Part 47

To separate the sale of regular goods from goods which are being sold on consignment, as follows:

Generally the invoice is wide enough to reach over the total column only, as shown in Fig. 12. Therefore, a total amount written in the total column of the invoice will manifold onto the sales sheet, and in the column marked Total.

A wide-carriage billing machine, if used, can be adjusted with tabulator stops to jump to any column desired. The total amount is then written therein a second time. The amount of the total column should always equal the total of all the columns placed to the right of the total column. This plan eliminates the old way of waiting until the end of the month, and then laboriously going over the sales book with one total column only, and picking out the various items according to the classification wanted.

Fig. 12. Loose-Leaf Sales Sheet and Invoices with Columns for Distribution of Labor and Stock ]

The work should be planned in a manner which permits of each day's work being finished each day—leaving nothing to accumulate until the end of the month, necessitating the retracing of steps to secure certain statistical information.

In certain lines of business it is desirable to make two sales sheets, one of which is retained in a binder for an office record and the other is used for various purposes. It can be used as record of sales from a branch to a home office, each page being numbered in duplicate, and of a distinctive color. This is the plan used all over the world by the Standard Oil Company. As the sales sheets arrive at the home office, they are placed in their respective binders and are gradually made into a built-up book. The loss of a sheet would be instantly detected by the missing page number.

A large French perfumery firm in New York pursues this plan, and sends to Paris the duplicate sales sheet on thin paper. It gives the home office a fine record of every invoice sent out to any customer by the branch office or warehouse. As several invoices can be manifolded on each page, and on both sides of the sheet, it is the most economical method of billing as far as stationery is involved. The name condensed billing indicates this fact.

In other instances, the duplicate sales sheet is wide enough only to allow quantity and description of goods to be manifolded thereon, prices and extensions not showing. This narrow sheet can be used for posting to the stock records without disclosing to that department the prices at which the particular goods have been sold. This form of the sales sheet is shown in Fig 13.

=Duplicate Invoices.= There are many reasons, in various lines, why duplicate invoices are desirable and even necessary. Some customers request invoices rendered in duplicate with one copy complete, the other minus the prices and extensions. To accomplish this, it is either necessary to place a piece of paper between the carbon and duplicate invoice in such a manner that the prices and extensions will not copy, or to use a short invoice cut off at the left of the price column, or to use a short piece of carbon paper between the original and second, or duplicate, invoice.

It is desirable to make extra copies of invoices or duplicates for the use of various departments of a business, for instance, analysis of sales by salesmen. Where a company employs a large number of salesmen, it is very convenient to file in binders a duplicate copy of all invoices sold by each salesman, using a binder for each salesman. This is preferable to having separate columns in the sales book (sales sheets in binders). The latter method permits each salesman to see what every other salesman is doing.

Fig. 13. Sales Sheet for Condensed Billing ]

=Department Records.= A separate binder allows each man to consult his record without inconvenience to any other one. In large companies having a traffic department, it is necessary to provide a duplicate copy of each invoice for the record, showing complete details of every charge.

A distinction should be made between those firms who make their invoices before the goods are shipped, and those who make the invoices after the goods have been shipped. In the cloak business, for instance, the goods are generally billed before the goods are shipped, the invoice being placed in an envelope and packed with the goods.

Ofttimes the goods are manufactured in proper quantities, properly checked from the order to the packers' table, and then packed improperly—some customer receiving too many garments, another, too few. Yet the order will be properly checked. To obviate this difficulty, a scheme was devised whereby the packer received a duplicate typewritten copy of the bill (or invoice) showing everything but the quantities. This makes it necessary for the packer to count all the garments and mark down in pencil on this copy of the bill the quantity of each style and kind to be shipped. Before the goods are shipped, the packer's copy of the invoice, with his quantities marked in lead pencil, is compared with the quantities charged on the sales sheet. This scheme forces the packer to count all garments instead of double checking someone else's figures in an absent-minded, or even neglectful, way.

