=27.= An essential record in any system of cost or factory accounting, is a record of manufacturing orders. A system of records shouldbe maintained, which will show the exact number and nature of the orders issued to the shop or factory, and from which it will be possible to locate every order──to determine in what stage each order is, and to estimate closely the date of completion. [Illustration: Fig. 46. Front and Reverse of Card Showing Total Production and Progress of Orders.] Such records are equal in importance to records of material, both raw and partly finished, in store at all times. Without them, it is impossible to obtain authentic information about work in process. Orders are certain to be side─tracked, and it is extremely difficult to estimate, with any degree of accuracy, delivery dates for either new or old orders. The records should be so complete that it will be literally possible to run the business from the office──without calling foremen from the shops, who must return and investigate the condition of an order before an intelligent answer can be given. The manager who can conduct his business from the office is following modern ideas; he is far─seeing──not lucky──for this condition is the result of carefully made plans to insure records that will show him exactly what he wants to know. Along the line of running the business from the office, Mr. F. E. Webner, in an article in the _Engineering Magazine_, cites an apt illustration. Two very large corporations with a common line of product were concerned. Each of these in turn was asked verbally by an executive officer of a concern which is a large user of the product, as to what delivery could be made on a stated quantity of goods. One concern used the long─distance telephone to a number of its plants; the other concern consulted records within its office and was able to give a decisive reply within half an hour, and to know just which of its works was best able to turn out the goods. The first concern had a number of superintendents on edge looking up data and could not give a positive answer short of two days. As in every other department of a business, the expense of maintaining an adequate system of order records in the manufacturing departments is infinitesimal, when compared with the results obtained. A single contract lost for the lack of needed information may mean the loss of a valuable customer, the profit on whose business would pay the cost of an adequate system many times over. =28. Manufacturing Order Register.= The form of the manufacturing order register necessarily depends on the nature of the business, the product, and the number of operations or departments through which an order must pass. It need not be complicated──simple forms always are to be preferred──the main thing is that all orders be so recorded as to be readily located. [Illustration: Fig. 47. Daily Report of the Transfer Clerk]