Cash document

What it means

A cash document evidences a cash payment: a receipt or payment voucher in the company’s cash box, or an eKasa receipt when selling to a final customer.

Like any accounting document it must carry identification, the content of the transaction, the date, the amount and signatures. Without one, a movement in the cash box cannot be evidenced even if it truly happened.

A cash voucher and an eKasa receipt are not the same thing. A receipt or payment voucher is the company’s internal document for money moving in and out of its own cash box, while the eKasa receipt goes to the customer as proof of sale. A cash sale can produce both, and each does a different job.

How it works in practice

The cash book is kept continuously and its balance must equal the money actually in the box. That is verified by stocktake, more often than annually where volumes are large.

Till receipts for small purchases are glued in or scanned, because thermal paper fades within months. Where a company card is used, the bank statement is the matching document.

When cash is withdrawn from the bank, we book the outflow from the bank statement and the inflow into the cash book on a receipt voucher. A cash-in-transit account sits between the two, so the amount is not counted twice and both sides still match when the money reaches the cash box a day later.

What to watch out for

A negative cash balance is an impossible state and an unambiguous finding in an inspection. Spending with no document is equally awkward - it is treated as non-deductible or as a benefit in kind for the director.

Cash payments have a statutory limit above which payment must be made by transfer, and splitting one payment across several documents counts as a single payment. A breach can bring a fine for both the payer and the recipient, so a large purchase in cash is a bad idea for either side.