Principles of Book-keeping for Insurance Students

Abstract

Although Book-keeping has been for many years one of the subjects of examination prescribed for students of the Faculty, it is an open secret that it has been somewhat neglected by them. One reason for this is that the elementary text-books are rather discouraging, with their continual references to hogsheads of wine and bales of cloth; and another is that the writings on Insurance Book-keeping proper assume a certain amount of knowledge which, I fear, the average student does not possess.In the notes which follow I have endeavoured to begin at the beginning, and to impart as much information as will enable the student to understand the books of an office and the entries made in them. I have made no attempt to teach the art of Bookkeeping or to describe the numerous auxiliary books in use. The forms of these vary very much in different offices and have been fully treated of elsewhere.My paper divides itself roughly into three parts. The first is rudimentary; the second describes the principal books in use, dwelling specially on those which are common to all offices; and in the third I have given specimens and explanations of such entries in the books as a beginner is apt to find difficulty in understanding.