The cash over and short account

A general ledger is a financial record-keeping system that businesses use in order to track their revenue, expenses, and other financial transactions. The cash over and short account is an account in the general ledger that keeps track of cash over or cash short situations. The amount from this account is then reported on a company’s income statement which is used to report its net income (total revenue – total expenses).

Peruse Best Buy’s 2017 annual report to learn more about Best Buy. Take note of the company’s balance sheet on page 53 of the report and the income statement on page 54. These reports have much more information than the financial statements we have shown you; however, if you read through them you may notice some familiar items. Recall that the general ledger is a record of each account and its balance. Reviewing journal entries individually can be tedious and time consuming. The general ledger is helpful in that a company can easily extract account and balance information.

Cash Over and Short Journal Entry

Now subtract the amount remaining from the account’s original balance to determine by how much you need to replenish the account. In the example, if your petty cash account’s original balance was $1,000, subtract $550 from $1,000 to get $450, which is the amount by which you need to replenish the account. Cash short occurs when there is not enough cash to meet the amount that was expected/recorded in a company’s general ledger. A general ledger is a record-keeping system that businesses use to track their financial transactions and maintain accurate financial records. In order to better understand cash over and short entries, it can be helpful to explore a few examples.

Companies replenish the petty cash fund at the end of the accounting period, or sooner if it becomes low. The reason for replenishing the fund at the end of the accounting period is that no record of the fund expenditures is in the accounts until the check is written and a journal entry is made. (Sometimes we refer to this fund as an imprest fund since it is replenished when it becomes low.). To determine which accounts to debit, an employee summarizes the petty cash vouchers according to the reasons for expenditure.

Demonstration of Typical Petty Cash Journal Entries

For example, a company would be cash over $8 if its general ledger showed a balance of $200 for its cash fund but the company actually had $133 in cash and $75 in receipts (for a total of $208). Typically, petty cash accounts are reimbursed at a fixed time period. Many small businesses will do this monthly, which ensures that the expenses are recognized within the proper accounting period. In the event that all of the cash in the account is used before the end of the established time period, it can be replenished in the same way at any time more cash is needed.

The journal entry for this action involves debits to appropriate expense accounts as represented by the receipts, and a credit to Cash for the amount of the replenishment. Notice that the Petty Cash account is not impacted — it was originally established as a base amount, and its balance has not been changed by virtue of this activity. A check for cash is prepared in an amount to bring the fund back up to the original level. The check is cashed and the proceeds are placed in the petty cash box. At the same time, receipts are removed from the petty cash box and formally recorded as expenses.

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The total amount of cash sales in the sales receipts is $2,790, however, the actual cash we have is only $2,785 (excluding the $100 cash prepared for small notes changes at the beginning of the day). This is probably due to there have been many transactions for our retail business as it is near holiday resulting in errors in our calculation. A petty cash account is an account a company uses to pay for small expenses. A company creates a voucher each time the petty cash account is used. The cash over and short account is a temporary account that is closed out at the end of the accounting period. The over or short amount is then eventually integrated with the income statement and, in cash short situations, will result in a decrease in net income.

A company’s cash over or cash short amount will affect its net income for the period in which the discrepancy occurred. For example, a company with a $7 cash over entry would experience a resulting $7 increase in its net income for that period. If the balance in the petty cash account is supposed to be $75, cash short and over then the petty cash box should contain $45 in signed receipts and $30 in cash. Assume that when the box is counted, there are $45 in receipts and $25 in cash. In this case, the petty cash balance is $70, when it should be $75. This creates a $5 shortage that needs to be replaced from the checking account.