Cash Management

The College utilizes appropriate internal controls and best practices in the handling, receiving, safeguarding, transporting, depositing, accounting, and mitigating risks related to loss, theft, or misappropriation of all the College’s cash assets. This applies to all members of the campus community who have a fiduciary responsibility for any part of collecting, accounting for, safeguarding, and handling cash and negotiable instruments on the College’s behalf.  Similar to the College’s cash assets, each department and program that handles cash equivalents (when approved) is responsible for having proper internal controls in place to safeguard those items.

The Campus Cashier is the College’s primary cash handling agent. Ideally, the collection of cash should be centralized; however, it is not always possible or practical. Prior to undertaking any cash handling operation or activity, the Vice President of Finance must approve the activity. Once approval has been granted, the department/program must work with the Campus Cashier to ensure proper handling, safeguarding, transporting, and depositing of all cash assets. All funds collected by any department/program of the College must be given to the Campus Cashier as soon as practical, which is generally the date of collection, to be deposited into the College’s bank account. This protects the College’s funds and facilitates proper cash management. Deposits must be made in a timely manner to ensure proper posting of accounts and to ensure the safety of College funds. The cashing of checks from College deposits, borrowing cash for personal use, lapping receipts to cover shortages in cash receipts, withholding checks for deposit in order to float checks, commingling of personal and College funds, and modification of cash records are prohibited.

The Campus Cashier’s Office will provide currency to departments/programs within the College for change making purposes, subject to availability. All forms of cash must be physically protected through the use of safes, locked cash drawers, locked cash registers, or locked metal boxes, etc. It is the responsibility of each department/program to ensure that all necessary processes are in place to properly safeguard any cash within their area. Cash must not be retained in desk drawers, standard file cabinets, or any other location that is easily accessed with minimal forcing or readily available keys. Any areas that handle cash must utilize a safe in order to limit access to supervisory and authorized personnel.

Any department that utilizes a daily cash drawer/cash register must confirm the cash drawer opening balances at the beginning and end of each day. All sales must be processed through the cash drawer/cash register. The cash drawer/cash register should never be left open when a transaction is not being processed. The cash drawer/cash register should be batched and reconciled on a daily basis. Overages and shortages should be fully explained. Corrective action must be taken when an overage/shortage occurs, and all corrections should be made through the cash drawer/cash register. The summary from the daily transactions should indicate any corrective action taken.  Discrepancies must be reported to the Vice President of Finance. In the event of theft or loss of the College’s cash assets, the Vice President of Finance must be notified immediately, and an investigation will be conducted.

The College accepts checks as a form of payment.  When accepting checks, the following guidelines apply:

• Checks must be drawn on a U.S. domestic bank written in U.S. Dollars.
• Checks must be validated by reviewing all pre-printed messages on check.
• Check dates must be reviewed. No stale dated (over 90 days, etc.) or postdated checks should be accepted.
• Checks must be made payable to the College. If the check is made payable to the College and the student or to a student or other party, it must be endorsed as such.
• Written and numerical amount on checks must be the same.

Any checks returned by the College’s depository bank for reasons such as non-sufficient funds, account closed, payer’s signature missing, postdated checks, stale dated checks, etc., will be received by the Campus Cashier. The Campus Cashier prepares a deposit adjustment, debiting the originating account for the amount of the check and in most instances assessing a $40 returned check fee.

All authorized cash handling departments are responsible for exercising reasonable care in screening cash transactions for counterfeit currency. This can include the use of counterfeit detector pens or a visual check for security indicators such as watermarks, security ribbons, etc. If a questionable bill is received, the cash handling department should retain possession of the bill and immediately contact the Vice President of Finance. The bill should NOT be returned to the payer.

LINE OF AUTHORITY

Responsible administrator or office: Business Office

Contact person in that office: Jenny Jacobs

EFFECTIVE DATE: August 16, 2023

Approved by President: August 16, 2023