Series consists of financial and accounting records provide information about the Stelco financial position, its performance and changes. Such records have long served as primary sources for historical business and labor studies.
Since its foundation, Stelco had a strong bookkeeping practice for accounting. All transactions were recorded daily, monthly and yearly. Officers maintained meticulous, accurate and precise financial information on income and expenditure. They were responsible for keeping records on ongoing operations to facilitate decision-making and efficient service delivery. From 1910 around 1938, Stelco officers used a tabulating system to record every year and there is a complete set of registers, cashbooks, ledgers, vouchers, perpetual trial balance and reports. Between 1938 and 1940, the Stelco Accounting Department implemented a new bookkeeping system by using standard coding systems. Officers were trained at the Customer Administrative School in New York to learn these standards. With the evolution of the technology, Stelco implemented in 1957 a more complex coding system by using an IBM 650 computer. New standards and procedures were developed for making a detailed inventory of cost control and accounting. Electronic calculations have occurred since this time and continued to be implemented during the next decades. The statistical department was organized with the purpose of making analysis of production, costs and expenditures. All the records preserved in this series provide a wealth of data on all aspects of the company's operations and activities and offer additional insight to its overall evolution.
There are seven major categories of documents in this series:
- annual financial statements of production, sales and expenses mainly recorded by mills;
- monthly output reports on production and cost recorded by departments and works;
- annual budget reports and annual labor budgets;
- appraisal reports and summaries of all works which detail cost of buildings, equipment and lands prepared by The Canadian Appraisal Company Ltd. for insurance purposes;
- appropriation reports describing costs for plant expansion, building repairs, new equipment and storage areas, machineries and other material needed to rebuild mills, tools and supplies;
- financial exhibits describe the following costs: securities, stocks, inventories and prices, products, reserves, retiring allowances, costs, values of equipment, buildings, taxes paid, repairs and maintenance, status of plants, other accounts, sales and expenses;
- ledgers consist of: general ledgers; monthly ledgers and ledger cards maintained for each plant; lands and buildings ledgers; employee salaries ledgers recorded by works and departments; private journal entries; vouchers; trial balances; and, annual cost sheets.
This series documents the investments made by Stelco. Records consist of correspondence sent to shareholders, notices and summaries of annual meetings, reports of stocks and bonds and shareholders books, which include preferred and common stocks. There are also correspondence and agreements between Stelco and The Royal Trust Company for transfer of stocks and other investments.
Volumes 188 and 189 contain files produced by Geo. T. Bowden, accountant. They contain correspondence describing his daily activities from 1912 to 1937.
Volume 688 contains clippings documenting Stelco businesses outlook from 1912 to 1976.
