Bookkeeping For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 7

Controlling Your Books, Your Records, and Your Money

In This Chapter

Protecting your business’s cash

Maintaining proper paperwork

Divvying up responsibilities

Insuring your cash handlers

Every business takes in cash in some form. Whether in the form of dollar bills, checks, credit cards, or electronic payment, it’s all eventually deposited as cash into the business’s accounts. Before you take in that first penny, controlling that cash and making sure none of it walks out the door improperly should be your first concern as a businessperson.

Finding the right level of cash control while at the same time allowing your employees the flexibility to sell your products or services and provide ongoing customer service can be a monumental task. If you don’t have enough controls, you risk theft or embezzlement. Yet if you have too many controls, employees may miss sales or anger customers.

In this chapter, I explain the basic protections you need to put in place to be sure all cash coming into or going out of your business is clearly documented and controlled. I also review the ...