We’re all familiar with the old school way of managing petty cash. There’s a slightly sad looking old metal tin under the desk in reception, probably with some old pound coins and euros floating around in there. The team takes money out of the tin to buy a couple of pints of milk each week, or to pay the window clear who comes each month and has a little chat with reception on arrival. Kept receipts are a rare sight, unless you have a very diligent team hounding you for the receipt for that £1 you spent at Tesco last week! Cash is topped up at the end of each month and things tick along.
This is all well and good – but outdated. A practice from a day when people still paid with cheques, and a bank run was needed at the end of each day to part with the surplus cash you’ve built up from patients. Times have moved on, money is now handled electronically, and it’s time for your petty cash system to do the same.
It may seem like a small point, but there are better ways you can manage your cash. Systems that link directly with your Xero software, so no longer will you have your accountant chasing you at each year’s end to provide the cash sheets for the year. No more holding onto bags of small receipts either, as information is transferred straight from your purchases to Xero without needing to do anything. Below are a couple of our best suggestions to modernising your petty cash.
Soldo
Soldo is a prepaid Mastercard that aims to simplify keeping track of your smaller expenses. As the business owner, you can order as many cards as required, such as having a single card for the reception team, or multiple cards for individual members of staff if necessary.
You then simply top up cash onto these individual cards, set spending limits per transaction and per day, and allow your team to take control of business purchases.
The Soldo app enables you to keep a track of who is spending what, as well as integrating with Xero to automatically import these transactions. Your employees should also download the app to keep a track of the balance on their card, and to snap pictures of receipts as they go.
Pleo
Similar in many ways, Pleo is a Mastercard that can be issued to your staff, either in a plastic or virtual form. Unlike Soldo, Pleo works by setting up a separate designated funds account whereby all cards issued draw funds from. The individual cards still have set spending limits however, so your employees wouldn’t notice any difference between the two solutions.
It’s easy to see then how modernising your staff spending will reduce admin headaches, eliminate annoying receipts, and let you get on with what matters. If you wanted to discuss this, or any other ways to upgrade your finances, get in touch with Hive today.
Now to find another use for that old tin…
