It will be noticed that the gains are larger than the contracts outstanding. This is accounted for by the fact that, during previous periods, no part of the Gains account had been carried to Profits, but was held in reserve on account of the heavy expense account. This gain is therefore on all sales made to this date, while the Contracts account has been continuously reduced by the monthly payments of purchasers. The method of determining and dividing these gains is shown in Section 219.