Friday, May 03, 2013
City Ledger = Only Ledger
RIP'ing George Jones led to further memories of my motel-desk times in the late '70s. I got thinking about the City Ledger, which was part of my duties as night auditor. I'd always wondered why the ledger is called the City Ledger, but never found any information in dictionaries or accounting books. Looked it up in various online sources today and found out: In larger hotels, the City Ledger records transactions with local clients such as companies with a permanent account for their salesmen, or companies that rent showrooms and office suites in the hotel. The Transient Ledger records the more 'ordinary' transactions with out-of-town guests.
However! In the motels where I worked, there was only one ledger for all transactions, and it was called the City Ledger. Since most transactions were 'transient guests', it would have made more sense to use only the Transient Ledger. So I still don't know how the City Ledger became the Only Ledger!
¶ 5:23 PM 
