Checking The Vouchers

Early next morning, before the bank opens, the vouchers are to be checked with the cash book. There are several reasons why this should be done by the manager. In the first place, he acquires a knowledge of all that has happened in the office, and learns something more of what his customers are doing, from the personal examination of every cheque and voucher passed through. Secondly, the checking of the vouchers with the cash book is one of the important safeguards against embezzlement by the clerks; and it is proper that it be done by the responsible head of the branch. Then, like all other checking, it is a means of detecting and correcting mistakes.

To do the work thoroughly, the manager must look at every voucher in the bundle, examine the entry of every item, and satisfy himself as to the authenticity and correctness of the items entered in the supplementary books and of the totals transferred from them. As he passes each item he places his special tick mark against it, and when all are ticked he checks the additions and extensions, the balancing, and the record of the treasury cash. On the completion of it all he signs or initials the cash book alongside the cash balance, and the record of transactions becomes established and authorized.

It has been mentioned already that the teller, on paying cash or allowing credit for cheques drawn on the bank, or for debit slips, immediately proceeded to cancel them and stamp them paid. The manager again, on checking them, may draw his pen cornerwise across each voucher, or make some other mark as a sign that he has seen and passed it.

Sorting The Vouchers

As soon as the checking is concluded, he uses the perforating stamp on all the cheques and debit slips. These, being signed by customers, or initialled by himself or the accountant, constitute, until they are cancelled, authorizations for the payment of the bank's money, and they must be accorded a treatment that will block effectively any attempts on the part of the officers or of others to put them through the books fraudulently a second time.

The vouchers now are given to the junior for sorting away. The paid cheques of the bank's customers are to be returned to them when their pass books are balanced at the end of the month; and they must be sorted so that they can then be produced easily and readily. Sometimes they are sorted in boxes with card indices, sometimes in pigeon holes.

The other vouchers remain in the bank's possession, and all that is required is that they be sorted and placed in such a manner that any clerk can find any particular entry without having to make laborious search.

Other Duties Of The Junior

Besides the duties enumerated, sundry other tasks are frequently given the junior to perform in the small branches. He generally has to draw the drafts issued to customers for remitting to their creditors in other places, and those issued to other banks in settlement for collections. The requisition slips contain the necessary particulars. Being credit slips in effect, they must have the teller's initial before they can be acted upon; and he, of course, does not initial them till he has a co-relative amount in cash or debit entries. A record of all drafts issued is kept in the draft register.