Another day, another blog post about how to keep track of your dollars! We’ve previously discussed the importance of petty cash and how it drives your production’s success. Now it’s time we talk about how you can become a petty cash expert.
Like most things in production, there isn’t a one size fits all approach. However, with the steps outlined below, you will understand the key aspects of proper petty cash management. Then, you can apply this knowledge to make the most out of your project’s budget every time!
Petty Cash Best Practices
Keep Your Money Safe
The most important aspect of managing petty cash is safety. Your money should always be kept in a secure place. You can utilize a lockbox, a safe, a locked drawer, or any other storage method that limits accessibility to the cash. Items like lockboxes also double as storage space for all receipts and cash logs. It’s a safety win-win!
Assigning responsibility to a key team member is another great way to keep your petty cash safe. When there are clear assignments for money management, it reduces confusion about who can access and use the funds. Moreover, if there are any questions or issues, there is an obvious chain of command for everyone to follow. That way, everything is solved quickly, and additional problems are avoided.
Manage Your Funds
In addition to keeping your money in a secure place, you should also maintain a consistent flow of funds. Firstly, always have a withdrawal limit for petty cash. Petty cash is convenient, but it should not be an unlimited resource. When you stick to a clear withdrawal limit, you can support your team’s needs without jeapordizing your budget.
Additionally, it is also important to replenish your petty cash funds regularly. Keeping the available amount of petty cash at the front of your mind means that petty cash will always be available when needed. Rather than the petty cash being an afterthought, it will be there to make your life easier!
Track Your Cash Flow
With petty cash management, nothing is better than detailed tracking. Petty cash logs are invaluable resources in accounting for all petty cash transactions. Take it from us; we even made a downloadable template of our petty cash log for you to use! You can adjust this template to your needs, but it will lay out the basic categories for all the information you should track for your petty cash transactions.
Petty cash logs track every single purchase, so every dollar spent is accounted for at all times. You should update your log as soon as you can after any cash movement. Staying on top of updates and consistently working on the log is the best way to avoid any errors.
If you pay a lot of attention to your petty cash log throughout the project, you will be able to notice discrepancies as soon as they appear. Therefore, you can fix small errors before they hold up your production. Even when you don’t have to worry about errors, a well-developed petty cash log makes it much easier to transfer all of your transaction details into your production budget tracking as a whole!
Maximize Your Petty Cash Potential
As we mentioned at the beginning of this post, the best way to optimize your petty cash is to customize your process to your company or project’s needs. Don’t be afraid to customize your transaction logs to reflect your expenses, whether that’s adding categories or standardizing set expenses. The same applies to cash flow processes, security practices, and role assignments.
When you apply our tips to your workflow, you’ll see the best results if you mold these practices to fit your team’s existing workflows. Following these steps will give you peace of mind, efficiency, and little room for error. With fewer worries about petty cash, you’ll be able to focus your extra energy on all the parts of the production that make your campaign great!
