§ 256.01-3 - General structure of accounting system.

(a) The accounts provided herein are in two general categories: Balance sheet accounts and income and expense accounts. Subsidiary accounts are provided for the details of account 101, Service company property.

(b) The income and expense accounts include, under separate divisions, accounts for recording the revenue or income earned or received and also appropriate accounts for all expenses of operation, maintenance, taxes, interest, all elements of cost allocable to the service performed, and compensation for the use of capital. Appropriate subdivisions or subaccounts should be provided for each service company department or division.

(c) All disbursements and expenses of the service company for service performed for associate companies are recoverable from such companies. In the interest of minimizing questions as to the propriety of charges for reimbursement, each service company shall maintain a work order system for accumulating all costs. To the maximum extent possible, such costs shall be accumulated by direct charges. All employees, including officers, of the service company shall keep, within reasonable cost benefit standards, time records which permit ready identification of the hours worked, account numbers charged, department work order number and other code designations that facilitate proper classification.

(d) The numbers to the right of the decimal point in most cases correspond with the respective account numbers in the Uniform System of Accounts for Public Utilities and Licensees (18 CFR Part 101) of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and shall be considered as parts of the account titles. Each service company, however, may adopt for its own purposes a different system of account numbers provided that the account numbers herein prescribed shall appear in the descriptive headings of the ledger accounts and, if practicable, on original source documents. Service companies adopting a different system of account numbers for their own purposes shall keep readily available a list which indicates its account numbers and the corresponding account numbers provided herein. Records of service companies shall be maintained in a manner permitting ready analysis by prescribed accounts (with direct reference to the source of each item in the books of original entry) and permitting preparation of financial operating statements directly from such records at the end of each accounting period.