This is accomplished by placing a narrow strip of paper over the quantity column of the duplicate invoice, but under the carbon paper. The quantity figures manifold onto the strip of paper instead of onto the duplicate invoice. This plan is termed using a blind. The narrow strip of paper between the invoice and duplicate is the blind described a little further on.

The next step in short cutting work is the printing of a label in connection with the invoice and sales sheet. In the book business, where it is generally possible to fill orders from stock, and where the invoice can be made before the goods are shipped, it is possible to place a small piece of paper (the label) between a folded invoice in such a manner that when the name is written on the invoice it manifolds onto the label as well as onto the duplicate invoice and sales sheet.

=Analysis of Quantities and Amounts.= In certain lines of business which sell three or four varieties of goods, it is desirable to analyze the weights or quantities in the proper columns, which in turn manifold onto the sales sheets, as shown in Fig. 14.

Fig. 14. Sales Sheet for Analyzing Quantities and Amounts of Goods ]

This saves a great deal of time as compared with making out the same invoice in the following way:

3000 # Brass Rods @20 $60.00 2500 # Brass Bars @21 $52.50 1000 # Zinc Bars @15 $15.00

By following the first plan, all of the weights for the respective classes of goods will be manifolded into the proper columns, and it is therefore an easy matter to total each column, and at the end of the month the classification of sales will be totaled according to weights as well as according to dollars and cents. The invoice is ruled to match the sales sheet.

=Information on Sales Sheet Not on Invoice.= In certain lines of business, such as wire-screen manufacture, it is desirable at times to substitute the next size of wire in order to fill orders promptly. In such cases, it is necessary to have the invoice show the size of wire ordered, but to have the sales sheet show the size really sent. It would seem impossible therefore to write No. 8 wire on the invoice and have No. 9 wire manifold on the sales sheet.

The idea used to accomplish the desired result is to place the invoice in such a position with relation to the sales sheet that a margin is left on the left-hand side of the sales sheet, which would permit the operator typewriting directly on the sales sheet, and placing thereon the actual size of the wire shipped. The size ordered would be written on the invoice in the regular manner, and of course would manifold onto the sales sheet.

There are other cases where it is desirable to use this idea. For instance, wholesale dry goods firms when purchasing dry goods from eastern manufacturers request the latter when billing to use lot numbers furnished by the purchaser. It is also necessary for the manufacturers to bill the goods according to their own lot numbers. Hence it becomes necessary to have both the customer's lot number and their own on the sales sheet. This is accomplished by writing their own lot numbers directly upon the sales sheets at the left of the invoice and then making the invoice out in the regular way. This idea carries out the customer's wishes, and always gives a comparison of lot numbers to the manufacturers on their sales sheets. Flat-bed machines require wider invoice, Fig. 15.

=Goods Purchased Outside.= It is possible to make a short cut in some lines of business where the goods sold are not kept in stock but are purchased from other firms in the same city. When placing the invoice in the billing machine over the sales sheet, requisition blanks in duplicate or triplicate can also be placed in the machine with the invoice, and the items which have to be ordered outside written first on the invoice. When all of these items have been entered on the invoice, the requisition blanks may be removed, and the invoice and sales sheet left in the billing machine, putting the remaining items which are to be shipped and charged on the invoice (sales sheet). This occurs where orders can be shipped complete.

This plan can also be used when writing up the order, where the billing is done after the goods are shipped. It is to be remembered that there is a great distinction to be made in handling the billing work of firms who are able to fill their own orders complete, as contrasted with those firms who have to wait until goods are shipped in order to determine which items to bill. Some firms who always carry a complete stock are able to make up an invoice and order blank, a label for the express package, and a charge on sales sheet, simultaneously, because they know that they can ship every item called for, and consequently do not have to wait to see what items are shipped before billing them.

Fig. 15. Form to Provide on Sales Sheet Information not on Invoice ]

=Unit Billing.= The unit idea in billing has grown considerably in the last few years, notwithstanding that the size of the bills have to be uniform, and as large an invoice has to be used for one item as for a large bill. Many firms prefer the unit idea to the condensed sales sheet idea.