Of course, all this has taken no account of the overhead expenses or the fixed expenses. There is naturally no definite or positive way of segregating and assigning them, and yet it is reasonable to make a distribution of fixed expenses on the basis of floor space occupied, or some similar principle, while it is equally possible to distribute overhead charges on the basis of total operating outlay or some plan of the same sort. When the distribution has been made in this way the result is to give a surcharge which, when added to the actual operating expenses of the department, represents a total theoretical department outlay which may then be assigned to, or divided among, the different operations carried on in the department. Thus, for example, suppose that the pro-rata share of fixed and overhead expenses chargeable to the paying teller's department in a specified bank is $10,000, while the salaries of that department may be figured at, say, $90,000. Here the total expenses of the department would be considered as $100,000. A like method of computation may be followed throughout the whole of the institution. For example, suppose that the institution is divided into some five or six different groups, or sections, or departments, the sum total of the charge to the department for fixed and overhead expenses when added gives the aggregate outlay for overhead and fixed items, while as divided as among the different branches of work it represents the individual addition to their operating cost. It is now possible to get at least an approximate notion of the total expense involved in paying checks, or in receiving deposits, or in collecting items, and this may be assigned on the basis of number of operations performed - thus getting an approximate estimate of the cost of collecting a check, paying a check, receiving a deposit, clearing a check, etc. It is clear that the problem involved in this kind of apportionment or computation is a simple form of cost analysis or cost accounting, which merely involves the apportionment or assignment of elements of outlay to the purposes or operations which give rise to them.