Cash Receipts At Once Go Under Cover

The cash contained in the deposits is sorted as quickly as possible into the place reserved for it in the cash drawer, the operation being used, if time allows, as a second counting or checking of the amount. One of the things impressed on nearly all tellers is that it is dangerous to leave cash lying on the counter. It may be snatched through the wicket in front. A teller, whose counter is often piled with odds and ends of cash from deposits, lays himself open to the charge of slovenliness. When the practice is followed of getting the cash contained in a deposit out of the way before tackling another, there is not the same danger of a mix-up of deposits, which might cause trouble if an error existed in either.

Cancelling The Paid Cheques

The cheques on the bank itself, contained in the deposits, are to be stamped paid and cancelled at once. The paid stamp is placed over the drawer's signature,* the cancelling is done by drawing the pen heavily through the signature. As they are dead documents, these cheques must be treated at once so that they will be not negotiable. Then they are put on a file, and, as the opportunity offers, entered in the blotter along with other vouchers and passed out to the other departments.

The remittances, as they come in on the deposits, are kept apart in a clip. In the shape in which they are received, many of them, being endorsed in blank, and thus payable to bearer, could be negotiated by parties wrongfully obtaining them. Danger from this source can be obviated by stamping them at once - the bank's name clearly on the face, and "Pay to the order of ------------- Bank" on the back, immediately over the last endorsement.

Remittances

To effect collection they must be sent away to the points on which they are drawn, or to clearing centres. They will be of two classes - those which can be sent to other branches of the bank, and those which must go to other banks or other correspondents. All must be entered in the remittance book. This book can be subdivided as desired. There may be the two subdivisions - for the branches and for others; or one or two of the principal branches, to which large numbers of remittances are sent, may be given places by themselves. A separate place may be given to items on the United States; also to items on England. The items are numbered, and full particulars of each recorded in the book, so that all the necessary information for procuring duplicates is available. The remittances sent to branches are debited to the branches to which they are sent; the others are debited to the correspondent, if sent, for example, to a New York bank for credit of account, and to an account in the general ledger, which may be styled: "Cash Items," "Remittances," "Bank Collections," or something else, if they are sent for collection and remittance.

Items Sent To Clearing Centres

It is possible to debit to the branches some of the items on points where the bank has no branches. By way of example, let us suppose a bank in Ontario receives a cheque on some Nova Scotia point where the Bank of Montreal had a branch. The bank in Ontario might send it at debit to its own Montreal branch for the face amount, less the commission that the Bank of Montreal, Montreal, would charge for negotiating the item. Thus it would be cleared in Montreal.

This can be done without risk with certified cheques, drawn on banks of undoubted strength. A point that has to be considered is that the process causes a delay of a day in the presentment of the cheque at the bank on which it is drawn. As a rule, the bank is under obligation to forward these items to the places at which they are domiciled as quickly as possible. Should it happen that an item is sent by the slower process and the drawer or the drawee fail before it is presented, there might be a case against the bank for damages if the customer who deposited the item can prove that it would have been duly honored had it been sent direct.