Programme advances

Money advanced to a staff member for programme expenditure including 'per diem' and refundable personal expenses

Cash advance (or float)

A staff member receives a cash advance for payments on behalf of the organisation.

If the staff member will not make any further payments on behalf of the organisation:

The staff member accounts for all payments made and returns any unspent balance.

If the staff member will continue to make payments on behalf of the organisation:

The staff member accounts for all payments made since last receiving any money and receives a replenishment for the same amount as they have accounted for.

To limit problems make sure:

Cash advances are approved by one designated person and made by a different designated person.
Cash advances are recorded in a Cash advances register
A team member receiving an advance:
- signs the Cash advance regulations before receiving any advance
- signs a receipt for each advance received
- accounts for all previous advances, before receiving another advance.

Accounting for cash advances

There are many ways of accounting for advances. They are described briefly below. For greater detail download Accounting for advances.

The best and simplest way is for the team member to account for how the advance was spent, in full, to the person who advanced the money. This should be done as soon as possible. See Method 1 and 2 in Accounting for Advances.

If however the team member will continue to make payments, a system of refunding the amount spent will simplify accounting. But any unspent advances need to be monitored and checked. See Method 3 in Accounting for Advances.

Do not advance further cash before previous advances have been accounted for. See Method 4 in Accounting for Advances.

Advances are sometimes accounted for to another person. This needs careful monitoring. See Method 5 in Accounting for Advances.