If, upon receiving such a report, one is in doubt, or if it is found necessary to do so, the applicant should be re- quested to furnish a detailed financial statement and when this is received it can be compared with the financial state- ment on the agency’s report. On pages 12 and 13 will be found a very good form for requesting the statement.
This can be elaborated upon if desired, or it can further be improved upon by obtaining blanks such as this, from any reputable stationery house, so cut that they can be folded, sealed and sent as a letter. One big advantage of such a statement is that the original container—the en- velope—is the statement itself. Should the statement be fraudulent and signed, it is imperative that one have the original container if the document is to be of value if pro- duced in court. It is, of course, illegal to make a fraudu- lent statement for the purpose of obtaining credit, and if statements are mailed in ordinary envelopes, the credit department should carefully preserve them along with the statement in their files.
Assets.
co praminng He Soancis} statement,—dusslomance. mus ade for shrinkage. Remember, the debtor wants creGit-amd it is but natural that he report his assets as high as he possibly can. Sometimes the statement men- tions that an allowance has been made for shrinkage, but unless it is known just what allowance has been made, the figures should be further discounted.: Merchandise sold at a forced sale will never bring the full retail price. Similarly, accounts receivable are apt to shrink consid- erably—and they likewise should be cut sufficiently to
