Finance

Guidance on Cash Handling Procedures

The following procedure has been documented to act as a guide for the control, receipt and banking of miscellaneous cash.  It is expected that individual areas will develop their own detailed procedures encompassing the guidelines as below.

Bank Security

• Cash transactions should only be dealt with by staff members who are authorised to undertake such responsibilities and a regular review of these authorised staff members should be performed by senior management in each area.  Each department should centralise the collection of cash preferably, only two people within the department should be responsible for handling cash.
  
• All cash collected / cash and petty cash floats should be held securely, either in a till, or in a locked cash box at all times. In the latter case, the cashbox should be kept out of sight at all times in a locked cabinet or drawer. Any cash amounts over £500 must be held in a safe and details of the safe passed to Insurance Dept.
  
• Cash should never be left unattended, for any period of time.
  
• Where departments use tills to collect and store cash throughout the day, then further more detailed guidance on cash handling should be documented and maintained by each department which contains the minimum internal controls contained within this procedure.
  
• Under no circumstances should cash be used for paying for staff advances, reimbursements of staff personal expenses or mileage claims, wages or salaries or foreign currencies.
  
• No cash income should be added to petty cash float balances other than by replenishment from Finance Office.
  
• Keys to the till, cashbox, or safe, should be given to a designated person, who should keep the keys secure and ensure that they are not left unsecured in the office overnight. Sensible precautions should be taken to ensure that any room in which cash is regularly stored is locked when unoccupied.
  
• Where cash is being counted by staff, this should be done out of sight.

Receipt of Cash

• Cash handling procedures are undertaken by at least two people.
• A receipt must be issued for all cash received and a copy retained. The receipt should be processed through the Cash Register, or issued manually and shall show
  • Date received
  • Name of the payee
  • Amount received
  • What the payment was for
  • Type of payment received ie cash, cheque, postal order, credit card, debit card
  • Unique receipt number

Recording Cash Sales

All cash sales must be recorded within Agresso via the Agresso Web.  A nominated member of staff for each department will record income received within their department on a daily basis. Daily cash sales will be matched to the bank reconciliation by the Cash Section within the Finance Office.  Agresso will then automatically reconcile the income recorded via the Cash Sales to the money received in the University of Glasgow bank accounts. Any discrepancies will be investigated by the Cash Section.

For further information on the cash sales process please refer to the Agresso user manual for sales orders.

All cash registers should be emptied daily with cash takings matched to till reports and discrepancies investigated with a supervisor/manager confirming (as evidenced by their signature and this evidence kept on file) daily banking is consistent with till readings. Cash should be stored securely in a safe until banked.  All banking should be completed without delay. 

Cash Transportation Guidelines

Cash collection must be documented by location/site and the specific collection point must be identified together with the days and approximate times.  If cash is not collected the following criteria apply for banking cash (in line with the University’s insurance policy requirements) 

• Up to £3,000 - 1 person
• Between £3,001 and £6,000 - 2 persons
• Between £6,001 and £10,000 - 3 persons
• Over £10,000 - Professional Security Company

A member of staff not involved in the cash collection process should be made responsible for ensuring that all cash banked appears timeously and accurately in the relevant Agresso project.

The overriding principle is that, in order to achieve an adequate separation of duties and to reduce risk, it is necessary to ensure that no one individual is responsible for all activities in this area; that is: cash collection, cash reconciliation, delivery to Cash Office or bank and review of project statements.