QuickBooks 2011: The Missing Manual

Tracking Petty Cash

Dashing out to buy an extension cord so you can present a pitch to a potential client? Chances are you’ll get money from the petty cash drawer at your office. Petty cash is the familiar term for money spent on small purchases, typically less than $20.

Many companies keep a cash drawer at the office and dole out dollars for small, company-related purchases that employees make. But for the small business owner with a bank card, getting petty cash is as easy as withdrawing money from an ATM. Either way, petty cash is still company money, and that means you have to keep track of it and how it’s spent. The following sections explain how to do that.

Recording ATM Withdrawals and Deposits to Petty Cash

In QuickBooks, adding money to your petty cash account mirrors the real world transaction. You either write a check made out to Cash (or the trustworthy employee who’s cashing the check), or you withdraw money from an ATM. To write a check to withdraw cash for your petty cash account, you can simply open the Write Checks window (choose Banking→Write Checks or, on the Home page, click the Write Checks icon). If you withdraw cash from an ATM, open the Transfer Funds window (choose Banking→Transfer Funds) instead.

If creating transactions in the account register window (Creating a Transaction in an Account Register) is OK with you, you can use the same steps whether you replenish your petty cash with a check or ATM withdrawal:

1. In the Chart of Accounts window (press ...