Clear trails;

              22 HASKINS & SELLS March
Clear Trails
ON E of the arguments often advanced
in favor of a corporation is that its
existence and continuity of operation do
not depend on the life of any particular
individual. Those who have relations
with the corporation may develop prefer­ences
as to the representatives through
whom they transact business. One indi­vidual
may be popular; another unpopu­lar.
There may be varying degrees of
efficiency among employes. One or many
employes may sever the connection. But
in the background, assuming the respon­sibility,
the corporation must take up its
place.
So in public accounting the practitioner
who establishes relations with clients must
carry on regardless of what happens. If
his practice is of sufficient size he may
need assistants. And he may be able to
employ assistants who will help him effect­ively
in his work. Some of these may
take more interest in the work and work
more intelligently than others. But again,
whether their work is good or bad, the re­sponsibility
for giving satisfaction to the
client rests with the practitioner.
The development of business in this
country has necessitated an intricate and
complicated organization fabric. Big
business calls for big organization. Con­sequently,
it has become necessary for
some of those who practice public account­ing
to organize so as to meet the demands
of large business enterprises with their
many sided interests and widely scattered
activities. Public accounting has assumed
a position, international as well as national,
in its scope.
It may, therefore, not seem illogical if
one of the principal problems of large
organization for accountancy practice is
found in the personnel and the working
trail which it establishes. Of necessity
large in number, shifting rapidly about,
traveling hither and yon, turning over and
fluctuating in size, the staff of any large
firm is a matter of no small importance
with which to reckon. Regardless of how
careful the selection or conscientious the
training, there is always much left to be
desired. On the other hand, even given
the spirit and the will, it is never possible
for the members of the staff to attain that
degree of perfection and smoothness which
would make them interchangeable like the
parts of a machine. The intelligent
thought which accountancy demands of its
practitioners, irrespective of grade or
rank, forbids that this should be so.
But there is offered in the form of work­ing
papers a means whereby the substi­tution,
replacements, or shifting of staff
may be effected with a minimum amount
of friction or lost motion, requests of clients
for assignment of certain men may often
be met, questions of clients answered and
involved situations explained. Not long
since the staff requirements of a newly
opened practice office made necessary the
transfer of a certain man. An important
client expressed great regret at this be­cause
the accountant was well into one of
his engagements which, although at the
time suspended, was to be completed at a
later date. The client was somewhat
placated when shown the working papers
left behind by the accountant in question
and assured that an equally competent
man would pick up the threads and carry
the engagement on to completion with no
loss of time. And such later proved to be
the case to the eminent satisfaction of the
client.
The extent to which matters of this
and the other kinds mentioned become
possible depends on the appropriateness,
clearness, and completeness of the papers.