The imprest method
The simplest control is a fixed float. The box starts at a set amount; every payout leaves a slip — date, amount, what it was for, who took it. At the end of the week the slips plus the cash left must equal the float, and the top-up is exactly the total of the slips. Anything else is a question with a name on it.
The trouble in most shops and hotels is that petty cash is not a separate box at all — it comes out of the sales drawer. That is fine, as long as every payout is recorded as a payout with a reason; otherwise it simply looks like the drawer is short.
Example
Float ₹5,000. This week: milk ₹840, courier ₹120, electrician ₹650, cleaning supplies ₹1,090 — ₹2,700 in slips. The box should hold ₹2,300, and the top-up is ₹2,700 to bring it back to ₹5,000.
How Nivasik handles it
- Money paid out of a counter's drawer needs a reason, and says what it was: an expense (which also lands in Expenses, where "petty cash" is a category), tips to staff, a staff advance (which comes off their pay), a supplier paid in cash, or cash dropped to the bank or the owner (not an expense).
- Cash added to the drawer — change from the bank, a top-up of the float — raises the expected cash by that amount.
- A login without the cash permission is asked for a manager's PIN.