waiters and
chambermaids, and the system of test by totals explained on
p. 20 will enable the manager to readily ascertain whether this
check is actively in force from day to day. So far as expendi­ture
is concerned, in a comparatively small concern the manager
should be able to keep sufficiently in touch with events to be
able to satisfy himself that no accounts are passed for f)ayment
without corresponding benefits having been received, and he
should himself from time to time test the accuracy of the stock
on hand in cellars, store-room.s, and kitchen, at all events in
sufficient detail to make sure that the accounts are substantially
accurate.
Audit.—
The actual audit under these circumstances resolves itself
into a comparatively simple affair. The various fixed assets will
be taken at their book value—subject, of course, to due pro­vision
for Depreciation, and careful inquiry as to their continued
existence.
Depreciation.—
Freehold buildings can hardly be said to depreciate in the
ordinary sense, but a reasonable reserve should be made for
future repairs. Leasehold buildings should be written off
within the unexpired term of the lease, and in particular inquiry
should be directed to the amount of reinstatement (if any) that
wiU then be necessary ; as it often happens that structural altera­tions
have been made which must be made good at the end of
the lease, thus greatly increasing the cost for dilapidations.
With regard to Fixtures, Furniture, &c., very much, of course,
depends upon the class of business done and the quality of the
original assets. Probably 5 per cent, all round on the original
cost mav be regarded as a minimum provision for wear and tear.
64 MOTEL ACCOUNtS.
which is here, of course, practically the only form of deprecia­tion
that need be taken into account. In some cases, however,
'i% psr cent.—or even lo jjer cent.—might i)e more prudent.
With regard to such " loose " fixed assets as Table Linen, Bed
Linen, Glas.s, Crockery, Cutlery, Plate, &c., proper inventories
should be kept of these throughout the year, and frequently
checked by responsible jiersons. The Auditor is thus enabled
to satisfy himself that the assets originally debited to these
accounts are still in existence, and the question of depreciation
then alone has to be considered. As a rule, deterioration in
these items is heavy, and in consequence a large expenditure in
respect of renewals is necessary if the undertaking is to be keiJt
up in a proper state of efficiency. So far as glass and crockery
are concerned, if the quantities are maintained it may fairly
be assumed that no reserve for depreciation is necessary. With
regard to cutlery, the average life may be said to vary from
three years to seven years, according to the class of business;
and if the expenditure on renewals for the year falls short of
this ratio, a reserve for future renewals should be made. Li
connection with linen, very much depends upon the amount of
stock, and the consequent wear imposed upon each article ;
while it need hardly be said that the original quality is a most
important factor in connection with durability. Under these
circumstances it is thought best not to lay down even an
approximate rule during the early years of a new hotel. It
might perhaps be assumed that the a\'erage life of the linen
would be (say) four years, and a reserve for future renewals in
excess of current renewals might be provided upon this basis
until such time as experience showed a more reliable one. An
experienced housekeeper could always say approximately the
percentage to be taken off original cost to represent the present
value, and in this way a very useful guide on the book figures
may be obtained.
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 65
Book Debts.—
So far as Book Debts are concerned, no serious difificulty
ought to arise. All cash recei\ed should, of course, be traced
into the bank, and care should be taken that no accounts of
visitors who are no longer staying in the hotel remain on the
Visitors' Ledger. Thus prima facie every account in the
Personal Ledger {vide p. 25) is doubtful, and the Auditor
should satisfy himself as to the value of all such accounts before
allowing them, or any portion of them, to be treated as good
assets.
Cash.—
With regai'd to the Cash balances, the only caution necessary
is that, inasmuch as it is absolutely essential in the case of an
hotel that there should be cash in hand at the date of the
Balance Sheet, and moreover different sets of cash, in the hands
of different persons, the Auditor who desires to avoid being
deceived should make a point of counting all such balances
simultaneously, and of vouching the whole of the cash up to the
date selected by him for such counting.
