Too great emphasis cannot be placed on the importance of studying the character of the man. It is only by paying special attention to this point that the collector can learn to treat each account individually. In the first place, the class of goods sold largely governs the class of customers from a credit standpoint. The men who buy sets of business books are, as a rule, safe credit risks. Their training and environment have a tendency to teach them the importance of fulfilling an obligation; appreciating the necessity of maintaining their credit standing, they will make every effort to carry out the terms of the contract, or give a valid reason for asking an extension of time. Illustrating the opposite extreme is the class who will sign a contract for the purchase of a cheap musical instrument, at a high price, to gratify a desire to outdo a neighbor, without regard to their ability to make the payments as agreed. Such people trust to luck, and expect to pay in promises if they do not happen to have the money. For this reason, the percentage of profit that must be added to cover the cost of collection increases, as the quality of the goods and the standard of the credit risk decrease. =The Account.= Accounts with mail-order installment buyers are handled in a similar manner to those of local buyers. All contracts should be numbered as received, and registered in numerical sequence. The form of register already shown answers the purpose very nicely. [Illustration: Fig. 30. Mail-Order Collection Card] After registering, the particulars of the contract should be entered in the ledger. A form of ledger sheet used by a publishing house is shown in Fig. 29. This is loose-leaf, and does not differ in form from the ordinary balance ledger, except in the particulars given at the head of the sheet. Here is shown the name and both residence and business address of the customer, number of contract, monthly payment and due date, references, source of order, price and name of books, and date of shipment. These sheets are filed in post binders, five-hundred sheets to the binder, and indexed alphabetically. The next step is to enter the contract on a collection card. A satisfactory form is shown in Fig. 30. This is a card 4×6 inches in size, and is practically a duplicate of the ledger sheet. The card is filed in a chronological file under the due date--that is, if payments are due on the 24th of the month the card is filed under that date. Except when removed from the file for the use of the collector, or to enter payments, the card is always filed under the same date. If it becomes necessary to have an account brought to notice on other than the regular collection dates, a memo is made on a separate card and filed in a special tickler.