Briefings
Petty cash rules a small team will actually follow
A float, a tin, and a weekly count that keeps small spend honest.
Why the tin goes wrong first
Ask any founder with five to fifteen people where the money leaks and they will point at the big things, the late debtor, the supplier who put prices up, the month the landlord sent an escalation letter. The quiet leak is usually smaller. It is the R80 for milk and sugar, the R250 taxi fare to drop a parcel in town, the R400 for a cable from the hardware store on a Friday afternoon. Nobody signs for it, nobody logs it, and by month end the bank statement shows cash withdrawals that no one can explain to the bookkeeper. That is not theft most of the time. It is just a system that relies on memory, and memory is busy.
Set one float and one keeper
Pick a fixed float, for example R1,500, and keep it there. Not R1,500 this month and R2,000 next month because someone was in a hurry. One person holds the key, and one person is the backup when the keeper is on leave. If everyone can open the tin then nobody really owns it, and the first awkward conversation will be about who took the last R200. The keeper does not need to be senior. In alot of small teams the best keeper is the person who already handles deliveries, because they are the one spending it anyway.
Every rand needs a slip
The rule is simple enough to print and tape inside the lid: no slip, no cash. If a shop does not give a till slip, the person writes a voucher on the spot, date, amount, what it was for, and their name. Staple the slip to the voucher. Keep them in a seperate envelope per week so the count is quick. On a phone, a photo of the slip sent to one WhatsApp group works as a backup when the paper fades, which thermal paper does within months in a hot office.
The Friday count
Once a week, ideally before lunch on Friday, the keeper counts the cash and adds up the slips. Cash plus slips must equal the float. If it does, top it back up from the bank and file the envelope. If it is out by more than a few rand, write the difference down honestly and look for it on Monday, not at 4pm when everyone wants to go home. A small, recorded difference is fine. A difference that keeps growing and nobody mentions is the thing to fix. The count takes ten minutes, and it's real value is that people know it happens.
Limits and what petty cash is not for
Write down a limit per purchase, say R500, and a short list of what petty cash covers: tea and cleaning stock, small courier and parking costs, minor hardware, postage. Anything bigger goes through a proper supplier invoice or the company card so it lands in the books with VAT detail intact. Petty cash is also not a loan service. Salary advances out of the tin feel kind on the day and turn into a mess at payroll, so keep those on a seperate, signed form handled by the owner.
Hand it to the books cleanly
At month end the bookkeeper wants one total per category and the slips behind it, not a shoebox. Code each voucher to a simple category when it is written, so the Friday count already does half the work. If VAT registered, keep the valid tax invoices for anything that qualifies, because a till slip without the supplier details may not support a claim. When the month's petty cash total looks odd against the previous three months, that is your cue to ask, while the people involved still remember what happened.
Where to go next
Pair this briefing with the Finance Cadence tile in the toolkit, and run the Cash Crunch Reset play if small spend is hiding a bigger float problem. If you want a second pair of eyes on the setup, email sales@businessnow.co.za with your team size and current float, and we will book a short Advisory Hour.
