Non-Routine Transactions When Processing Cash
Readers that scan a bill's denomination and high-speed counting machines have largely supplanted th old-fashioned hand counting that used to make cash processing a labor-intensive and error-prone process. Nevertheless, some situations require manual intervention -- particularly when the transaction itself presents out-of-the-ordinary circumstances. Apart from mechanical problems, some scenarios require extra paperwork to ensure that everything remains in balance.
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Out of Balance Corrections
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Cash balancing remains one of the most common non-routine cash management problems. Particularly frequent in retail settings, an out-of-balance situation requires supervisors to investigate the nature of the discrepancy and to introduce an offsetting debit or credit into the cash control record to force-balance to zero. For example, if a cashier's daily receipts indicate that he should have $525 in his drawer at the end of a shift, but he only has $520, management must add a $5 credit and then evaluate whether any disciplinary action is warranted under company policy.
Counterfeit Currency
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If an employee discovers counterfeit currency, the company must set the fake bills aside and any information that identifies the transaction where the counterfeit money was accepted. The company must notify the Secret Service, which investigates allegations of counterfeiting, and then create a credit into the cash record to ensure that the record balances to zero. The Secret Service recommends putting the counterfeit bills into an envelope to limit exposure to employees' fingerprints.
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Currency Transaction Reports
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Federal regulations require banks and credit unions to file a currency transaction report with the government any time a customer deposits or withdraws more than $10,000 in currency in a single day. This regulation helps track potential money laundering. The CTR notes the customer's information -- including his personal identification numbers -- so that federal officials can trace large currency movements within the country and across national borders.
Foreign Exchanges
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More common in retail banking than retail commerce, foreign currency transactions usually require that the foreign currency be sequestered from domestic currency and that the processor introduce paper debit or credit forms -- noting the exchange rate at the time of the conversion -- into the audit record. For example, if a customer converts euros to dollars at a bank branch, the teller will keep the euros separate from the dollars and record the day's official exchange rate. Then, the teller will process a conversion transaction, which generates a record of the rate; the paper debit will offset the currency in her cash-control record so that she balances to zero at the end of the day.
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References
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