Most businesses accept payments from both Visa and MasterCard. If so, a separate summary voucher is needed for each type of card.

The summary voucher must also be imprinted with the retailers own card details, such as the retailers name and its account number with the credit card company.

After the card summary has been filled in, the total of the payments (less refunds) is copied onto the reverse side of the paying-in slip, and added to the total of payments by cheque etc.

The credit card vouchers, the card summary and the paying-in slip are then all handed in to the bank.

9
HANDLING, STORAGE AND SECURITY OF MONEY

9.1 WHEN TO PAY MONEY IN TO THE BANK

it is not always possible to bank money received on the same day. However, unless only small amounts are involved, the aim should be to bank payments received as soon as possible.

Money should be banked as soon as possible, for two reasons:

Many bank branches have a night safe system, which allows deposits to be put into the bank after the bank has been closed for the day. A business can therefore make payments into a bank by putting the cash, cheques, card vouchers, paying-in slip and card voucher summaries into the banks night safe. The bank will find the items in the moming and process the payments.

Many businesses prefer to use a night safe rather than hold money in the office overnight, to reduce the risk of theft or loss.

9.2 SECURITY MEASURES

When cash is held on business premises, it is important to keep it secure. For example:

If a significant amount of cash is held on the premises overnight, it should be kept in a safe, rather than a desk drawer.

Notes and coins should never be left lying around on desktops or in unlocked drawers. Even small amounts could easily be lost or stolen.

When an individual is given the task of taking cash to the bank to pay it in, the physical safety of that person should be considered. When very large amounts of cash are involved, the business may hire a security firm to handle payments into the bank. If an employee does the banking, a security measure may be for the employee to be accompanied by someone else. It is also sensible to use different routes to the bank and also different trusted employees. There are instances where long-trusted employees who are routinely employed in banking are influenced by disreputable individuals or, indeed, who suddenly disappear with funds.

It is just as important for a business to ensure safe custody of cheques and remittances received from customers so that they can be properly accounted for and banked. One procedure that a business may adopt to ensure that all monies (including cheques and remittances received) are properly accounted for is to implement a system of segregation of duties between members of staff who may have access to cash, cheques and remittances in order to fulfil their work responsibilities e.g. to update the cash and bank records.

For example, the post received each morning should be opened in the presence of two persons, and a list made of cheques and remittances received. A different individual should then be responsible for updating the cash and bank records. Ideally, the update of other accounting records, such as the general ledger and the individual receivables ledger accounts should also be performed by different persons.

By allocating responsibility to different members of staff for recording different aspects of a transaction, the risk of error or omission (whether deliberate or unintentional) should be reduced. It is recognised that this may not be possible to achieve in smaller businesses, but elements of this process can normally be adopted in most businesses to minimise the risk of loss or theft or errors in the receipt and recording of cheques and remittances received from customers.