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Excel workbook (.xlsx) with formulas that total themselves. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers.
Download the petty cash log (Excel)Petty cash is the small float of physical money a business keeps for the odd cash-only cost: postage, milk for the office, a taxi when nothing else will do. It is small, but it is also the single easiest place for record-keeping to fall apart, because cash leaves no automatic trail. The only thing standing between a tidy float and an unexplained shortfall is a log that records every payment as it happens.
This template is that log. Each row captures the date, a voucher number, what the money was for, a category, who it was paid to or received from, the cash in, the cash out, and a running balance. The download is an Excel workbook with the running balance already built in as a formula: an opening float row, blank rows that recalculate the balance as you type, and a period-totals row that sums the cash in and cash out.
How the running balance works
The running balance is the heart of the log. Every row recalculates it: the previous balance, plus anything paid in, minus anything paid out. At any moment the running balance should equal the physical cash in the tin. When it does not, you have found a problem the same day rather than at year end.
In this template the balance is already self-calculating: each row’s balance is a formula that takes the balance above, adds the cash in, and subtracts the cash out. Type a payment and the balance updates itself, so a discrepancy shows up the same day rather than at year end.
Run it on the imprest system
The cleanest way to manage a float is the imprest system. You fix the float at a round number, for example 100. Staff spend from it against vouchers. At the end of the period you top the float back up to 100 by drawing exactly the total spent. Because the top-up always equals the recorded spend, the reconciliation becomes a single check: physical cash plus the value of the vouchers should always equal the imprest amount. Any difference is a real error to chase, not noise.
How to use the template
- Set the opening float in the first row and agree the imprest amount with whoever holds the cash.
- Record every payment the moment it happens, with a voucher number that matches the physical receipt you staple or scan.
- Categorise each line so the spend maps to your chart of accounts when you post the month’s total.
- Reconcile at least monthly: count the cash, add the unreimbursed vouchers, and confirm the total equals the float.
- Post the period totals to the bookkeeping file as a single journal, coded by category, then top the float back up.
Common mistakes
- Letting payments accumulate undocumented. A voucher written from memory a fortnight later is the start of every petty cash discrepancy.
- Treating the float as a personal lending pot. Advances and IOUs out of petty cash break the reconciliation and blur the line between business and personal money.
- Never reconciling. A float that is counted only once a year cannot tell you which month a shortfall happened in.
- Skipping categories. A column of “sundry” tells you nothing at year end and forces a re-sort of every voucher.
Where the float is quietly disappearing
For most businesses the long-term answer to petty cash is to use less of it. A company card or a staff reimbursement leaves a digital record without anyone writing a voucher. Tools that close the gap:
- Soldo issues prepaid cards that replace the float for small recurring spend, with each transaction itemised.
- ExpenseFlow captures the receipt behind any card or out-of-pocket payment, reads the tax, codes it, and posts it into Xero or QuickBooks Online with the image attached, so the substantiation petty cash always struggled with is automatic.
- Pleo combines smart cards with receipt capture for teams that have moved off cash entirely.
Keep a small float for the genuinely cash-only moments, log it with this template, and let captured card receipts handle everything else.