CHAFTER Xv 
ACCOUNTS 
IN a company of any magnitude the book-keeping and 
accounts will be under the control of a separate official, 
who may or may not be responsible to the directors through 
the secretary, but the secretary who desires to be efficient 
in the highest sense—and indeed every man wholly or par- 
tially controlling or directing a commercial undertaking— 
needs to be acquainted with the principles of accountancy, 
even if his duties do not actually demand executive ability in 
that direction. It is for this reason that this chapter is in- 
cluded. It is intended to be of assistance to the secretary in 
the execution of his duties to the directors of his company, 
and is not in any way a treatise on book-keeping or ac- 
countancy. There are many excellent works dealing with 
accountancy which can be consulted by any secretary who 
requires a deeper knowledge of the subject. 
The secretary is in a fiduciary position in relation to his 
directors, and through them to the proprietors of his com- 
pany, and in this sense the more abstruse side of accountancy 
interests him to a greater extent than the elements of book- 
keeping. He should be concerned with the results obtained 
by the book-keepers rather than with the actual machinery 
of book-keeping. In every large business in which the 
accounts are in the charge of a separate official, it may be 
taken for granted that an adequate system of book-keeping 
by double entry will be in use, and that it will be intelligently 
adapted to the particular business concerned, so that the 
results obtained may be clear and of practical service to the 
directors. 
If the secretary is directly responsible for the accounts 
he will necessarily, unless the business operations are very 
small in number, require the ‘assistance of a competent 
book-keeper whose work ir detail will be checked bv the 
auditors of the company. 
When there is a responsioi: 
the company, the secretar 
. accountant in the service of 
>a the directors, relies upon 
Duties of 
Secretary.