Petty Cash and Change Funds for Departments (2024)

FAQs

Petty Cash and Change Funds for Departments? ›

Petty Cash Fund: A fund established for the purpose of making immediate and/or emergency cash payments not exceeding $100. Change Fund: A fund established for the specific purpose of making change and from which no expenditures are to be made.

In larger corporations, each department might have its own petty cash fund. A petty cash fund can be used for office supplies, cards for customers, flowers, paying for a catered lunch for employees, or reimbursing employees for expenses.

The purpose of the petty cash fund is to provide cash on hand for a department to reimburse small recurring expenses of $100 or less to employees. The purpose of the change fund is to make change for cash sales.

Petty Cash Funds may not be used for personal loans, reimbursem*nts of purchases made on personal credit cards or debit cards, travel expenses, or taxes for which the University is not liable (e.g. sales tax, freight taxes, or federal excise taxes).

The purpose of a petty cash fund is to provide business units with sufficient cash to cover minor expenditures. The intent is to simplify the reimbursem*nt of staff members and visitors for small expenses that generally do not Exceed $25.00, such as taxi fares, postage, office supplies, etc.

All Petty Cash Funds must be stored in a secured device such as a safe or cash box in a locked cabinet. Only the Petty Cash Fund custodian should have keys to the box and cabinet. Funds should never be left unattended and unsecured. Funds within a box need to be locked and behind locked doors when not attended.

Cash includes coins and bills but also consists of the money in your bank account that you access by swiping your debit card at a store. For businesses, cash is any money that they have on hand to pay for expenses and debts — including physical currency and funds in bank accounts.

A change fund is used for facilitating customer transactions where cash is exchanged in the course of completing a sale of goods or services (e.g. cashier operations).

CHANGE FUND – set amount of money used by a department to make change for customers who are purchasing goods or services.

The nominal amount stored in the form of cash which an organisation deems petty will vary across companies. However, most organisations maintain a petty cash reserve in the range of Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000. The following are some of the transactions for which petty cash is made use of: Office stationeries.

Why is petty cash risky? ›

Paying with petty cash for low-cost items like postage stamps or office supplies usually requires less time and effort than the government's normal purchasing process. Without adequate monitoring and internal controls, however, petty cash can increase an entity's risk of misuse, theft or fraud.

Petty cash is a small amount of money a company keeps for small, incidental expenses. These minor payments include office supplies, stationery, meals, client lunch, stamps, etc. The number of petty cash funds could change depending on the organization's size.

You need to keep all of your receipts, petty cash vouchers (to fill in when payments are made from the tin) and a record of the 'top ups' i.e. the amount to top petty cash up at the end of a period.

The petty cash register is used for recording petty cash disbursem*nts; therefore, it is considered to be a journal or a book of original entry. The purpose of a change fund is to enable the cashier using the cash register to have enough coins and currency to conduct business for the day.

Petty Cash is an asset account that is used to pay for very small business purchases when going through a formal requisition process does not make sense. Petty cash funds are managed by a Petty Cash Custodian or Petty Cashier.