When independent filing systems are maintained by the different departments, it is sometimes difficult to determine just where certain papers will be found. To say the least, it is quite difficult to collect all of the papers referring to one subject, when the filing is handled in this manner.
Experience has demonstrated that a central filing division is really more convenient for the department manager, than to maintain his own filing system. If the system has been properly installed, he can obtain correspondence or other papers from the general files about as quickly as from his own files, with the added advantage of obtaining all of the correspondence with a particular person. If another department has been in correspondence with the same person, he has their letters as well as his own. When the credit man, for example, reviews the correspondence of a customer from whom he is trying to collect an account, he will not be ignorant of the existence of a letter from the sales manager in which special terms were offered to secure the order.
=The File Clerk.= The filing division should be in charge of a file clerk and the clerk should have full control of the work of the division. In a large business, a chief file clerk and several assistants will be required, while in a small business it is customary for the stenographer to do the filing. No matter what the extent of the filing, the principle is the same; if but two persons are employed and one is expected to do the filing, the other should neither file nor remove papers from the file. When a letter is wanted, the file clerk should be asked for it.
The essential qualifications of a file clerk may be summed up as follows:
A good memory; The habit of accuracy; The ability to read confusing chirography; The ability to spell correctly; Speed.
To these might be added the possession of a liberal amount of common sense, the faculty of absorbing information, and ability to correlate facts according to their importance.
A good memory is very necessary, for the papers that have been filed must be found when wanted. Letters signed by an individual may be filed with the correspondence of his firm. When the manager calls for "that letter from Whitcomb," it is embarrassing to ask him with what firm Mr. Whitcomb is connected; still more so to keep the manager waiting while an index is consulted.