Division 4 Sales department. The cost of direct labour was calculated by applying a coefficient of 3, since small orders involve more onerous processing as regards sales administration. The differences of treatment make it possible to include the appropriate charge for their processing in the cost accounting.

Additional explanations on coding the order. If there are difficulties with coding orders, further work is needed. The work has to be carried out irrespective of the amount of the order.

In addition, research is required before an order can be inputted: ISBN, publishers' catalogues, various data bases, check on the availability (or not) of the work, check on the match between order and publisher. Difficulties associated with the quality of the order form, in particular in identifying the order, will give rise to extra costs. Such difficulties often occur in the case of small orders. Large bookshops, which have a considerable turnover with CELF, are generally large-scale firms that use high-performance tools to enable them to rationalise their management, and in particular to transmit standardised orders, i.e. ones containing clear identification features. Among CELF's customers are numerous small bookshops, whose activity does not always allow modern international business resources to be used. Thus orders coming from this type of establishment are sometimes difficult to decipher and only include some of the information necessary for meeting the order, which means extra work and, hence, extra cost.