Cash is king, but without proper bookkeeping procedures in place, mishandling cash can cause business failure.
Weak bookkeeping systems that do not use the correct procedures for handling cash are vulnerable to internal theft and IRS audit failures.
Managing your small business cash flow properly can ensure that your bookkeeper is not stealing from you. Implementing a bookkeeping process for handling cash payments from customers and cash disbursements out of the business (petty cash), is essential to ensuring your small business is successful and profitable.
Cash flow refers to the money coming into a business. There are many ways money can enter a business and many ways for companies to add to their profits and revenues. However, understanding cash flow from operations is an important part of making decisions. If your business is creating a cash flow statement for an annual or quarterly report, cash flow from operations will play a key role. Here we'll discuss the ways cash can come into and out of a company and how to implement a procedure for them: |
Sometimes called CFO, cash flow from operating activities, net cash from operating activities or operating cash flow, cash flow from operations refers to the money a company makes from its regular business activities.
It does not include investments or long-term capital. Cash flow from operations is calculated before taxes and interest and involves calculating depreciation minus any taxes.
Cash flow operating activities that count towards the CFO include:
Regular business activity, such as services or selling of products
Inventory increases or decreases
Short-term accounts payable
Short-term accounts receivable
Short-term Debt
Changes in working capital
Knowing your cash flow from operations lets you see how your business finances short-term capital. In addition, maintaining a strong cash flow from operations can be reassuring to investors and shareholders, who generally want to see a business making money from its stated mission.
A good cash flow can also be an effective selling point if you're considering setting up your business bookkeeping for an exit strategy.
If you’d like to calculate your operating cash flow, you can do so with this formula:
Operating earnings (revenue minus expenses, excluding tax and interest) + Depreciation - Taxes = Cash flow from operations
How does your small business cash flow look?
Good cash flow from operations shows a company is on track. If you own a restaurant and you are getting a healthy profit from making and serving food, and in fact, most of your cash flow comes from these activities, that is one indicator your business is healthy.
On the other hand, if your cash flow doesn't seem to be adding up, or you're not sure if your calculations are correct, then it's time to implement a better cash flow management system.
Cash payments typically come into the company from a customer paying a bill. These are part of your daily sales summary.
Best practices for handling cash payments in your restaurant or business are as follows:
This procedure will accomplish two things for you:
Some business strategists have begun to question the need for a physical petty cash fund. After all, secure and streamlined purchasing alternatives like mobile apps, digital wallets, and even prepaid debit cards are making the practice of paying by cash obsolete.
Making it easier to spend, however, isn’t always a good idea when it comes to running a restaurant.
Keeping petty cash on hand offers some valuable benefits:
Whether your company takes care of its own business bookkeeping, or outsources those duties to an off-site professional, it’s in your best interest to understand what’s involved in setting up and accounting for a petty cash fund.
Many restaurants keep a small amount of money on hand to pay for expenses that can't be paid by a check or credit card.
An example of this might be a reimbursement to an employee who picked up business supplies on the way to work and paid with their personal funds.
Another example may be a product that is delivered and can be paid by Cash on Delivery only.
While smaller companies usually require only a single source of petty cash, some larger organizations will have separate cash funds for each of their various departments.
In either case, to SET UP a petty cash fund you’ll need to:
OR, another option is to:
Tracking your petty cash is particularly important for keeping your bookkeeping under control. Remember, where there’s money, there’s also potential for theft and abuse. As much as we’d like to believe it doesn’t happen, stealing cash is one of the most common forms of employee theft.
Once you have your Petty Cash account set up, you can TRACK your petty cash by:
There are some business purchases – think coffee runs, staff birthday cards, and one-off postage costs for example – where it’s impractical to pay by credit card or check.
As a matter of fact, it was smaller business expenditures like these that first gave rise to the term petty cash!
And they’re still the reason why most companies find it useful to keep funds on hand for minor, last-minute, or cash-only expenses.
But just because the dollar amounts flowing through your petty cash fund are typically minimal, doesn’t make it any less important to manage them properly.
Tracking petty cash transactions is part of an efficient bookkeeping system. Especially when it comes to maintaining accurate journal entries, keeping personal purchases separate from business, and capturing every possible tax-deductible expense.
Managing your petty cash fund successfully from an accounting perspective starts as soon as you issue that first check made payable to cash. If you’ve decided to carry a float of $200 for example, your journal entry will involve a debit of $200 to your Petty Cash account, and a credit of $200 to your regular Cash (Bank) account.
From there, every time your custodian doles out money from the petty cash fund, it should always be in exchange for a purchase receipt. That means that at any point in time, the money and receipts in your petty cash box will equal the starting amount of your float.
Once the cash balance in your fund gets too low to be useful, the receipts should be summarized, tallied, and exchanged for a new company check equal to their total.
Cashing this check - and adding the funds to your petty cash holdings - will bring your float back to its original level.
There are two important bookkeeping steps required to complete the replenishment process for petty cash:
They may be small, but petty cash receipts are important source documents for backing up your bookkeeping transactions. Be sure you keep and file them accordingly.
Summary of How to Properly Handle Cash
By following these procedures, you will have a system in place for handling cash that is traceable. At any point in time, you will be able to prove to the IRS that you are handling cash correctly and you will be able to prove to yourself that there is no internal theft going on.
Cash flow management can prevent the loss of money and also provide valuable insight into the overall health of your business. Don't neglect to implement a simple system for tracking petty cash and cash payments going into and out of your business.
Not sure if your petty cash is in order? Need more help implementing effective bookkeeping strategies for your multi-location business or small business? Outsourcing your bookkeeping with SLC provides more than just clean books. We can help with financial forecasting, consulting, and specialized planning to help your business be successful. Get in touch and see how we can help grow your business.