Before diving into this article, we recommend familiarizing yourself with how to manage cash and checks (learn more).
This article also covers situations where your Petty cash shows an abnormal balance — for example, $10,000 in Petty cash. Once you've spotted the issue, how do you get things back on track? It's especially important to address it, as it can affect both your bank reconciliation and your accounting period closing.
This article gives you the tools to restore your Petty cash to its correct balance. Here's what we'll cover:
Identifying the problem
The first step is to check whether there's a visible issue — and it's easier than you might think.
Go to Accounting > Dashboard.
On the right side, you'll see your available balances. Accounts shown in green are your Petty cash accounts.
There are three signs that something may be wrong:
- The Petty cash balance is negative;
- The Petty cash shows an abnormally high amount (hundreds or thousands of dollars);
- The balance doesn't match what you actually have on hand.
In any of these three cases, working through the checks below should help you get your Petty cash back on track.
Key things to check
Missing opening balance
The opening balance reflects your financial situation when you first started using the platform. You can find it at Settings > Accounting → Opening balance (learn more).
Ask yourself: did you have a Petty cash balance when you started using Springly? If so, did you enter it?
- No? Enter it now, then check whether your Petty cash balance looks correct;
- Yes? Move on to the next checks below.
Researching Petty cash entries
You have a couple of options to investigate. Go to Accounting > Search, or navigate to Accounting > Documents > General ledger.
In both cases, focus on accounts 53100X.
This will display all entries that have passed through the relevant account(s). You should find useful information there to understand why your Petty cash is off.
Missing entries related to campaigns
Start by considering your campaigns — memberships, donations, events, and product sales.
If you use these, this article may help: Recording memberships (and other campaigns) in accounting.
Entries and/or accounts receivable may have been generated. Entries are created when payments are marked as received (or partially received) in your campaigns. Accounts receivable are created when the status shows "No payment."
If you have entries marked as "No payment" but the payment was actually received, clear them.
If you don't have access to the campaigns, you can check payables and receivables (or payments to collect) directly on the accounting dashboard. There may be entries to clear, including cash payments.
Then run your bank reconciliation — it will help you spot any remaining discrepancies.
Two common entry errors
Reading the bank reconciliation section of this article will go a long way toward helping you understand and correct entry errors.
An error in the payment method
Start by locating the entry you're unsure about. Your account statement can help you find the relevant date and amount.
You can then update the payment method on the entry (edit an entry).
A payment or refund error not initiated by the nonprofit
Our support team has come across these scenarios:
- A volunteer covered an expense for the nonprofit in cash. The nonprofit reimbursed them via wire transfer, but recorded the reimbursement as a cash payment (because the volunteer originally paid in cash).
- Solution: distinguish between the individual (the volunteer, who paid in cash) and the nonprofit (which reimbursed by wire transfer — that's what should have been recorded in Springly).
- The volunteer wasn't reimbursed (they waived the expense), but the nonprofit recorded the reimbursement anyway.
- Solution: record a Voluntary Contribution in Kind instead of a book entry — the accounting impact is different.
Using your bank reconciliation
If you're not familiar with the process, we recommend reading the Introduction to bank reconciliation.
A few possible situations:
- You've never reconciled your entries
- You don't see any deposits or withdrawals in the entries to reconcile
- You reconcile regularly
- You see duplicate entries
You've never reconciled your entries
We strongly encourage you to start. This article can help: How to perform your bank reconciliation.
You don't see any deposits or withdrawals in the entries to reconcile
This is where bank reconciliation really proves its value.
Bank reconciliation only displays entries that have affected a bank account. If you forgot to record a cash deposit or withdrawal in Springly, those entries won't show up in the bank reconciliation.
Record the missing information, then continue with the bank reconciliation until everything lines up. If discrepancies persist... keep reading. 😉
You reconcile regularly
Make sure to identify all entries corresponding to cash deposits or withdrawals. Click on the entries you find — they should look like this:
A Petty cash journal (CA001 in the example) should be referenced. When you edit the entry, you should see the lines "Taken from Petty cash" and "Deposited to the bank."
If none of these elements are present, there was likely an entry error.
You see duplicate entries
Another great reason to use bank reconciliation! Simply delete the duplicate entry. We recommend reviewing both entries carefully and keeping the one with the most complete information.
Last resort
You can post an adjusting entry. This is done through the Journal book entry feature.
Let's say your goal is to bring your Petty cash to $0, starting from a balance of -$50. Go to Accounting > Entry > Journal book entry. You can zero out the Petty cash account by posting the offsetting entry to account 658000. This is a fairly standard accounting adjustment.
In the same way, an abnormally high Petty cash balance can be adjusted by using account 758000 as the offset.
Warning: an adjusting entry can be appropriate for small amounts. However, it is not recommended for large amounts.
The Springly team is always here if you need help using the platform.
For purely accounting questions, feel free to reach out to a qualified accountant or consult other resources 😊
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