Chapter VI - Bills, Receipts And Accounts Page 02
DISCOUNT IN TRADE
It is a business custom, when a bill is paid before it is due, to allow a discount. This may be the legal rate of interest, or any percentage agreed on in advance.
Sometimes wholesale merchants or manufacturers grant esteemed customers, in consideration of prompt payments, a discount from the regular prices. This is known as "trade discount."
We often read of two or more discounts. A store keeper buys a bill of goods for $350 and is granted 20% and 5% from the selling price.
This does not mean a discount of 25% as the uninitiated might think. The 20% is deducted from the $350, that is, $70, leaving $280. Then the 5%, $14, is deducted from this, leaving $260.
Partial payments are not endorsed on the bill. The receipt is written on a separate piece of paper. It differs from the usual receipt in that the one is "in full payment" and the other "on account."
Receipt no bill before it is actually paid.
Some one has translated the letters "C. O. D." into "Come omejitly Down." The Collect on Delivery usually accompanies goods sent by express.
FORMS OF RECEIPTS
A receipt for a partial payment:
Leavenworth, Kansas. December 7, 1910. $75.00 Received from Charles Long seventy-five dollars on account. Henry S. Somers.
A receipt in full:
San Diego, Cal. July 27, 1910. $260.75 Received from N. O. Taylor, two hundred and sixty 75-100 dollars, in full payment to date. Samuel G. Novris.
Another form:
Portland, Me. October 20, 1910. $40.00 Received from Thomas Moore, ten cords of hardwood, at $4.00 a cord, the sum to be applied to his account. Daniel Forman.
In payment of rent:
$17.00 Received from William Forbes seventeen dollars in full payment of rent of premises No. 24 West Street, for the month ending October 31, 1910. Philip F. Ross.
Where one person pays for another:
Wilmington, Del. August 17, 1910. $80.00 Received from Alfred Thompson eighty dollars to apply to the account of Hiram O. Wells. Baker Jones & Co., per, S. N. Thorp.
Receipts and other documents signed with a mark X should be witnessed.
Payment on a note:
Bridgeport, Conn. July 1, 1910. $150.00 Received from Casper N. Work one hundred and fifty dollars to apply on the payment of his note to me for six hundred dollars, dated March 8, 1910. Ruben Hoyt.
The maker of the note should, in addition to getting his receipt, have the amount of his payment endorsed on the back of the note by the holder.
Where a receipt is given to the administrator of an estate his position should be named as "Robert Fields, administrator of the estate of John Jones, deceased."
WHAT IS AN ORDER?
An order is a command or instruction by one person to another to do a stated thing.
An order may be given for the delivery of goods or the payment of cash.
This is the usual form:
Dayton, Ohio. August 3, 1910. Mr. G. W. McBride: Please deliver to Edward Lott goods from your store to the amount of ten dollars, and charge to my account. F. T. Leroy.
This would be an order for cash:
Holden, Ind. June 18, 1910. $30.00 Mr. P. T. Mayhew. Please pay to Thomas Jackson thirty dollars and charge same to my account. F. R. Wilson.
A DUE BILL
The customary form of a due bill is:
Durham, N. C. May 1, 1910. $10.00 Due George Smith ten dollars, payable in merchandise from my store. S. T. Long.