Uabilities.—
With regard to the liabilities' side of the Balance Sheet, the
Auditor's chief anxiety will be to satisfy himself that all out­standing
liabilities have been included. This is especially
important, owing to the absence of any Bought Ledger. The
usual outstandings in respect of rent, rates, &c., can, of course,
be readily arrived at from a careful study of the Nominal
Ledger; but with regard to tradesmen's accounts, the only
effective check is the tradesmen's replies to a circular letter,
asking for particulars of their accounts up to the date of the
Balance Sheet. l''ull jjarliculars of the tradesmen's accounts
accruing due on that date, and paid on the subsequent
66 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
customary pay-day, should also be carefully studied, with a view
to detecting any possible omissions; and all members of the
staff authorised to give orders for goods, or to receive such
goods on delivery, should be required to certify as to the exact
position of their respective departments.
The above outline of an hotel audit is, of course, by no means
exhaustive, but it deals with the features that specially
distinguish this type of audit from most others.
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 67
CHAPTER IX.
THE SIMPLEX SYSTEM.
THE present volume would be Incomplete without reference
to the " Simplex System of Hotel Bookkeeping," <levised by Mr.
George Alexander, of 5 Sinclair Road, Kensington, London,
W. This system contains several ingenious features, the most
important of which are the application of the " Slip" system
to the Visitors' Ledger and to " Chance " bills. It is unneces­sary
to describe these devices in detail, as full particulars can be
obtained from Mr. Alexander (at the address given above) upon
application. It may be pointed out, however, that the essential
feature is that each visitor's account, as well as the bill of each
" chance " visitor, is made up at the tim,e direct on a draft bill
form allocated for that purpose. By means of a carbon sheet
a duplicate of this bill, in exact facsimile, is simultaneously
compiled, and this duplicate forms the basis of all subsequent
bookkeeping entries. In connection with many industries the
need that would frequently arise of referring to past transactions
might make this somewhat wholesale application of the " Slip "
system inconvenient; but in connection with Hotel Accounts the
necessity hardly ever arises to refer to a bill that has once been
paid, while the number of outstanding bills is naturally limited
by the number of rooms available, so that the number of unpaid
accounts that have to be kept (so to speak) " on the slips," is
never likely to be serious, save in hotels of the first magnitude,
for which the system is not intended. In connection with small
hotels, where the proprietor (or a member of his family) does
most of the bookkeeping, and it is all under his personal and
daily supervision, the saving of time effected by the " Simplex
System " will be found a great convenience. In larger concerns
it seems not unlikely that greatly increased vigilance would ha,ve
to be exercised in the internal check, if all risk of irregularities
were to be avoided.
68 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
CHAPTER X.
RAILWAY HOTELS AND REFRESHMENT ROOMS.
No attempt will be made in the present volume to deal
adequately with the problems that arise in connection with the
accounting of Hotels and Refreshment Rooms owned by Rail­way
Companies. Anything like a comprehensive treatment of
the subject would occupy more space than is available in the
whole of the present volume, but a few suggestions may be
offered which will perhaps be found of value.
Dealing first of all with existing systems, the general practice
in connection with Railway Accounts is to work exclusively on
a cash basis—that is to say, earnings are brought into credit as
received in cash, and expenditure is charged up against revenue
as actually paid. When, as in connection with railway com­panies,
the trade approaches very closely to a cash trade, this
system possesses many conveniences; and if due care be taken,
prior to balancing the books, to see that all outstandings are
received and paid respectively (if necessary keeping the books
open for a few weeks to enable that to be done), the receipts
and payments on account of revenue will be found to approxi­mate
very closely with the true income and expenditure for the
same period. There are, however, certain classes of expendi­ture—
e.g., maintenance and renewals—which cannot be relied
upon to equal the actual payments that can usefully be made in
the course of the same period, and in connection with these at
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 69
least the cash basis requires modifying before accurate results
can be relied upon.
