104. Mail Teller's Journal Entries

The mail teller charges himself with the total of the letters received, credits himself with each of the following and charges the department indicated:

Exchanges.....................

Route items.....................

Check on selves..................

Foreign items...................

Cash..........................

Coupons..........................

Paying teller Note teller General ledger Collection clerk Receiving teller Coupon receiving department.

Cash and coupons sent in regular remittance letters may be omitted from the mail teller's work. In this case he should obtain an initial on the letter for the items so delivered and indicate plainly on the letter that they are omitted from his work. (See the Figure.) It may be considered better bookkeeping for the mail teller to charge himself with the total amount of the letter and take credit for all items charged to the different departments, but it is better practice not to allow him to keep such negotiable things as cash and coupons for any length of time. The charges to the different departments are made from the actual items.

With the foregoing remarks in mind, let us return to the clerks who are checking off the letters. Since the clearing hour is 10 o'clock, the first thing that must be disposed of is the exchanges. The clerks check off the items and lay the checks for clearing house in one pile, the route items in another, the foreign in another and the checks on selves in another. The currency and other items are left with the letters. The letters and checks are collected by boys and delivered to the men who are attending to the detail in connection therewith. The letters should be taken in hand immediately by a responsible clerk or junior officer. All regular remittance letters are turned over to the mail teller and all letters containing only collection items are handed to the collection clerk. Special letters requiring attention by the officers are handed to the proper parties for attention.

The exchanges will, in the meantime, have been endorsed, sorted, listed, proved, sealed and sent to the clearing house, together with those of the previous day put up by the receiving and note tellers. The total of the checks sent to the clearing house from this morning mail is known as "Morning additions," because they are added to those prepared as of the close of business on the day previous.

The messengers who have been collecting the items checked off by the clerks, endorsing the checks for the clearing house and sorting same, now list and prove the route items which they have also picked up, before going out to collect them. The total of the route items received in the morning mail is charged by the mail teller to the note teller.

The mail teller's own clerks then list the checks on selves and foreign items before turning them over to the departments to be charged with them. They also sort the letters in the order that the accounts appear on the ledgers and string them in convenient bundles for use in posting. The letters must first be listed in credit books. The kind of credit book to be used will vary with the other machinery of the bank, but it is probable that some method of tracing a remittance through the mail teller's books will be used, though the posting to the individual ledgers will be made directly from the letters. A convenient form of credit book is shown in Figure 70 on page 153. The names of customers might be printed, if plenty of space is allowed for new accounts. Some banks give each customer a number when opening an account and make all such records, which are really little more than summaries or memoranda when postings are made direct, by the use of these numbers. There is convenience and inconvenience in the method.

Mail Teller's Credit Book

Figure 70. Mail Teller's Credit Book.

Mail Teller's Settlement Book

Dr.

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Figure 71. Mail Teller's Settlement Book.

The mail teller's settlement book is shown in Figure 71 on page 153, and needs no explanation.