BOOKKEEPING FOR THE OPERATOR
A SIMPLE SYSTEM FOR THE VENDING
MACHINE O PERATO R W H O W ANTS
TO KN O W W HAT HIS OPERATION
PRODUCES
By
R. H . ADAIR
If you operate merchandise
vending machines or any type
of coin operated equipment, you
should keep a record on your
business not only for your own
information but also for your
own protection.
To show what is meant by
“Protection” let us cite the case
of an Illinois operator. This
party became so irate about his
city placing a tax on vending
machines that he took his com
plaint to court. Even though
this operator was a forceful
talker and put up a splendid
fight for his rights, he lost the
case. Why? Simply because
when the judge asked for tangi
ble evidence in the form of
books or records the operator
could not produce any. In other
words, he could not concretely
prove to the satisfaction of the
court some of his own state-
ments as to the real earning
power of his vending machines.
This, of course, is an isolated
case. It may happen that your
town or city may never consider
passing any sort of tax on vend
ing equipment. However, using
the above operator as an exam
ple, just what sort of a chance
would YOU stand if your vend
ing equipment was taxed to
morrow? If you are keeping a
record of your operation, this
worry need never cross your
mind as you have black and
white evidence to back up any
and all your statements.
If, by chance, you are not now
keeping a record of your oper
ations, why not consider the fol
lowing simple system outlined
below?
The average operator of lc or
5c vending machines has usually
from 100 and upward of varied
ATLANTA SAYS. "HATS OFF" TO VICTORY
Assembled at the showrooms of the Hankin Distributing C o ., W urlitzer distributors of
Atlanta, the following'music merchants got their first look at the W urlitzer Victory Model 950—
W alter W eibel, Morris Hankin, A rt Weinberg, Ed. Heath, Ray Payne, Je rry Merlin and L. D.
Smith. Somebody said, "W ow! I'll take my hat off to that phonograph!" Instantly every man
doffed his topper in tribute.
4
© International Arcade Museum
AUTOMATIC AGE
machines on location. Some
operators, of course, have less.
No matter how many machines
you have, the system explained
will be easy to keep and can be
changed or enlarged as you ex
pand.
Location C ard fo r Each Machine
The location card illustrated
here has been drawn up showing
how it works with lc and 5c
vending machines. As long as
you use the system outlined in
its basic form you can use the
cards along with amusement ma
chines, scales, or most any other
type of coin operated equipment.
There is no money for the oper
ator spending a great deal of
time in keeping up books. That
is why the system outlined has
been devised in the most simple
form. It takes a minimum of
time and yet tells all the impor
tant facts you need to know
about your machines.
To start out your bookkeeping
system you require a supply of
4” x 6" ruled file cards. The illus
tration shows a typical location
and the information that should
be recorded. You will notice
that key numbers are given,
space where time of servicing
can be shown, location of the
machine, the person who gave
permission or knows about the
machine, the rate of commis
sion, etc. It is well to have all
this data on the card in case you
have to have another person
service your vendors. Then too,
it is a valuable record in case
keys are lost or machines stolen.
When you have a card with
such information made for each
of your locations, it is well to
place them in a small file box.
If you do not have enough loca
tions to do this— simply punch
holes in the cards and place
them in a loose leaf notebook.
The main thing is to keep the
cards all together so you can re
fer to them easily.
If you wish to carry this sys
tem further you can place col
ored flags or tags on the top of
April, 1942
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