While in direct communication with all department and division heads, he will have for his immediate assistants, a comptroller and a superintendent. It is from the comptroller that he will receive statistics and reports of the activities of the business in all its branches, while to the superintendent he delegates his authority in the actual operation of the manufacturing branch.
=13. Comptroller.= "A controller or manager" is a standard definition of the term comptroller. In the organization under consideration, he is a _controller_ of the business by virtue of the fact that he is responsible for the accounting and recording of all activities of the business.
He occupies the position of auditor and is the real systematizer of the business. He creates all systems of commercial accounting, cost accounting, departmental records, time keeping, and pay rolls, reports of superintendent, perpetual inventory, sales statistics, and, in fact, all records of the business. He prepares all balance sheets, comparative statements, trading, manufacturing, and profit and loss statements, and reports to the general manager or executive committee, or both, on the condition of finances, materials, and finished goods.
Since the formation of important policies may hinge on the reports and statistics of his department, he occupies an office next in importance to the general manager. The training and experience gained in his office place him in direct line for promotion to the office of general manager.
His authority is absolute over the accounting and stenographic departments, while his authority extends to other departments only in respect to their record systems. In the accounting department, his direct assistant is the chief accountant; and in the stenographic, the chief stenographer.
In a smaller organization the comptroller may not require the services of a chief accountant, in which case he performs the duties of the position. Or the treasurer may occupy the office of comptroller.
_Chief Accountant._ The chief accountant is in immediate charge of the commercial and factory accounting. His assistants are cashier, bookkeepers, factory accountant, cost clerks, time clerks.
This department accounts for the receipt and disbursement of all moneys and properties, figures costs and pay rolls, and prepares statistics necessary for the use of the comptroller in making up his reports and statements.