FAS guide To the Petty Cash Index
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Office Of Internal Audit

Cash Control Guidelines

SUBJECT:   Petty Cash Funds Policy
APPROVED BY:   David L. Craig
DATE:   November 1988

Purpose

To define and outline University policy with respect to the maintenance of petty cash funds. These guidelines supplement Financial Policies 1505, Imprest Balance Accounts: Petty Cash, and 1506, Imprest Balance Accounts: Separately Administered Bank Accounts. Questions should be directed to the Office of Internal Audit.

Policy

All departments maintaining petty cash funds should exercise specific controls over their use.

Guidelines

  1. Petty cash funds should be established through the Comptroller's Office by withdrawals from the general bank account and should be kept under general ledger control.
  2. Accountability for a petty cash fund should be assigned to one employee, designated as the fund custodian.
  3. The fund custodian is responsible for maintaining the fund in a safe manner, distributing cash to others upon request, obtaining supporting documents for disbursements made, and maintaining petty cash receipts in numerical order.
  4. The fund custodian will be reimbursed by the Comptroller's Office for amounts paid out of the petty cash fund. Upon presentation of documents for reimbursement, a check payable to the custodian is issued to bring the fund back to its original amount.
  5. Petty cash funds are to be maintained on an imprest basis, which means that the amount of the petty cash fund should remain constant. The amount of currency and coin plus the petty cash receipts in the fund should equal the authorized amount of the fund. Petty cash funds shall be periodically reconciled to the Comptroller's Office balance.
  6. The fund must be operated under a specific set of procedures for particular uses, and money should not be released from the fund except in exchange for an authorized Petty Cash Receipt (Comptrollers Form 47R).
  7. The petty cash receipt should indicate the amount disbursed, the purposes of the withdrawal, and the signatures of both the person receiving the cash and the fund custodian.
  8. Petty cash receipts should be numbered consecutively and fully accounted for at the time the reimbursement is requested.
  9. Petty cash funds should be secured in a locked container at all times with only the custodian having access.
  10. Petty cash funds should be separated from other funds such as cash receipts from customers, change funds and other petty cash funds.
  11. Reimbursements should be requested on a regular basis. All disbursements from petty cash should be supported by documentation.
  12. Petty cash disbursements should be used only for small incidental expenditures and not as a method to by-pass the University's Accounts Payable and Purchasing system.
  13. Employees are prohibited from cashing personal checks from petty cash funds.
  14. Requests for further information or any questions related to petty cash fund controls should be addressed to the Office of Internal Audit or the Manager of Current Unrestricted Funds at the Comptrollers Office.

SECTION VI: PETTY CASH REIMBURSEMENTS

All requests for reimbursement for Petty Cash should be submitted on Comptroller Form 41-R "Request for Reimbursement of Petty Cash Fund". Click on the form.

How to Prepare a Request for Reimbursement:

1. Vendor Number:

Leave this field blank. (Future forms will be revised to indicate that this field is for AP use only.)

2. Department Reference Number

This number does not print on the reports, but is an optional field for department use. Under the reference number, if there are multiple pages, list the page number and the total number of pages being submitted.

3. Payee Name and Address “Issue Check to” Section: Required field:

List the Custodian's (payee) name and Faculty Exchange address.

4. Payment Detail Section: Required Information

Each individual entry in this section must have a Comptroller form 47R "Petty Cash Receipt" attached. Take the information from the Form 47R and transcribe the required information into this section. Each Form 47R must contain the signature of the individual who received the money specified on the receipt.

5. Accounting Information: Required

Enter in the appropriate FAS account to be charged and the total dollars to be charged to the account. Use only six account numbers per page. Note that you must summarize all the Forms 47R, by account, prior to completing this section because a ten-digit FAS account can only be listed in this section once.

The dollar total of all the Form 47R Petty Cash Receipts must equal the Total Reimbursement Requested. The Total Reimbursement Requested plus the cash you have on hand must equal the Total Petty Cash Fund Amount of which you are the custodian.

6. Requested By and Department Approval Section: Required

On the first line, list the Name, Phone Number, and Department of the employee requesting the reimbursement. On the second line, list the Name, Phone Number, and Signature Authorization Number of the employee authorized to approve expenditures against the Account(s) charged.

Note: Payments to and/or for the direct benefit of the authorized signer of the account must have the co-approval of his/her supervisor on the Request for Reimbursement. Additional instructions are provided on the face of form 41R.