What Is Petty Cash?
You have to craft a clear petty cash policy as it sets out the purpose and use of the petty cash fund. The cash is kept on site, usually in a secured drawer or safe that can only be accessed by someone with authority to handle the cash. The purpose of the fund is to have some cash on hand in case a small purchase needs to be made.
- The petty cash is controlled through the use of a petty cash voucher for each payment made.
- At the same time, it will show a credit of that same amount to your bank account.
- The ending balance is the difference between the beginning balance and the total petty cash expenses.
- After the money is spent, a petty cash receipt should always be given to accounting in order to aid the petty cash reconciliation process.
- Read this article to discover what petty cash is, its different procedures, and how to manage it.
In the UK, the HMRC often sets rates for things like meal and mileage expense claims, but they don’t specify a number. The guidance simply states that the amount your business can claim without receipts must be “reasonable” to a tax inspector. This also means that proper petty cash handling, even without receipts, is important for financial statements in case of an audit. Most companies tackle the handling of petty cash with a petty cash log book of sorts. Essentially some place to record how much has been removed for purchases.
Mastering petty cash: What it is and how to manage it
The petty cash custodian will keep all petty cash items inside a lockbox. Only the custodian can access the lockbox—and it mustn’t be left opened and unattended. Put your petty cash policy in writing and offer some examples of appropriate expenses. For example, petty cash may be used to purchase additional postage, paper towels, coffee, or other basic office supplies. You can also mandate that all petty cash transactions be under a certain dollar amount, like $25. While a petty cash fund may not be necessary if you work solo, if you have even one employee, it may be worth it to set up a petty cash fund to manage those unexpected expenses properly.
In our example above, we asked for $315 as replenishment because it’s the amount of total receipts. Hence, the sum of all receipts plus the ending balance should be equal to the petty cash of $500. The reconciliation is straightforward—every time you take cash out of the box, you replace the cash with a receipt for the same amount. Therefore, all receipts plus remaining cash must be equal to the original amount placed in petty cash. If you find yourself regularly replenishing your petty fund there could be a larger problem at hand.
Petty Cash Accounting Example
If they don’t match, the either account balance on the chart of accounts is usually wrong/corrupted. That, in turn, can happen if QuickBooks crashes while saving transactions, when it updates the transaction but then doesn’t update the account balance before it crashes. Local units are responsible for deciding to establish a petty cash account and choosing a Custodian, weighing the relative risks and benefits Bookkeeping, tax, & CFO services for startups involved. Tubs are responsible for approving payment requests submitted to fund new petty cash accounts before the request is routed to Central Administration for final approval. In some tubs, these duties are performed at the Tub Finance Office and in others at the departments. While most businesses usually have a strategy for managing general expenses, petty cash is often too small to be taken seriously.
Those with prior financial accounting experience are especially great with this, but anyone that’s handled expense accounts should be fine. Reconciliation of the petty cash fund should be done periodically to ensure that the fund’s balance is correct. The fund can be replenished back to the approved amount as required.
Petty Cash vs. Cash on Hand
A petty cash fund allows a small amount of cash to be kept in a convenient place for miscellaneous expenses. The petty cash fund should be replenished when the cash balance becomes low, or at a recurring period such as the end of the month. It is replenished up to the fixed amount https://1investing.in/how-to-start-your-own-bookkeeping-business/ that was originally designated for the petty cash fund. When a minor expense arises, the business can use petty cash instead of issuing an official company check. The convenience of petty cash enables easier tracking of small expenditures and reduces administrative burden.
Making sure that any expense you reimburse has a receipt is also helpful. Before you start a petty cash fund, you’ll need to decide how much you want the fund to be. Between $100 and $200 is fairly common, though you can go lower or higher, depending on your business. If you have more than one employee, you could delegate managing the account. The custodian is tasked to overlook and safeguard the account by issuing cash, approving reimbursements, and recording the debits and credits to the account.
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Petty cash is usually operated on an «imprest» system where an employee is tasked with maintaining and keeping track of petty cash. Petty cash is a small amount of cash kept on hand to cover small, and often unexpected, expenses that pop up during a business day. You might use money from the petty cash fund to pay for minor expenses such as postage, Uber fares, or reimburse someone $10 for bringing in a box of donuts. An accountant will typically write a cheque to «Petty Cash» to fund the petty cash account and cash this cheque at the company’s bank. The best way to record these expenses is by collecting petty cash receipts. These receipts should match the replenishment of funds within the recorded periods.
- By regularly reconciling petty cash funds in your organization, you can avoid inefficiencies and unauthorized use.
- Each entry in the petty cash book should include the date, the amount, and what was purchased with the petty cash.
- Wherever possible, local units should use other disbursement methods (i.e., HCOM, PCard) instead of petty cash.
- Every time cash is spent from the petty cash fund, the receipt of the same amount must be replaced in the box.
- First things first, balance the books by counting how much money is left in your petty cash tin.
Joshua is a marketing content professional with a background in education and retail. He studied Creative Writing and has five years of experience in content writing. This publication is provided for general information purposes only and is not intended to cover every aspect of the topics with which it deals. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content in this publication.