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SECRETARIAL PRACTICE
Central v. In the organisation of a large office, there should be either a

Departmen- filing office connected with each department of the under-

tal Filing. taking, or a central filing office supplying the needs of all
departments. Advocates of both methods are to be found:
those who prefer the central office point to economy of labour
and the advantages of centralisation. It is suggested, how-
ever, that the balance of advantage lies with the method first
mentioned. It is quite easy, if the departmental filing staff
is not fully occupied with the work of filing, to arrange supple-
mentary duties, and so to avoid waste of labour, while the
great advantage—since time is so frequently ‘of the essence
of the contract’—in having a filing staff identified with each
department, lies in the rapidity with which the desired file
may be obtained. Centralisation may be theoretically sound
but in practice there is much to be said for the departmental
method; indeed, it may even be found that in distinct sections
of a given department it is desirable to file the papers of such
sections apart from those which are in the custody of the
filing office. Such exceptions, however, should be well defined,
for reasons too apparent to need enumeration. The point
to be emphasised is, that methods of organisation should not
be so rigidly enforced as to hamper speedy, efficient and
simple working.

Loose Copies. In many modern offices the press copying of the outwards
mail is dispensed with, or, if retained, loose copies (carbon,
if typed, or loose press copies, if hand written) of all letters
are made in addition to the copies in the letter-book. The
loose copy is an integral factor in the filing system, and its
existence is assumed throughout this chapter, as no efficiently
organised office can work at the speed demanded to-day, if
reference has constantly to be made both to a letter-copying
book and a file consisting only of inwards letters. In an office
which is a head office, or one of a number of branches, two
copies of each outwards letter should be made in all relative
cases, one for filing on the branch or head office file, and the
other for the subject file.

A register dealing with inwards and outwards letters and
containing, in one entry, the dates of receipt and reply, the
correspondent’s name, the subject, and the reference to the
file of correspondence, should be kept with unfailing prompti-
tude. Such a register is invaluable for reference, and is
needed to supplement the actual filing of correspondence.
Each inwards letter should be stamped with the date of
receipt, and endorsed with the file number if a numerical
system of filing is employed, or caption, in the case of an
alphabetical system.

Register.