Another method of accomplishing the same result is to make as many copies of the order as there are floors, the complete order being sent to each stock man, who fills only his part. An advantage of dividing the order sheet, as explained, is that the stock men have no knowledge of the names of customers. This prevents a stock man from taking a list of the firm's customers to another house--an occurrence which is not entirely unknown. =Back Orders.= Most concerns find it impossible to fill all orders completely; there are occasional shortages in every house. In such cases, it is the usual custom to fill all orders as nearly as possible, and forward the items that are short as soon as they are in stock, or with a later shipment. The possibility of these items being overlooked must be provided against, and this is done by entering all items that are short on a new order. This is known as a _back order_. The back order should be made in duplicate and should be printed on stock of some distinctive color that will not be confused with the regular order blanks. For convenience in filing, it should also be made the same size as the regular orders. If the number of back orders is very large, a separate series of order numbers is used, but most concerns do not have a sufficient number of such orders to make this necessary. The more usual custom is to give the back order the same number as the original of which it is a part. Of the two copies of the back order, one goes to the shipping clerk, while the other is kept in the office. The office copy is used to follow up the shipment of the order. It is necessary for the shipping clerk to know immediately when goods required to fill back orders are received. When a separate receiving clerk is employed, the back order is sometimes made in triplicate, one copy for the receiving clerk, who notifies the shipping clerk when the goods arrive. [Illustration: Fig. 7. Back-Order Blank] When a back order is filled, the shipping clerk returns his copy to the office. Invoices are made in duplicate, one copy being filed as a sales sheet. The two copies of the order are filed with the corresponding copies of the original order. A most satisfactory plan is to file one copy numerically and one alphabetically, making a cross-index. A simple form of back-order blank is shown in Fig. 7. CHECKING SHIPMENTS One of the vitally important problems in connection with shipping is the proper checking of items in each shipment. To receive complaints of shortages is very annoying to the shipper--especially so when he is not in position to prove that the items claimed to be short were shipped--but, rather than take the chance of losing a customer, he usually pockets the loss. [Illustration: Fig. 8. Order Blank with Column for Shipper's Check]