Entries In The Collection Diary

Those bills which the junior brings back "Acceptance refused" are marked off "Returned" in the collection register, and are then sent back to the parties from whom received, the reasons for refusal being given. Those which are accepted are placed with the other completed local bills, and all are prepared for the "diary." Each one must be examined to see if the acceptance and other particulars are perfectly regular and formal. Then they must be due-dated. Each bill must have, in the particular place and manner affected by the branch, the date of its maturity set out clearly and plainly. This done, they are ready for entering. The junior acknowledges the receipt by him of collections coming through the mail by initialling the letters that contain them. Now, he is about to pass them on, with the responsibility connected with them, to another officer. His entering them in the diary marks the end of his connection with them - for the present at least.

In connection with the handling of bills and notes of all kinds, one of the gravest responsibilities lies in making the proper presentment on the date of maturity. Every bill held by the bank, due on a certain day, must be presented at the place of payment during banking hours on that day. If it is not, dire consequences may follow. Recourse against a good endorser for a bad or doubtful promissor may be lost through non-presentment. If the endorser takes advantage of the slip, the bank, as holder of the bill, is responsible for the damage suffered by the owner.

The Diary System Of Inter-Checking

For convenience, and as a safeguard against costly errors, an inter-checking system for handling bills had to be devised. The diary is one part of this system, the bill-case is the other. As the name implies, the diary is a book in which the working or juridical days of the year are set out consecutively, a half-page or a whole page being given to each day As they are received and completed, all the bills are entered in the diary on the page or half-page assigned to their respective due-dates. It is part of the teller's duties at the beginning of each day to take over and initial for the bills shown by the diary to be due that day. The bill-case furnishes a check as follows: its compartments are numbered consecutively from "one" to "thirty-one." The officer keeping it sorts the bills for three months or more in advance in these numbered compartments. Thus, the bills in the compartment for each date should be the same as those recorded in the diary for the same day.

The diary does not contain such full particulars of each bill as are necessary in the collection register. It is sufficient if enough details are given to identify the bill and to remit or account to its owner, so that he in turn can identify it. After they are entered in the diary, the bills are handed over to one of the high officers of the branch-to the manager if the branch be very small, to the accountant at larger branches. As it is a matter of importance, for the reasons already mentioned, that the bills be properly completed, due-dated, and entered, it is the duty of this high officer to carefully read over each bill, to check the due-dates and the entering. In order that the responsibility for mistakes can be properly placed, it is customary for the officer who does checking of this kind to place his initial or particular sign opposite each item he checks. Then, in the event of loss or trouble resulting from a mistake passing him without detection, the responsibility is divided between the man who made the error and the man who should have discovered it in the checking. On this checking being finished, the bills are filed away in the bill-case, the keeper of which, nearly always the manager, formally "takes them over" by initialling for each bill, usually in the collection register.