Petty Cash: What It Is, How It’s Used and Accounted For, Examples

Petty cash is a readily available sum of money that can be used to pay for nominal expenses, such as lunch or a new set of office pens. It’s a dedicated fund in the business used for day-to-day spending, so it doesn’t require a long process or procurement system. An increasing dependence on credit, debit cards and mobile payments in the UK means that the forward-thinking company is quickly catching up to our near cashless society.

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• Petty cash is only the physical coins and notes that you have put aside for small expenses.
• Petty cash accounting, also known as reconciling the ledger, usually happens once a month, although some companies do it weekly.
• You have to keep enough cash on hand to make change for customers and accept payments in cash for those customers who do not use credit or debit cards.
• The total amount of cash plus the total of receipts should always equal the fixed amount determined as petty cash.
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Anything over that amount would be paid for or reimbursed using other means. 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. Your postage machine just stopped working, and you need to send one of your employees to the post office fast to get some stamps.

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With just a couple of clicks, users can quickly fill in some forms and receive approval in a matter of seconds. While these are main steps that small business owners take to utilize petty cash, there are other processes that should be considered to get the most out of it in the long run. There are some financial terms in the world of business that how much does an accountant cost might throw managers off a little. We have put together a detailed guide, providing the definition of this important term and what exactly it’s used for. If used for deductible business expenses, these can be claimed as a tax deduction just like any other business expenses. However, comprehensive records should be kept to support these deductions.

It’s effective as quick money to handle small and unexpected expenses and saves plenty of time because it doesn’t require planning in advance or authorization. Its ease and convenience are the main reasons that businesses have continued to use a petty cash system – giving team members immediate access to resources as and when they’re needed. Petty cash is only the physical coins and notes that you have put aside for small expenses. It’s kept differently from cash on hand, as is separated from the rest of the business operations. It’s easy to jump to conclusions, but a discrepancy might simply be down to human error (it happens!). Double-check the maths and the receipts before moving into more suspicious reasons for missing petty cash.

How To Do Petty Cash Accounting & Recording in 6 Steps

Differences could be due to errors, theft, or failure to secure and track petty cash funds appropriately. This is the only amount of cash that is not immediately deposited in the bank account after it is received. Since companies have to safeguard cash from theft and fraud, internal controls in place to make sure employees and other people can’t steal it. The most basic internal controls involve removing cash from the business premises.

Petty cash accounting

You need to create an expense entry for each receipt that you’re recording from the lockbox. At the time the entry is made, the custodian will receive a $315 check that’s cashed and the money placed in the lockbox. Overall, there’s a total of $500 in the lockbox after replenishment.

While most businesses usually have a strategy for managing general expenses, petty cash is often too small to be taken seriously. It’s because these chosen team members will be trained in filling out petty cash vouchers, asking for receipts and approving petty cash purchase decisions. Petty cash funds should be reconciled at regular intervals to double-check that everything is balanced and accurate. This can be looked at as an internal audit of a company’s petty cash. If an employee has to buy something on their own for business purposes, they will usually be reimbursed in compensation out of the company’s petty cash fund. The amount of petty cash that is allowed changes depending on the company’s internal policies.

Determine the sum of all of the receipts from purchases made in the current accounting period. If not, it looks like you might need to get the magnifying glass out and do some investigating. Nowadays, software like Connecteam can be key in monitoring the use of petty cash to ensure the practice isn’t misused and that the numbers balance at the end of the day.

Step 3: Record Petty Cash Expenses

For example, small expenses such as postage stamps, office expenses, parking, etc., can be paid using petty cash. All successful companies pay great attention to their expenses and invest hugely in tracking them. Do you have a method to disburse and efficiently track petty cash expenses in your organization?

This acts as a receipt, logging the amount of the withdrawal, the date, the purpose, and other details. Increasingly, these slips are electronic ones, entered in a digital spreadsheet or ledger. But it can be helpful to keep paper slips too, along with receipts from the purchases or payments (if possible).

More from Merriam-Webster on petty cash

Our experts love this top pick, which features a 0% intro APR for 15 months, an insane cash back rate of up to 5%, and all somehow for no annual fee. Worry no more, in this guide we will cover what Petty Cash is, who can use it, how to register it and other solutions you can use for your business expenses. After a designated interval—usually, the same time each month or week—it’s time to reconcile or balance the petty fund account. This sum is the total withdrawn from the account during that time period.

Why Is It Called Petty Cash?

If you have an office manager, they’re the most likely choice to manage the petty cash fund. Likewise, a prepaid card is an option provided by businesses to employees. Unlike a debit card, the prepaid card is not linked to any account and must be funded by the company.

Plus, the petty cash system usually relies on just one or two key holders. If they’re ill or off on the same day, the petty cash becomes inaccessible. Only a couple of chosen individuals should be key holders to the petty cash, as noted in the petty cash policy that your company might put together.