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What is "petty cash"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
petty cash
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Borrowing money from colleagues at work, petty cash, or from neighbours is a fast way of making yourself unpopular.
▪ Completion and interpretation of petty cash transactions. 3 Materials and Stationery Use and control; methods of economy.
▪ If you work in retailing, you may be asked to look after the petty cash.
▪ These items are usually paid for out of the petty cash.
▪ They are entered in the petty cash book.
▪ This is not a buck here or a buck there in the petty cash till.
▪ We now have to buy it from our petty cash.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Petty cash

Petty \Pet"ty\, a. [Compar. Pettier; superl. Pettiest.] [OE. petit, F. petit; probably of Celtic origin, and akin to E. piece. Cf. Petit.] Little; trifling; inconsiderable; also, inferior; subordinate; as, a petty fault; a petty prince.
--Denham.

Like a petty god I walked about, admired of all.
--Milton.

Petty averages. See under Average.

Petty cash, money expended or received in small items or amounts.

Petty officer, a subofficer in the navy, as a gunner, etc., corresponding to a noncommissionned officer in the army.

Note: For petty constable, petty jury, petty larceny, petty treason, See Petit.

Syn: Little; diminutive; inconsiderable; inferior; trifling; trivial; unimportant; frivolous.

Wiktionary
petty cash

n. a small amount of cash kept by a company, used for low-cost immediate expenditure

WordNet
petty cash

n. a small fund of cash that a firm keeps for the payment of incidental expenses

Wikipedia
Petty cash

Petty cash is a small amount of discretionary funds in the form of cash used for expenditures where it is not sensible to make any disbursement by cheque, because of the inconvenience and costs of writing, signing, and then cashing the cheque.

The most common way of accounting for petty cash expenditures is to use the imprest system. The initial fund would be created by issuing a cheque for the desired amount. An amount of $100 would typically be sufficient for most small business needs as the expenses to be covered are for small amounts. The bookkeeping entry for this initial fund would be to debit Petty Cash and credit bank account.

As expenditures are made, the custodian of the fund will reimburse employees and receive a petty cash voucher with a receipt/invoice attached in return. At any given time, the total of cash on hand plus reimbursed vouchers must equal the original fund.

When the fund gets low, e.g. $20 remaining, the custodian (a bookkeeper or a member of the administration staff) requests a top up and submits the vouchers for reimbursement. Assuming the vouchers add up to $80, an $80 top up cheque is issued and an $80 debit towards office expenses is recorded. Once the cheque is cashed, the custodian again has cash at the original amount of $100.