RAILWAY ACCOUNTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 100, 30 April 1938, Page 10

RAILWAY ACCOUNTS

MECHANICAL AIDS

STRIKING DEMONSTRATION

The largest meeting in the history of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Society of Accountants —an attendance of 250 members—was held in the rooms of the Railways Accountancy branch at the Railway Station on Thursday evening. The main purpose of the meeting was to see demonstrations of New Zealand's largest installation of mechanical aids for accounting and other operations on figures.

In a room with a floor space of more than 2000 square feet, there are 44 machines, including key-punchers, sorters, tabulators, calculators, adders, addressographs, bookkeepers, and a multigraph. Altogether the branch occupies a floor space of 13,240 square feet. The staff, including travelling auditors, numbers 120, of whom 60 are women.

The visitors' remarks indicated that, although they had expected to see some astonishing feats, their anticipation had been exceeded.

Mr. G. H. Mackley, General Manager of Railways, in welcoming the members of the society, said it was a pleasure to meet so many members of a profession with which his Department had a good deal in common. His staff and himself had felt very proud indeed when a colleague, Mr. H. Valentine, had been elected president of the New Zealand Society of Accountants, which included a number of railway officers.

The Chief Accountant (Mr. W. Bishop) referred to the wide range of statistical and accounting work required for an enterprise which had a total staff of more than 22,000. He remarked that all the accounting work could not possibly be centralised in the head office, but the work was so organised that it was all controlled and audited by his staff. The Controller and Auditor-General also had a representative permanently attached to the office. Altogether, every possible precaution was taken to ensure accuracy of operations and to safeguard the Department from- fraud. In addition to. the audit work carried on in the Chief Accountant's office, there were travelling audit inspectors attached to his staff. They visited each station, and made an intensive check of all the accounts at isast once a year. Prior to 1925 the railway accounts had been kept on a cash basis, and no provision had been made for depreciation. Then Mr. H. Valentine completely reorganised the accounts. Provision was then made for depreciation and for the accounts to be kept'on a double entry basis. A complete system for the compilation of accounting and statistical data was evolved in keeping with that followed on the English and American railways. By using mechanical methods, wherever practicable, it had been possible to prepare this data without increasing the staff or cost beyond that which obtained before the reorganisation. THE HELPFUL WbGET SYSTEM. Mr.' Bishop mentioned that the budget system was in operation in connection with the railway accounts. Budgets were prepared by district officers four-weekly for their anticipated expenditure for the ensuing four weeks. These budgets were submitted to the respective heads of branches for perusal and revision, if necessary. A committee consisting of the heads of the operating branches and the chief accountant then met ,and the various increases and decreases were discussed. If the committee was satisfied that the budget was reasonable, it was passed for submission to the General Manager for. approval. The great benefit of the budget was that district officer's and heads of branches were kept constantly in touch with the many items of expenditure and were in a position to reduce any proposed expenditure which was not considered essential. The actual results when available were compared with the estimates, and we're also dealt with by the budget committee. The costing system in the Railways Workshops enabled the foremen to know how they were getting on with various jobs day by day. LIVE FIGURES FOR GUIDANCE. "As you go through our office tonight you' will see our method of compiling statistics and the uses they are put to in the final cost statements which are prepared and issued to all controlling officers," concluded Mr. Bishop. "Our endeavour is to produce live figures and not merely historical records. This is only possible by using up-to-date machine methods. You will find many different makes and types of machines, each of which has been obtained for a particular purpose. Where a large volume of routine work is' involved, the job is studied, and, if practicable and economical, a machine is procured. You will find many instances where machines are doing what would otherwise be very laborious jobs.. I would specially draw your attention to two high-speed calculators which work at 900 revolutions per minute and which I find are real timesavers. You will find in the exhibits income and expenditure accounts, cost statements, and statistical data for all branches of our operations, including all our subsidiary undertakings. "All these statistics would lose much of their value if- compiled only for the whole service. It is necessary that the data should be prepared for suitable areas so that the controlling officers can make the best possible use of the information." Mr R. H. D. Hall (who presided in the absence of the branch chairman, Mr. H. C. Rose) thanked the Department for the opportunity to hear Mr. Bishop's "interesting explanation of the accounting system and to see the excellent mechanical equipment in operation. • .