When printing is received and the order checked, the name and description is entered at the head of one of these sheets--except in the case of a re-order, when a sheet will be found in the binder. The date, quantity, from whom received, and the cost are next recorded in the proper columns. If it is a new piece of printed matter, the quantity received is also entered in the _on hand_ column; if a reprint, the quantity is added to the stock on hand and the total extended.
For printing that is to be sent to a dealer, an order is entered on the form shown in Fig. 11. This gives detailed instructions for shipping, with the quantity and description of the matter to be sent. The order is made in duplicate. The original goes to the shipping clerk, while the duplicate, on a blank sheet, is kept in the office as a follow-up on the shipping clerk.
[Illustration: Fig. 11. Shipping Order for Printing to be Sent to a Dealer]
As shipments are made, the shipping clerk enters in the columns provided for that purpose, the quantity sent and the date. When the entire order is filled, it is returned to the office. Every day the duplicates are examined and inquiry is made of the shipping clerk regarding any orders for which the originals have not been returned. When the original is received, the duplicate is destroyed.
Shipments are next entered on the stock sheets, while the original orders are filed in a binder, alphabetically by dealers names. Reference to this file shows exactly what advertising matter has been sent each dealer.
When the question of periodical advertising is taken up, the most important of all publicity fields is entered. From the country weekly, through the entire list of city dailies, scientific and literary weeklies and monthlies, popular magazines, class magazines, and trade papers for every vocation, religious papers, and reviews, periodicals can be selected which will reach any class or cover any territory. With the thousands of publications to select from, the advertising manager needs to know which ones will best reach the people he wants to reach; what papers have the largest circulations; which are most popular among a given class or in a certain territory. He must be posted on rates and discounts, that he may cover his territory economically. And added to this, he must have a perfect checking system, that he may know to a certainty what returns each and every publication is bringing him. Such a system may show him, for example, that the magazine with a circulation of a million and an advertising rate of $5.00 a line, brings orders at a less cost than another in which he is paying but $2.00 a line--or _vice versâ_. Perhaps the cost in both is within the amount he is prepared to pay, but he must _know_ what it costs, that he may know where to increase and where to curtail the appropriations.
