Investigate Your Costs

The folldwing was written byMr.F. L. Gilbert, of the firm of Ernst & Gilbert, especially for the "IJpsonizer," house organ printed by the Upson Company.

fgnorance may be bliss-in poetry-but not today in business.

We are no longer working on a wide margin of profit, selling goods at prices high enough to cover almost any kind of laxity, waste and inefficiency. Most business men now recognizc the prime importance of having and using complete and accurate data on costs and profits. Exact knowledge of costs and profits is a dependable guide to the avoidance or corrcction of mistakes and the discovery of leaks. Good accounting supplies the definite facts and figures which every business man must have in addition to his general familiarity with the situation, his understanding and instinct.

If his competitors have such facts and figures, he must have them.

In many fields of business, there is a uniform accounting system availablc.

This is designed to meet the needs of any concern in that particulag field. Usually, this so-called uniform or standard system is prepared under the auspices of A trade or industrial "association" The advantagcs of such a system, wfrcn propcrly developcd, arc that thc most practical, the simplest and the best accounting methods can bc obtained by the individual firm at thc lcast cost. Also a uniform basis for tfic exchange of statistical data rbflecting the cost of doing busincss can bc established among competitors.

In many industrics, an associauon acts as a clcaring.house for such data, compiling it from informationr which is handled in such