his day-book for him.

The like misfortune attends the not balancing his cash, a thing which
such book-keepers as Mr G. do not think worth their trouble; nor do they
understand the benefit of it. The particulars, indeed, of this article
are tedious, and would be too long for a chapter; but certainly they
that know any thing of the use of keeping an exact cash-book, know that,
without it, a tradesman can never be thoroughly satisfied either of his
own not committing mistakes, or of any people cheating him, I mean
servants, or sons, or whoever is the first about him.

What I call balancing his cash-book, is, first, the casting up daily, or
weekly, or monthly, his receipts and payments, and then seeing what
money is left in hand, or, as the usual expression of the tradesman is,
what money is in cash; secondly, the examining his money, telling it
over, and seeing how much he has in his chest or bags, and then seeing
if it agrees with the balance of his book, that what is, and what should
be, correspond.

And here let me give tradesmen a caution or two.

1. Never sit down satisfied with an error in the cash; that is to say,
with a difference between the money really in the cash, and the balance
in the book; for if they do not agree, there must be a mistake
somewhere, and while there is a mistake in the cash, the tradesman
cannot, at least he ought not to be, easy. He that can be easy with a
mistake in his cash, may be easy with a gang of thieves in his house;
for if his money does not come right, he must have paid something that
is not set down, and that is to be supposed as bad as if it were lost;
or he must have somebody about him that can find the way to his money