What are Petty cash books?

Petty cash books are small cash books which record day to day minor business expenditures. Minor business expenditures include newspaper, fuel, casual labour etc.

The person who handles petty cash and their recordings is known as petty cashier. Petty cash books have both debit and credit side and it records all the receipts on the debit side and all payments on the credit side just like a general cash book.

Maintaining petty cash books

Petty cash books are maintained using following systems

• Open/ordinary system − Chief cashier gives a lump sum amount to petty cashier for a fixed time and after that fixed period petty cashier submits records for amount spent.
• Fixed system − Chief cashier gives a fixed amount to the petty cashier for a fixed time.
• Imprest system − In this system, total petty expenses are estimated for a period of time and petty cashiers get advance called imprest cash. At the end, the cashier will submit the statements to the chief cashier and the balance amount is reimbursed.

Types

The types of petty cash book are as follows −