What is a Cash Voucher?

A cash voucher is a standard form used to document a petty cash payment. When someone wants to withdraw cash from the petty cash fund, that person fills out the cash voucher to indicate the reason for the withdrawal, and receives cash from the petty cash custodian in exchange. If the person requesting cash is doing so because he or she wants reimbursement for an expense they already paid for from their own funds, then they should also staple the relevant receipt from the original purchase transaction to the cash voucher. The vouchers are then stored as accounting records.

What is Included on a Cash Voucher?

The cash voucher form should contain space for the name of the cash recipient, that person's initials, the amount of cash disbursed, the date, the reason for the disbursement, and the account code to which the disbursement should be charged. The forms may also be prenumbered, in order to ensure that all forms have been accounted for. If they are prenumbered, then a common control is to track these numbers, to ensure that no vouchers were used but not stored in the petty cash box.

How to Use a Cash Voucher

The petty cash custodian uses the cash voucher to reconcile the petty cash fund. By adding together all on-hand cash with the amounts stated on the cash vouchers, the total should equal the designated cash total for the petty cash fund. If there is a difference, then either the cash was counted incorrectly, the amounts stated on the cash vouchers are incorrect, or cash stolen from the fund.

Who Reviews Cash Vouchers?

The internal audit staff may schedule a review of cash vouchers, to see if the items reimbursed comply with the company's policy for petty cash use. It is possible that a firm’s outside auditors will also review cash vouchers, but this is unlikely, since any errors in this area are immaterial to the results stated in a company’s financial statements.

An audit review of cash vouchers should include an examination of any receipts attached to these documents, in order to verify that cash payouts were made in exchange for valid business expenses.