Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Paper based vs Paperless petty cash management systems
www.shelze.com.ng
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Introduction
Uduak Inyang
Paper based vs Paperless petty cash management systems
When you think of petty cash what comes to your mind?... a small box with a lock that is kept in the office that contains cash for those small purchases that the business makes daily right?Yes that’s true.The term “petty” comes from the French word “petite” which means “small” or “little”. Petty cash refers to small amounts of cash set aside that is used to handle minor, small, little and daily expenses in the business. Examples of these expenses include: purchase of water, stationery and etc. for office use.Petty cash management systems refers to a recording system that is used to track petty cash used to handle small expenses. The petty cash management system uses the imprest system in which a fixed amount called “float” is injected into petty cash and it is replenished as the funds diminish. The float balance must always be equal to the expense paid through petty cash.The traditional process used and accepted for years for managing petty cash is that when the employees need cash to make daily expenses they have to manually fill a petty cash voucher to apply for cash advances, get approval from the authorized personnel and cash is disbursed from the money box (float) kept in the office. When retirements are done, the employees have to manually fill again the petty cash voucher (if they spent more than the cash advance collected or spent less) and attach a receipt. This process is purely paper-based and it cannot be done remotely.
With the above challenges regarding the paper based approach to petty cash management, the best approach to improve and manage petty cash management effectively and properly is to go paperless. That is automate the petty cash man-agement system.There are various cloud-based management system that can allow a paperless approach to petty cash management system. They include Zoho Expense, Webexpenses, Rydoo, Expense-point, Expensify, Sap Concur and etc.
Credit cards can be connected so that when the transactions are imported you can instantly convert them into expenses to avoid double entry.
When expense reports are submitted, the man-agers/ approvers get instant notifications and reminders which makes approvals faster. These cloud-based management systems are usually available on iOS, Android and Windows which makes it very easy to submit expenses while working remotely.
These cloud-based management systems are online expense reporting software. They auto-mate the entire expense reporting process. Receipts can be uploaded digitally and reports are automatically generated to avoid manual data entry of expenses.
Bulk expenses can be created and one report generated to avoid creating multiple expenses and reports.
Expense policies can be defined and set like receipt limit. There are certain expense amounts that when they are exceeded, receipts must be provided. This makes it very easy to identify reports which have violated the expense policies.
This process can be very tedious and tiring. It is very hard to control, track and there is a high risk of error, theft, fraud and mismanagement. The process relies solely on the integrity and consci-entious of the petty cash manager and the employees which cannot be truly controlled and relied on.
2
Uduak Inyang is an associate at Shelze Professional Services and can be reached on [email protected]
www.shelze.com.ng
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
The other benefits of using these online expense reporting software are:1. It allows a central monitoring of office costs that business incurs. Expense reports can be accessed anytime. 2. When costs fall outside any limits that have been set, the finance director can be notified and expenses that look suspicious can be spotted and investigated.3. It helps management to have a central control over the petty cash process and system which makes checks and balances easy.4. It makes it easy to check fraudulent, duplicate and inconsistent expense reports.5. It relieves employees of tedious paper work and burdensome reimbursement process. 6. Monthly reconciliation can be done with easy from the report generated.7. It can be used remotely.
With the above benefits, you can be sure that integrating a cloud-based management system into the petty cash management system, petty cash expenses will be properly managed, moni-tored and controlled effectively.
For further enquiries and questions on how to integrate a cloud-based management system to help you best manage how you control petty cash while you work remotely, you can send us an email at [email protected] and we will be glad to walk you through the process.
3
www.shelze.com.ng
AuthorUduak InyangAccounts and Finance
Shelze Professional Services 1st Floor, 70 Queens Street, Alagomeji, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.Phone: 01 888 7978, 0817 014 4053Email: [email protected]: www.shelze.com.ng
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Conclusion
