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statement is made either by the board of trustees, or by the secretary
or some other officer, according to the Constitution of the society.
The principles involved, are, that every officer who receives money is
to account for it in a report to the society, and that whatever officer
is responsible for the disbursements, shall report them to the society.
If the secretary, as in many societies, is really responsible for the
expenses, the treasurer merely paying upon his order, then the secretary
should make a full report of these expenses, so classified as to enable
the society to readily see the amounts expended for various purposes.

It should always be remembered that the financial report is made for the
information of members. The details of dates and separate payments for
the same object, are a hinderance to its being understood, and are
useless, as it is the duty of the auditing committee to examine into the
details and see if the report is correct.

Every disbursing officer should be careful to get a receipt whenever he
makes a payment; these receipts should be preserved in regular order, as
they are the vouchers for the payments, which must be examined by the
auditing committee. Disbursing officers cannot be

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too careful in keeping their accounts, and they should insist upon
having their accounts audited every time they make a report, as by this
means any error is quickly detected and may be corrected. When the
society has accepted the auditing committee's report that the financial
report is correct, the disbursing officer is relieved from the
responsibility of the past, and if his vouchers were lost afterwards, it
would cause no trouble. The best form for these financial reports
depends upon the kind of society, and is best determined by examining
those made in similar societies.

The following form can be varied to suit most cases: (when the
statement of receipts and expenses is very long, it is often desirable
to specify the amounts received from one or two particular sources,
which can be done immediately after stating the total receipts; the same
course can be taken in regard to the expenditures):

Treasurer's Report.

The undersigned, Treasurer of the M. L. Society, begs leave to submit
the following annual report:

The balance on hand at the commencement of the year was --- dollars and
--- cents. There was receiv