=27. In Conclusion.= While it is realized that the _Percentage Method_ is not perfect in all its details, yet it is quite generally admitted to be the best means that has yet been devised for distributing expenses. A manufacturer using it may be assured that his costs thus figured are correctly shown, from the fact that this method is used and recommended by our highest technical authorities in accounting. From the practical side, it appeals to the manufacturer who is more interested in successful manufacturing than he is in the science of accounts, by the simplicity of the method and economy with which it is operated. The same amount of time spent in planning economies and devising means for cheapening the cost of production that is often spent in lengthy attempts at fine figuring, which, when finished, prove unsatisfactory, will be productive of far better results. Any method which eliminates the unnecessary and simplifies the essentials cannot help but prove attractive both to the successful manufacturer and the progressive accountant. OPERATING EXPENSE STATEMENTS =28.= To properly analyze detailed records, and to be able to extract therefrom the essentials and eliminate all items of minor importance, so that the exact situation and final conclusions can be expressed briefly and in an attractive manner, is an art in itself. A bookkeeper may be ever so well posted in up─to─date methods, and his books may show great care, and be models in appearance, yet when it comes to preparing an intelligent statement of any feature of the company's business, he may be sadly deficient. It does not necessarily follow that because he can do the one thing well, he can make a success of the other. Even as the pleasure naturally to be derived from a carefully prepared dinner may be completely wrecked by poor service, so can the intent of what would otherwise be an interesting tabulation of statistics be made meaningless by the presentation of a jumbled and carelessly arranged lot of figures. It is as necessary to clearly show _on paper_ the results of the factory operations as it is that they should be correctly recorded on the company's books. While the two operations are entirely distinct and separate, they are closely allied, and every progressive accountant should be interested in both. The object of a statement is to convey to the reader certain information in an intelligent manner; if it does not do this, it might as well not have been written. This leads us at once to the question: "What constitutes a good statement?"