Just came across this forum for the first time, great stuff!
Quick question - ive been book-keeping for a few years now but have just picked up my client who operates a retail business with till floats - where do the till shortages go on the accounts - as an expense??
Seems odd as I would of thought an expense, especially a tax deductible one (if thats the case) would be open to abuse by larger firms?
Ive tried searching the net for this but there just like there is no information on the subject....
Hi there, I also have a retail company and I have a sage nominal code set up called cash reconcilation variences in about the 8000 code and then do in a bank payment or receipt to that code so that the accountant can identify it and they then advise me how they want to clear it off. Hope this helps.
I bet some accountants will lose it as an expenses somewhere in the profit & loss depending on the value. Probably stick it in Purchases, or even offset it against sales. You could even put in a nom code similar to bad debt write off. Hell it could even be put into drawings if its a sole trader or partnership.
The problem you have is that its unaccounted for cash ie its either been stolen or wrong change has been given etc...
In a sense it is lost revenue, so if they are trying to reconcile the cash received to a sales figure and that sales figure is used for accounting purposes, then yes, treat the loss as an offset to sales.
obviously their could be VAT implications to look at, but I think any business operating a till or cash float would expect some minor differences and to me £10 would be a lot, but to other its not.
I'm sure there is a correct way written in some obscure HMRC guidline booklet somewhere, but in the accountancy world, you have to look at whether the difference is material or not and whether the difference is an acceptable or reasonable amount.
