When the money a facility has to put in the bank for a Friday to Thursday deposit period is more or less than the amount predicted by the Bank Deposit report run for the same period, that facility is considered Over or Short by the Department's cash handling procedures and resolution is necessary. This article and those it links to will serve as a resource to help Facility Directors minimize the occurrence of these issues, and to resolve them quickly when they do occur.
Best Practices to Prevent Over/Short Issues
The easiest way to resolve an overage or shortage is to prevent it from ever occurring in the first place. The following practices will assist in prevention:
- A Facility Manager or Manager on Duty should review the previous day's batches every day to spot issues. In situations where a user forgets to count their drawer, or where they drop more or less into the safe than what PARKS DIRECT expected, spotting the problem immediately is important, since troubleshooting these issues often leans heavily on the memory of the individual users involved.
- Staff should document each drop they make into the safe on paper, as well as through PARKS DIRECT's close out process. When each batch in PARKS DIRECT is counted correctly, but there is still more or less cash on hand than there should be, these physical records can serve as a resource to help narrow down which user dropped more or less into the safe than they should have, and on what day. Tracking sheets of this type can work in a variety of ways - most commonly a logbook is kept near the safe where users write in the cash and check amounts they are dropping, along with the date and their initials, or each drop is made in an envelope, on the face of which is written the deposit information.
- Facilities should adhere to the Department's broader cash handling procedures. As of December 26th, 2017, the leadership of the Department of Parks and Recreation is reviewing a revised Cash Handling Policy. That policy will be linked to on this page upon its release.
Troubleshooting Batch Closing Issues
The most common explanation for deposit overages or shortages are batches that have been improperly closed or counted by staff. Your bank deposit report will identify any such issues and it's necessary to take action to correct them before submit your report to Finance.
A guide on how to do so, as well as what to look for and what steps to take to resolve, can be found here.
Troubleshooting Cash or Check Shortages
A guide on how to troubleshoot issues where the facility should have a higher amount to deposit than it actually does can be found here.
Troubleshooting Cash or Check Overages
A guide on how to troubleshoot issues where the facility should have a lower amount to deposit than it actually does can be found here.