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