Ministers' Yearly Reports.
By John Harvey Waggoner
A FEW words to some of our ministers on the subject of yearly reports may not be amiss; and if remembered by them may save the auditing committees much trouble. 1. Place no dependence on your quarterly reports for the yearly settlements. The quarterly reports are for the use of the Secretaries to aid them in keeping their accounts and to enable them to make their reports to the Conference. But these quarterly reports seldom go into the hands of the auditing committee. 2. For the above reason it is necessary to give a full account of your financial affairs for the whole year in your yearly report. 3. Be sure to keep your traveling expenses, or all expenses incurred for the Conference, separate from your personal expenses. It is well for the Conference Committee to know what your personal expenses have been, but the auditing committee have to do especially with your traveling expenses. Let these expenses be separately and plainly kept. 4. But contrary to this course, some ministers put in with their traveling expenses, the amounts they have paid for the S. B. fund, for charity or donations to various purposes, and so forth. In such cases the auditors have to separate and compute these several accounts; and hours are spent by the auditing committees over reports which might be settled in a few minutes, if properly made. 5. Do not mix in your expenditures with the record of your labor; but put your accounts by themselves in a business manner, and save trouble and perhaps mistakes.