Tiie idea prevalent some years ago, that an accountant was sim ply a bookkeeper out of a job, has long since been dispelled. To-day the business has attained a high standard as a profession. To check a set of books, and simply verify the clerical accuracy of the work, is not auditing in the true sense of the word. There are methods requiring little work which make such checking unnecessary. The accountant, while he understands bookkeeping, is more than a bookkeeper. He must be capable of dealing with the difficult prob lems of business and he must know how to interpret the intricacies of affairs so that a layman can comprehend and be guided by his observations. The accountant must know theory in order properly to understand his business; but a man able and proficient in theory is not necessarily a competent accountant. He must acquire practice by actual experience, in order to develop ability as an accountant; for it is the art of applying theory in practice which makes the theory valuable. In the natural order of things, we learn from the experience of others, and the advantage each generation has over the preceding one lies in the knowledge gained by the experience of the preceding gen cration. The business of accounting has developed so rapidly that the ref erence books, essential to the business as a profession, have not kept pace; consequently the books available are not on a par with the ref erence books of other professions. For many years, it has been the duty of the author to supervise the work of others, and during his experience he made notes of the best methods under his observation. These notes have been valuable for reference, and the many requests from prominent accountants for access to the notes have in?uenced the author to publish them. The language is simple, telling how to do certain lines of work so as to lead directly to the desired results and avoid repetition.