Deposit Slips And Cheques

On the deposit slip coming to him from the proper source, duly initialled by the teller, the ledger keeper is authorized to enter the amount as a credit in the account of the customer whose name is at the top. As he enters it, he puts his own initial on the slip along with the folio number, or page of his ledger on which the entry was made. Thus, when the junior gets the deposit slip it has on it the teller's initial at the foot alongside the total amount shown, and the ledger-keeper's initial alongside the folio number.

A cheque is an order on the bank by a customer to pay a certain sum of money to a party named, or to his order. In the possession of the bank, properly endorsed, after payment has been made to the rightful owner, the cheque becomes a voucher representing the payment of as much as it is drawn for. The customer's signature is the authorization to pay, and gives the document its virtue.

The teller need do nothing to it except cancel it, stamp it paid, and enter the amount in his book. The ledger-keeper must, of course, enter it in the customer's account. He must place on it also his initial and the folio, as he did upon the deposit slip. Now the ledger-keeper's entries must be checked every day by a senior officer. The checking is done by calling off from the cash-book to the ledger. To facilitate the operation the deposits and cheques require to be entered in the cash-book in their order as they come by folio numbers.

Three particulars are essential in entering deposits and cheques in the cash book. Indeed, the same three suffice for nearly all the other entries, credit and debit. They are the folio, the name of the account, and the amount. Thus, a specimen entry would be:"3. Allan, James T. $148.64."

Probably there would be, next, a considerable number of savings bank vouchers-deposits and cheques. These receive exactly the same treatment, except that they are entered in the savings bank ledger instead of the current account ledger.

In a banking system such as the Canadian, consisting of a relatively small number of banks, each with numerous branches, it is inevitable that the entries between branches should play a part of some importance in every day's transactions. Generally, it is found more practicable to keep these in a book by themselves; only the totals for the day require to be taken into the cash book. Then there are entries for quite a number of the accounts in the general ledger.

Balancing The Cash Book

Each slip, debit or credit, contains the particulars that are needed for the cash book. When all have been written in, and the summations of the items under each heading extended to the outer column on each side, the book is ready for balancing.

It is necessary first to balance with the teller. As all the vouchers have an influence on his cash balance, that officer does not allow them to leave his box until he has recorded them in his blotter. This blotter is the cash book in a condensed form. It may contain two or three columns on either side, one for each of the principal items. The amounts only are set in. There may be a column on either side for the current account entries, one for savings bank entries, and another for entries between branches. At the end of the day the totals of these special columns may be balanced with the same totals in the cash book, or in the supplementary books if such books are used; and the totals of the credit and debit sides must balance with the sides of the cash book. When the errors, if there are any, of the teller and the cash book writer, have been discovered and rectified, the cash balance is struck.

The cash held by the branch is divided into two sections: that held by the teller for carrying on the day-to-day transactions, and that held jointly by the manager and accountant as a reserve supply. The balance of both appears every day in the cash book. Here is a specimen "balance" of the cash:-

Thus, the teller must account for $3,517.04, the manager and accountant for $4,000.