375

BOOK-KEEPING ON WOODLAND ESTATES.

In addition to some convenient form of Control Book, as referred to on the opposite page, it is necessary for the forester to keep other books dealing with his cash accounts. At least five books are necessary-viz., 1. Cash Book ; 2. Daily-Labour and Piece-Work Book; 3. Sales-Book of Timber, &c.; 4. Ledger; and 5. Timber, &c., Stock-Book. But others may also with advantage be kept, though of course it is always desirable to restrict officework to the minimum consistent with maintaining proper business - like records. Thus, where there is a home-nursery, there should be a Nursery Stock-Book, and where a saw-mill is worked in connection with the woods, special Mill Accounts will also be necessary. These books should be of convenient size to suit the transactions on the estate, and should be large enough to contain the entries for several years.

1. Cash Book. This should be written up daily, and receipted vouchers taken for all payments made. A clear and simple form is as follows:

By using red ink for entering the sums above italicised, as showing that they have been received from (or remitted to) the estate office, and by having these entries in special columns, the clearness of the cash book is greater, and it is much easier to detect any error that may have crept into the accounts of any month.

There should be loose folios (as well as a bound cash book), which can very conveniently be used in submitting the monthly accounts (along with the necessary vouchers) to the estate office.

2. The Daily Labour and Piece-Work Book is simply the monthly abstract of the weekly pay-sheet of workmen employed in the woods, and of the payments for piece-work. The receipted weekly pay-sheets themselves, as also the receipts for the piece-work done, are of course used as vouchers in support of the items as they are entered in the cash book. Such weekly pay-sheets may be in the form of that on the opposite page, or any other convenient form.

Month by month an abstract of these, and of the piece-work completed and paid for, should be entered in the daily-labour book, the expenditure being allotted to the different heads in some such form as the following:

In any case, some such abstract is necessary in order to know the cost of work with regard to the estimates and the annual accounts, and it is far easier and more satisfactory to maintain the record from month to month than to try and compile it from the cash book at the end of the year.

Before entering into any important contract for piece-work a detailed specification should be drawn up, and a formal agreement signed by the contracting parties on stamped paper, setting forth the general conditions of the bargain. This should provide that payment is to be made monthly for such part of the work as may be finished to entire satisfaction by the end of each month, and that the signing of the receipt for any such portion as shall be paid for at the end of any month shall be held as a sufficient receipt for such sums as may have been paid and received on the work progressively; and in the cash book these sums can be entered as advances on account of work partly completed. It will usually, however, be most convenient to have an additional receipt in full made out and signed in the usual account form as a voucher on the completion of the whole work.

3. The Sales-Book of Timber, &c.-When large sales of timber are made by public auction, this is usually (at any rate in England) placed in the hands of an auctioneer, who lots, values, advertises, and sells the timber, then collects the money due from purchasers (less the usual discount of 2 per cent for cash down, or 10 per cent cash and balance paid after three months) and remits it to the estate office (p. 481). There is, however, nothing to prevent the forester obtaining an auctioneer's license and holding the auction himself, if the owner or agent thinks this preferable to paying the auctioneer's fees (usually 10 per cent). In this latter case an account must be kept of each Timber Sale by Public Auction, in some such form as that on page 378.

When an auctioneer is employed to sell the timber, the only timber sales-book required to be kept by the forester is that for Sales by Tender or by Private Contract, which may be kept in some such form as that on page 378, or else in any other particular form as may perhaps seem more convenient for the given circumstances; for example, as on page 379.

4. The Ledger is only necessary to be kept for accounts which extend for some time, as with J. Gordon, T. Grant, and G. Brown in the two above sales-books, and for large piece-work contracts when part-payments are made from month to month before the work is completed. Like the cash book, the ledger accounts are kept