For the information of departmental managers, and directors,
it is usual for Returns to be prepared monthly, showing the
working of each separate hotel, &c. The moneys of these under­takings
are not kept separate from the general moneys of the
railways. The local manager pays his takings daily at the local
booking-office, and payments are made from headquarters, or, in
certain cases, from the local headquarters. Only under quite
special and ivell-defined circumstances is the local manager
authorised to make payments out of the moneys received by
him. This arrangement works very well up to a point; but
seems to result in unnecessary establishment charges,, and to be
ineffective as regards control. It naturally lends itself to the
Hotel Accounts being kept upon a cash basis by the general
clerical staff of the railway; but accounts so kept, both as
regards manner and location, are of but little value to hotel
managers. For their own purposes, therefore, it becomes neces­sary
for the managers to duplicate such of the Hotel Accounts
as may be necessary to enable them to prepare visitors' bills and
certify tradesmen's accounts for payment; and, owing to an
entire lack of co-ordination, there is generally much overlapping,
and considerable risk of lapses -per contra.
So far as the monthly Returns are concerned, inasmuch
as no attempt is made each month to eliminate outstandings,
Returns upon a pure cash basis afford little or no indication of
the working during the period under review. It may well be
questioned whether, as ordinarily prepared, they provide such
data as would enable either hotel manager, general manager, or
board of directors to form any useful opinion upon any point
in connection with the detailed working of the hotels.
It is probably, however, in connection with the subject of
depreciation that the most fallacious results are in general
70 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
achieved. As has already been stated {vide p. 64), most of the
floating assets owned by an hotel wear out quickly, and in con­sequence,
after (say) the first ten years, the actual expenditure
on the renewal of such assets would probably be fairly uniform
in successive years. This remark, however, does not at all apply
to fixed assets, or to the more permanent forms of furniture and
equipment. The practice appears to have been largely followed
in the past, of capitalising all expenditure upon enlargement of
whatever description, without any regard whatever to the
increased earning capacity that such enlargements might be
expected to produce : with the result that such capital expendi­ture
at the present time in some cases stands at a figure which
renders it altogether out of the question to expect that any
adequate return per cent, can be expected by way of annual
working profit. This entirely illusory state of affairs is, of
course, entirely due to the employment of the cash basis
without due regard to its necessary- limitations ; but as the
figures relating to the Hotel Accounts do not appear separately
in the published half-yearly accounts of the company, the
absurdity of the results sho^^^^ is, of course, not apparent.
It is suggested that the proper course for railway companies
to pursue in connection with their hotels and refreshment
rooms is upon the lines already indicated in Chapter VI. in
connection with companies owning several hotels. Each hotel
should contain, upon its own premises, such books as may be
necessary to enable the local manager to obtain that insight
into the facts which is essential for effective control. At the
office of the hotel general manager should be kept a General
Ledger, dealing witli all the hotels, &c., owned on the railway's
system, and containing in addition such accounts as it may be
unnecessar}-, or undesirable, to keep in the several Nominal
Ledgers. No difficulty whatever arises in organising the
accounts upon this svstem, and at the same time requiring all
HOTEL ACCOUNTS. 71
cash to be daily paid into the local booking-office and all
accounts to be paid from the Accountant's Department. All
that is necessary is, in the Hotel Accounts, to debit the
Accountant's Department with all moneys received by the hotel
as paid into the booking-office, and to credit that dei^artment
•with all cheques drawn by it on account of the hotel. It may
be convenient for the Ledger Account recording these transac­tions
to be kept separate from the Nomina] Ledger, and it thus
becomes in effect the General Cash Book relating to that par­ticular
hotel—the Accountant's Department being, in effect,
the hotel's bankers.
