Petty Cash: Key Financial Controls
The Departmental Administrator has overall responsibility for effectively managing small cash floats.
Identified below are the key financial controls that must be complied with.
- Petty cash received is checked, recorded, and physically secured.
- Petty cash expenditure, offset against the petty cash float, is in accordance with the types of expenditure permitted by the Payments manual, and supported where appropriate by valid receipts.
- Staff authorised to count the petty cash are preferably not those keeping the cash float.
- Petty cash floats are reconciled monthly.
Segregation of Duties
One of the key financial control principles to be adopted in all University finance processes is the need to ensure no single member of staff completes all stages of any particular process. This principle requires an adequate 'segregation of duties' when designing work flows. As an example in the Petty Cash process:
- Staff authorised to count and reconcile the petty cash should not be the same as the persons keeping the cash float.
- Staff should not review, check or authorise their own petty cash expenditure or claims.
For further advice on this subject please contact Financial Assurance Services.