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Principles of Book-keeping for Insurance Students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Robert Murrie
Affiliation:
Scottish Equitable Life Assurance Society
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Extract

Although Book-keeping has been for many years one of the subjects of examination prescribed for students of the Faculty, it is an open secret that it has been somewhat neglected by them. One reason for this is that the elementary text-books are rather discouraging, with their continual references to hogsheads of wine and bales of cloth; and another is that the writings on Insurance Book-keeping proper assume a certain amount of knowledge which, I fear, the average student does not possess.

In the notes which follow I have endeavoured to begin at the beginning, and to impart as much information as will enable the student to understand the books of an office and the entries made in them. I have made no attempt to teach the art of Bookkeeping or to describe the numerous auxiliary books in use. The forms of these vary very much in different offices and have been fully treated of elsewhere.

My paper divides itself roughly into three parts. The first is rudimentary; the second describes the principal books in use, dwelling specially on those which are common to all offices; and in the third I have given specimens and explanations of such entries in the books as a beginner is apt to find difficulty in understanding.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Institute and Faculty of Actuaries 1909

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References

page 22 note 1 “On the Book-keeping of a Life Office,” Transactions of the Faculty of Actuaries, vol. i., p. 189.

page 25 note 1 Some joint-stock companies put the Assets on the left hand, and the Liabilities on the right, but this is not usual.

page 26 note 1 It may be helpful to the student to consider “Interest” as equivalent to “Persons who pay interest.”

page 31 note 1 We have included the “Shareholders' Capital” account in the “Assets and Liabilities” class, as it is treated exactly like them.

page 44 note 1 “On Life Premium Book-keeping,” J. I. A., xxxviii. 619.

page 56 note 1 It will be a useful exercise for the student to write out the Journal Entries and Ledger Accounts by the second method.