174 SECRETARIAL PRACTICE

Prompt
Settlement.

Dividend Ar-
rangements.

attained by this method of treating the accounts is that
every transaction of the company is put through the journal,
and nothing is posted into the ledger except from the journal;
the ledger then balances; whereas in treating the cash book
as its own ledger account, the balance at the debit or credit
of the cash account has to be taken into account for the
purpose of balancing both sides of the ledger. The first
system is practically obsolete in this country, although it
is required by law in all countries governed by the Code
Napoleon. From the point of view of modern English or
American book-keepers, it is understood to entail con-
siderable unnecessary labour without material advantage.

While every care has to be exercised to bring into the
accounts month by month all the charges corresponding to
such month, special care will have to be exercised at the
closing of every accountancy period, and it will certainly
be within the province of the secretary to assure himself
that charges have been made for all commodities or services
which may be chargeable by the company, and on the other
hand that provision has been made for every liability affecting
the period of the accounts.

In addition to rent, rates, taxes, salaries and all the ordinary
expenses of the business, cognisance must of course be taken
of interest accrued in respect of debentures or other securities
where the interest is not actually contingent upon the earnings
of the company, and therefore not subject to declaration
or approval by the shareholders in general meeting.

The duties devolving upon the registrar (in some com-
panies on the accountant) in connection with the preparation
of dividend warrants should also be within the purview of
the up-to-date secretary.

In anticipation of the declaration of a dividend or the
payment of interest upon debenture stock there will naturally
oe prepared whatever number of dividend sheets may be
required, in the form approved by the secretary and the
board. The warrants will be stamped and numbered, with a
view to having everything in readiness to start writing them
out immediately any of the dividend sheets are completed.
Secretaries of large companies will find that the work of
preparing dividend sheets and warrants is minimised by the
nse of loose-leaf registers, addressing machines and cal-
culating machines.

The accountant or registrar will carefully check the warrants
with the sheets and will then pass them on to the secretary
or his authorised deputy for signature. It is now generally
considered that the signature or initial of the accountant
or registrar as having examined the warrant are sufficient fully