Dining-room cars, and buffets at wayside stations, should,
for convenience of control, be attached as a matter of account
to the hotel most conveniently situated, and placed under the
supervision of the manager thereof. From this it follows that in
most cases all dining-cars will be attached to the hotel at the
London terminus (or other headquarters of the railway com­pany),
but cars employed upon a strictly local traffic would be
better attached to the hotel which seems most capable of
exercising an effective and continuous control. In all essentials
such dining-cars, &c., may be treated upon the same lines as
those described in Chapter V. in connection with bars—that is
to say, all goods put on board should be charged as near as
may be at selling prices, and the attendant held responsible
at the monthly stocktaking for the production of those goods,
or their money equivalent. In connection with eatables, how­ever,
a certain amount of elasticity must of necessity be per­mitted
: to effectively control these, and to provide an adequate
check upon the cook, a Daily Cost Sheet should be prepared
in a form similar to that shown on p. 59. If it should be
thought that these requirements are unduly elaborate in con­nection
with undertakings so relati\'ely small, it should be
borne in mind that, in connection with hotel accounting, no
72 HOTEL ACCOUNTS.
matters of detail are so small as to represent negligible
quantities, and, further, that the staff employed for the purposes
under consideration of necessity have many hours during the
day in. which they are, comparatively speaking, unemployed,
and these hours may just as well be utilised in the preparation
of proper returns that will ser\-e some useful purpose. Xone
of the forms described in the course of this work are so com-pHcated
as to prove unworkable in the hands of an employee of
ordinary intelligence.
In conclusion, it is suggested that while, for the sake of
efficient control, it is no doubt necessary that a certain amount
of the accounting in connection with the Hotel Department
should be conducted through the Accountant's Office, it is
desirable that, so far as is not inconsistent with that important
object, the whole of the accounting necessary to show the
result of the working of this department should be
conducted at the office of the general hotel manager, as it is
only by this means that he can be supplied from hour to hour
with that information which is absolutely essential to enable
him to properly discharge his duties. And it is, moreover, only
by having recourse to this system that he can reasonably be
expected to accept responsibility for the accuracy of those
accounts, as recording the actual facts with which, of course,
it is his duty to make himself conversant.
I NDEX.
Alexander's " Simplex " System
Annual Accounts, Pro forma ..
Apartments Book
Arrivals Book
Audit..
PAGE
Ö7
•• 49-54
. . 4,5
3
0 1 , 6 3 , 65
Bar Stock Book
Branch Hotels
42
45 'Sia
m
Cash Book, General ..
,, Received Book ..
Cellar Issues Sheet ..
,, Stock Book ..
" Chance " Customers
Check, Departure
,, Internal
47
. . 24, 26
41
. . 38
17
7
. 1 , 58, 61, 62, 72
f
•
\
I
Daily Cost Sheet
Departure Check
,, of Visitors
Depreciation
59
7
6
63
General Cash Book ..
,, Journal
Ledger
,, ,, Pro forma Trial Balance
47
47
45
46
9
74 INDEX.
I
PAGE
Interim Trading Account .. .. .. .. .. 56
Internal Check .. .. .. .. 1,58,61,62,72
J
Journal, General .. .. .. .. .. .. 47
K
Kitchen Stores .. .. .. .. .. .. 58
L
Ledger, General .. .. .. .. .. .. 45
N
Nominal Ledger .. .. ' .. .. .. .. 28
,, ,, Pro/orak; Trial Balance .. .. .. 37
O
Overcharges.. .. .. .. .. .. .. 16
P
Personal Ledger .. .. .. .. .. .. 25
Petty Cash Book .. .. .. .. .. • • 34. 35
Pro/on«ó Annual Accounts .. .. .. .. .. 49-54
,, ,, General Ledger Trial Balance .. .. .. 46
,, ,, Nominal Ledger Trial Balance .. .. .. 37
R
Railway Dining Cars.. .. .. .. .. .. 71
Hotels .. .. .. .. .. .. 68
,, Refreshment Rooms .. .. .. .. .. 68
Rough Day Book .. .. .. .. .. .. 20, 21
INDEX.
" Simplex " System ..
Slip System ..
Staff Meals ..
,, Register
Stock Book of Bar
,, „ Cellar
Stores, Kitchen
,, Ledger
Summary of Takings Book
T'AGE
07
67
60
6
42
38
58
57
14
Trade Payments Book
Trading Account, Interim
Trial Balance, General Ledger, pro formd
,, ,, Nominal Ledger,/ro/ocmfi
29, 31
56
46
37
Visitors^
Departure of ..
