In Post Exchange business, these machines are ordinarily used in recording all sales, although some Exchanges do not ring up their charge sales, but rely upon the sales slip alone, an unsafe practice. There is, besides, a saving in ringing up all sales. These machines, if properly handled, and used in conjunction with our stock records at selling price should amply protect the Exchange.

In order to secure the maximum benefit from a cash register, however, it should be suited to the work in hand. Many registers handle but two kinds of sales, charge and cash; but we have a third kind, coupon sales, and the registers in use by every department which handles all three kinds should be arranged for such work. This kind of a register has three separate adding mechanisms, the appropriate set being thrown into mesh by means of a movable clutch and indicator at the left of the keyboard. In ringing up each sale, the clerk sets the indicator at “cash”, “coupons” or “charge”, as the case may be, before turning the handle; the total sales of any kind can be read at any time by anyone possessing the key which unlocks the reading window. Thus, the Steward, at the close of business on any day, can ascertain these totals in a few seconds, instead of having to transfer them from the cash register record tape to the adding machine. Thus, considerable time and labor are saved.

We should also be able to tell which clerk made every sale. This is accomplished by having a separate push button for every clerk and requiring the clerks to punch the proper button before ringing up their sale. The record tape of the machine will then show the full particulars of every sale—how much it was, what kind of a sale it was and who made it.

The size of the keyboard is determined by the probable value of the largest sale. In departments where there can be but two different kinds of sales, say charge and cash, a machine without the movable clutch can be used.

A modern development of the cash register is the “Slip Printing” device. By this, we mean the printing of the amount of sale on the sales slip itself, instead of on the “chop ticket”. In our system of recording charge sales, where the customer is given a copy of the sales slip, it is unnecessary for him to have the chop ticket, too, but it is necessary for us to know that his sales slip calls for the same amount that has been rung up on the register. For this purpose, the register can and should be arranged for “Slip Printing”, that is, for printing directly on the sales slip whatever amount is rung up on the register. This arrangement can be made without extra cost in the case of a new machine. The sales slip then handed to the customer then shows him exactly what amount was rung up on the register. The slip shown in Fig. 1 was treated in this way, although the slip was not originally designed for this work. Another slip is shown in Fig. 38. A cash register embodying the above described characteristics is shown in Fig. 39.

It is apparent that if we can be sure that all sales are rung up on the register the Exchange can suffer no loss except by persons taking stock from the shelves, a proposition which is cared for by our stock records. Therefore, it is important to devise means for insuring that every sale is properly rung up. There are various means to this end. One is to provide a series of locked boxes, one for each organization at the post, each provided with a slit in the cover large enough to admit a chop ticket. These boxes to be plainly labelled with the designation of the respective organizations, and all customers to be instructed to drop their chop tickets into these boxes. Whenever dividends are declared, a certain proportion of same to be divided in the same proportion as exists among the total values of the tickets in the various boxes. Unless these tickets are counted by a committee from the various organizations, this scheme would entail considerable clerical work for the Exchange office force. The scheme practically amounts to distributing a part of the dividend according to the amount of business done by the respective organizations—a necessity in the rare case when one or more organizations boycott the Exchange. It is said that the members of the various organizations soon become efficient agents in promoting the practice of customers demanding the chop tickets from the clerks.

Another scheme is for the Exchange Officer to inspect the serial numbers of the sales recorded for a certain time, say one month, and to arbitrarily select some one of these numbers, publish a notice concerning same, and to present to the person who produces the chop ticket bearing that number, a credit at the Exchange of $5.00 or so. The Exchange could easily afford to do this, as the advantages accruing from having every sale rung up will more than counterbalance this small expenditure. Other devices will readily suggest themselves to those who are interested in the subject.

The Steward should, of course, keep accurate track of the readings of the various dials of the registers. Cash register companies issue books for this purpose. The keys to the registers should be jealously guarded, including those to the reading windows. A record should be kept of the readings of those dials which show how many times the lid of the register has been opened.

In leaving this subject, a further discussion of which is necessarily curtailed, it will be well to add that the best way to get satisfaction in this line is to write to the firm whose register you intend buying and ask them to send you their local representative and such descriptive literature as they may have at hand. It will then be an easy matter to secure a machine exactly suited to the needs of the case.