Petty Cash Guide

Petty Cash tracks farm money entrusted to a person for small purchases. The float is the cash record, and the cash holder (the bookkeeper's word is custodian) is the person responsible for it. Handing out or topping up a float moves custody of farm money; it does not record an expense.

Expected cash is the amount FarmSentry expects to remain after opening cash, top-ups, approved spending, and returned cash. Counting compares that figure with a real physical count. FarmSentry records the comparison; it does not move cash for you.

1. Open Petty Cash from the farm sidebar.
2. An owner or manager selects Give out cash and records who receives it.
3. Open the float and select Log spend for each purchase.
4. Attach the receipt, or say why there is none, then select Send for approval.
5. An eligible person opens the review queue, checks the details and evidence, and approves or sends it back.
6. When the work is done, an owner or manager selects Count cash and close, enters the physical count, and handles every blocker shown.

Owners and managers can open floats. Select Give out cash, then complete the fields shown in the dialog:

• Take money from: If more than one active, matching-currency fund is available, choose the source. With one eligible fund, FarmSentry uses it automatically. On the first float, if no fund exists yet, FarmSentry creates the default Petty cash fund.
• Who will be holding this cash: Choose a farm member who can sign in or an active worker record. If the worker cannot sign in, an owner or manager must log spending for them.
• Amount handed over: Enter an amount above zero.
• Transfer method: Choose Cash, Mobile money, Bank transfer, Cheque, or Other, and add an optional reference.
• Expected close date: Add a target date if you already know when the cash should be counted.
• Project (optional): Earmark the float for a planning or active project shown in the same currency.

One person can hold several floats at the same time, for example one for weekly wages and another for a project instalment. The first line of the Reference & details box becomes the float's name on every list, so start it with what the money is for. Each float is counted and closed on its own, and a spend is always logged from inside the float it belongs to. A float, fund, project, and its spends stay in one currency; the workflow does not convert currencies. A float in Review cannot be topped up; finish its count and close it first.

What the summary shows

• Cash handed out: Opening cash plus top-ups across active floats. This headline does not subtract approved spend or returned cash.
• Opening float and Top up: The float's Cash movements tab lists the original handover and every later addition.
• Approved spend: A reviewed purchase that reduces available and expected cash and has posted to Finances.
• Returned cash: Money recorded as physically returned to the farm; it reduces available and expected cash.
• Available: Opening cash plus top-ups, less approved spends and recorded returns.
• Left to spend: On a float's own page, Available less any spends waiting for approval. This is the most a new spend can be sent for, and the bar under it shows how much of the float is used.
• Waiting for approval: Submitted spends and their total value.
• Missing receipts: Spend records that still need evidence or an accepted explanation.
• Cash that should be in hand: What should physically remain with the person holding the cash now.
• Unaccounted difference this month: Differences recorded when floats were closed this month.

Float statuses

• Open: Eligible users can still log spend, and owners or managers can top up the float.
• Review: A cash count has been saved and new spending is stopped while unfinished items are resolved.
• Closed: The final count is recorded and the float no longer accepts cash movements or new spend.
• Cancelled: An unused open float was cancelled with a reason. Cancel is offered only before meaningful movements exist; it is not the normal close path.

The main page offers All floats, My floats, Open floats, Needs review, Missing receipts, Low balance, and Closed views, plus a float search.

The person holding the cash can log spend when they are a signed-in farm member. Owners and managers can also log against an open float. Select Log spend and enter:

• Amount: Must be above zero and cannot exceed the amount still available for submission.
• Receipt: Photograph or upload an image or PDF. FarmSentry may warn about darkness, blur, duplicates, amount differences, or a different receipt currency.
• Vendor: Optional. Who was paid.
• Category: Choose the best current cost category.
• Description: Required; say what the money bought. Recent descriptions appear underneath as one-tap chips.
• Date: Record the date the cash was spent. Petty Cash spend is recorded as cash by this dialog; there is no separate payment-method choice here.
• No receipt? Tell finance why: Appears only while no receipt is attached, and is required to submit without one. A farm receipt threshold may still require an actual receipt above the configured amount.
• Project and budget line: A project-earmarked float is inherited by default. Where offered, you can change or clear the project and match a budget line.
• Link to a field, herd, or animal: Optional reporting detail, collapsed until you choose Add. The choices depend on category, so not every category supports every resource type.

Choose Save draft to keep working without requesting approval, or Send for approval. Leave Log another after this one ticked and the form clears and stays open after each save, so a stack of receipts goes in without reopening the window. A receipt or written reason is needed before submission.

If a save fails because the device is offline, FarmSentry stores the spend on that device and retries when the Petty Cash page is open again with a connection. Receipt photos are stored locally too. The page shows how many spends or receipt photos are waiting and provides Try sync.

• The spend syncs first; a photo upload can continue retrying without losing the server-side spend.
• If submission fails after the spend reaches the server, the record remains a Draft. Open the float and submit it when connected.
• Keep the same person signed in on the same device until the waiting banner clears. Do not sign out, switch accounts, share the device, clear browser storage, or switch devices while work is queued.
• Before handing the phone to someone else or reconciling, confirm all queued entries and photos have synced.