Ledger
Luggage
Special Charges to
6
9, 12
w
Wages Book..
Waiters' Check Book..
Working Returns
•• 32, 33
22, 23, 40
55. 5Ö, 59. 69
/ I
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(Vol. 11 of " T H E ACCOUNTANTS' LIBRARY" Series, q.v.) (2nd Ed., 90 pp.,
8vo.) By L. R. Dicksee, M.Com., F.C.A. Describes fully
a System of Accounts suitable for Auctioneers, Valuers, and Estate
Agents. Divided into Three Parts:—(i) General description of
Books required and the method of keeping them. (2) Full Set of
pro formd Accounts. (3) Miscellaneous information as to Licences,
Scales of Charges, Conditions of Sale, &c.
3 / 6 net. Post free U.K. 3/9 ; Abroad, 3/10
AUDITING.
(Revised, 8th Ed., 976 pp., 8vo.) A Practical Manual for Auditors. By
Lawrence R. Dicksee, IVl.CoiTi., F.C.A. More than 12,000
copies of this standard work have been sold. Among the special
features of the Eighth Edition the following subjects are very fully
dealt with :—The Finance (1909-10) Act, igio ; The Companies (Con­solidation)
Act, 1908; Depreciation, Sinking Funds, &c.; The Audit of
Local Authorities' Accounts; Secret Reserves; The Public Trustee
Act, igo6.
The following is a summary of the contents :—Introductory:
Auditing up to the Trial Balance (pp. 1-40)—Methods of Account
suggested in the course of Audit (pp. 41-69)—Special Considerations in
Different Classes of Audits (pp. 70-189)—From Trial Balance to Balance
Sheet (pp. 190-249)—Forms of Accounts and Balance Sheets (pp.
250-286)—What are Profits ? (pp. 287-303)—The Attitude of the
Auditor (pp. 304-334)—The Liabilities of Auditors (pp. 335-370)—
Investigations (pp. 371-393)—Income-Tax (pp. 394-406)—Appendix A
(Extracts from Statutes, &c.) (pp. 417-670)—Appendix B (Legal
Decisions) (pp. 671-942)—Appendix C, Extract from " Tretyce off
Husbandry" (pp. 943-945)—Appendix D, Depreciation Tables (pp.
946-949)—Index (pp. 950-964).
Net price (post free U.K.) 21/-; Abroad, 2 2 / 4 .
34 MOORGATE STREET, LONDON, E.G.
8 GEE & CO.'S CATALOGUE OF
AUDIT MEMORANDA.
(i2 pp., 8vo.) By Andrew Binnie, C.A., F.C.A. This booklet,
which is of the nature of an "Aid to Memory," is intended to be
complementary to the ordinary detailed Audit Programme. It indicates
the leading points to which the Auditor should direct his attention,
when, with the Balance Sheet before him, he is finally completing an
Audit. Space is left for the insertion of such further points as may
arise in special matters. The Memoranda are divided into two parts,
viz. :—I. Preliminaries to commencing detail work of a Company
Audit; or, as far as is applicable, the Audit of a Statutory Report.
2. Points to be looked into when completing an Audit.
1/- net. Post free U.K. and Abroad, 1/1.
AUDIT NOTE BOOKS.
No. 1 (26 pp., 8 in. by 4 in.). Si.xth Edition. Suitable for a Monthly
Audit.
No. 2 (26 pp., 8 in. by 4 in.). Sixth Edition. Suitable for a Quarterly
or Half-yearly Audit.
(Name and address printed free on covers on orders of 100 copies.)
Net price. Post free U.K. Abroad.
Single copies -/6 -/7 -/7
Per dozen 5/- 5/- 5/7
Per 100 40/- 40/- 44/6
No. 3 (150 pp., 12J in. by 4 in.). For Important Audits.
(Name and address printed free on cove