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CONCLUSIONS

1. The Committee recommends that changes in the Manual, as submitted in Appendix A, be approved and the revised matter be substituted for the present subject-matter in the Manual.

2. The Committee reports progress on the subject of cost-keeping methods and statistical records, and recommends that it be reassigned.

3. The Committee submits three forms, shown here as Exhibits A, B, and C, revisions of those offered last year, and recommends their adoption and publication in the Manual. Appendix C also covers progress report, and the Committee recommends the continuation of the subject.

4. The Committee has under study the subject of the feasibility of reporting engineering data in graphic form and recommends that it be reassigned.

5. The Committee reports progress on the subject of the feasibility of reducing the number of forms used in the Engineering and Maintenance of Way Departments, combining forms and simplifying those retained, and recommends that it be reassigned.

6. The Committee recommends the adoption and publication in the Manual of the Electrical Symbols given under Exhibit D and that the Architectural Symbols shown under Exhibit E be accepted as information and the subject continued.

7. The Committee reports progress and recommends reassignment of the subject of methods for recording and accounting for the determination of proper allowances for maintenance of way expenses due to increased use and increased investment.

Recommendations for Future Work

For next year's work your Committee recommends the continuation of the first seven subjects.

Respectfully submitted,

THE COMMITTEE ON RECORDS AND ACCOUNTS,

H. M. STOUT, Chairman.

Definitions.

Appendix A

(1) REVISION OF MANUAL

ACCOUNT. (Present text)

A Statement required to enable payment to be made for labor performed and material furnished or to establish the detail, total and comparative cost of work and various classes of expenses. ACCOUNT. (Revision)

A Statement required to enable payment to be made for labor performed, material furnished or to establish the detail, and total cost of work or class of expense.

LEDGER ACCOUNTS. (Present text)

Statements kept in ledger form in order to establish the detail, total and comparative cost of individual pieces of work or classes of expenses.

LEDGER ACCOUNT. (Revision)

An account of an individual piece of work or class of expense kept in ledger form.

Appendix B

(2) COST-KEEPING METHODS AND STATISTICAL RECORDS AND EMBRACING THE SUBJECT OF FORMS FOR ANALYZING EXPENDITURES FOR ASSISTANCE

IN CONTROLLING EXPENDITURES

H. BORTIN, Chairman; E. B. FITHIAN, W. F. OGLE, H. J. SARGENT, W. A. VAN HOOK, Sub-Committee.

When your sub-committee reported progress last year it had hoped that the railroad conditions which have a bearing on our subjects would so improve as to make a final report this year desirable and practicable.

Shortly after the March, 1921, convention a start was made by the Chairman and one of the near-by members of the Committee toward outlining a program for the preparation of a final report, but it soon became apparent that under the existing railroad situation your sub-committee could not do justice to its subject if it prepared and submitted a final report this year.

At a meeting of the sub-committee on July 11, 1921, which was attended by the full membership of the sub-committee (except one), as well as by the Chairman of the main Committee, and also at a subsequent meeting on September 7, 1921, it was the unanimous opinion that a final report, such as was planned in the 1919 Report of Fundamental Principles, could best be prepared after the existing railroad situation became more stabilized.

The changing conditions and requirements in cost-keeping methods and statistical records and in forms for controlling expenditures which were brought about, first, by Government control and operation of the railroads, then, by the return to private operation, and later, by the provisions of the Transportation Act with the various accounting problems which each of these developments introduced, together with the fact that various official committees of the railroads, the Interstate Commerce Commission, etc., are now developing much data that would be helpful and necessary to embody in the final report of this sub-committee, all these and other practical conditions dictated to the sub-committee the necessity of postponing a final report.

It is the agreed plan of this sub-committee to keep in touch with the data and progress made by the various official committees of the railroads and the I.C.C., who have charge of the collection and compilation of data pertaining to operating expense standards and to other features which bear on our subjects.

With this data soon available, together with data and forms representing the current practice and experience of representative individual railroads, this sub-committee expects to have sufficient information to illustrate and apply concretely the following principles of its preliminary report of 1919 by which the value of all forms, cost-keeping methods and statistical records may be tested:

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(3) FORMS FOR RECORDING DATA FOR KEEPING UP TO DATE PROPERTY CHANGES AND VALUATION OF

PROPERTY OF RAILROADS

HENRY LEHN, Chairman; E. B. CRANE, H. F. SHARPLEY, CHAS. SILLIMAN, T. H. STRATE, Sub-Committee.

The following three forms were submitted to the Association last year as information: (a) Detailed Estimate Sheet to accompany and supplement the Authority for Expenditures, (b) Register of Authorities for Expenditures, and (c) Equipment Completion Report.

These forms have been given further study this year, resulting in some changes to the first two. The forms as now presented are here shown as Exhibits A, B, and C. They are recommended for adoption.

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Pill in Individuals A Companies, Profit and Loss, Misc. Physical Property
or other account titles as circumstances require.

EXHIBIT A-DETAILED ESTIMATE SHEET

Specifications-Form as shown. Size 81⁄2x11 inches. Printed on white light bond paper; all lines and printing black.

Instructions for use-Each Request for Authority for Expenditure should be accompanied by a detailed estimate of the project on this form, unless the proposed change in the property is so small and so simple that it is deemed unnecessary to show the details of the estimate. It should be signed by the maker and approved by various officers in accordance with the prevailing organization. One copy to be attached to each copy of the A. F. E.

A complete estimate on this form should show:

1. Reference to the plan, if any-date, number and origin.

2. A brief and concise description and location of the project.

3. Estimate of cost in detail.

4. Credits, if any, for material to be recovered, etc., such as salvage from false-work, temporary tracks, and in case of a renewal on account of fire the amount of insurance recovered, and anything else that is a proper credit to the project.

5. Distribution of estimated cost as between Additions, Betterments, Renewals, Replacements, Retirements and between Other Companies and Individuals.

6. Ledger value, Estimated if not known, of property which is to be retired.

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