Spends waiting for approval collect in Approvals, in the sidebar under Money and insight, alongside the "spends waiting" link at the top of the Petty cash page. Open one to check the amount, date, vendor, description, category, project, resource links, receipt, and any reason there is no receipt. Then choose Approve or Send back.

• The farm setting decides whether only owners approve or managers may approve too.
• A manager cannot approve above the farm's manager approval limit.
• A manager cannot approve a spend they logged or a spend against cash they hold. The owner is exempt from this self-approval check.
• The farm's receipt threshold can require an attached receipt. Below it, a written no-receipt reason may be reviewed instead.
• The Approve [number] with receipts attached action approves only spends that already have a receipt, and confirms the count and the total first. Spends with a written reason instead of a receipt are read one at a time.
• Send back records a reason and note and returns the spend to be corrected and sent again.

Approval rules are checked again when the action saves. If another person already changed the record, refresh it and follow the current status rather than repeating the action.

Approving a Petty Cash spend automatically creates the matching cost transaction in Finances. The receipt, supported resource link, and project or budget-line attribution travel with that posted cost. Draft, submitted, or rejected spends do not post an expense.

A project-earmarked float does not increase project actuals when opened or topped up. Only its approved, project-linked spends count as actual project cost.

Owners and managers can use the float's More menu for the cash movements currently available:

• Top up: Add cash to an Open float. Record Amount, Date, Method, optional Reference, and Notes. The money remains custody, not expense.
• Return cash: Record money physically returned to the farm from an Open or Review float. The return cannot exceed expected cash.
• Change cash holder: Count cash with the person holding it now, choose who takes over, and add a note. A difference requires an explanation. The new holder cannot already hold an Open or Being counted float from the same fund. This changes who holds the same float; it is not a new expense.

Top-up and return dialogs preserve the float currency and record the movement method. Handover can use another signed-in member or an active worker record. If the new holder cannot sign in, an owner or manager must record their spending.

Counting compares Cash that should be there with Cash counted, the money actually in the box or pocket. Owners and managers open the float, select Count cash and close, and enter the physical count. FarmSentry calculates the Unaccounted difference.

• A non-zero difference needs a Reason. You can record it as Not settled yet, Repaid, Deducted from pay, or Written off.
• Resolve every blocker shown before either save or close becomes available.
• Save count and stop new spending then records the count and moves the float into Review without closing it.
• Every Draft must be submitted or voided, every sent-back spend corrected or voided, and every submitted spend reviewed.
• A spend with missing evidence needs a receipt or a no-receipt reason before close.
• The page names blockers and links to the spend or Approvals so you can resolve the exact record.

Close float saves the count, stops spending, and closes the record. Approved expenses stay in Finances. A close is not an accounting reversal, and the normal close action is not presented as undoable.

On the count screen, turn on Start a new float when the same custodian should continue with a fresh record. This is one coordinated action: the old float closes and a linked successor opens.

• Carried forward from this float is the physical cash you counted, not the earlier expected figure.
• Extra cash you are handing over now is optional and cannot be negative.
• New float will open at equals counted cash plus extra cash and must be above zero.
• The successor keeps the fund, the person holding the cash, and the currency. You may keep, change, or clear the matching-currency project where the selector offers it.
• If extra cash is added, record how it is sent and an optional reference. You may also set a new expected close date.

A shortage stays on the previous holder's record until it is settled and is not added to the successor. For project tracking, only genuinely extra cash is a new dispensation; carried-forward cash is not counted twice. The confirmation explains that the combined close-and-open action cannot be undone.

A negative closing difference means the counted cash was below expected. If it was left as Not settled yet, the closed float shows the outstanding amount. An owner or manager can select Mark as settled and record one of the visible outcomes:

• Repaid: the farm has received repayment.
• Deducted from pay: the farm handled the amount through its real-world pay process.
• Written off: the farm decided not to pursue the amount.

These choices document what happened and clear the outstanding Petty Cash total. Selecting one does not collect money, run payroll, or create a payment by itself. Add a note so the history explains the decision.

Find and export records

Search floats by fund, holder, or status and choose one of the fixed queue views; FarmSentry remembers the last view you used for this farm in the current browser. The main Petty Cash page provides CSV downloads for Export spends, Missing receipts, and Variance. A float's More menu provides PDF and Excel statements. Generated exports require an Essentials or Premium subscription; Free users can still work with the records available on screen. Petty Cash is disabled on the demo farm.

Who can do what?

• Owners and managers: Open and manage floats, top up or return cash, hand over custody, count and close, and void eligible posted spends while the float is Open or Review. Manager approval remains subject to farm policy and limits.
• People holding cash who can sign in: Log, save, submit, and correct eligible spend on their own Open float. Until a spend they sent is approved, they can change it, take it back, or cancel it.
• Other farm members: Can read records their farm access permits, but management and approval actions appear only when their role and the farm policy allow them.

Common questions