How petty cash moves
Petty cash comes in small amounts and many transactions, so even one day’s delay makes it hard to balance. Record who received how much and when, and never mix it with your own money. If you use company cards, assign a user to each card; keep cash in its own envelope or wallet. The rule is simple: at any moment, the cash left plus the receipt total must equal the amount received.
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Meals and snacks | Boxed meals, catering, water, coffee and snacks |
| Vehicles | Fuel, parking, tolls, car wash |
| Consumables | Tape, batteries, gloves, trash bags, plastic sheeting |
| Locations | Small usage fees, cleaning, thank-you gifts for neighbors |
| Other | Last-minute props, courier, copying |
The usual mistakes are predictable: paying with a personal card to claim later and losing the receipt, mixing several shooting days on one receipt, and carrying leftover cash into the next day until no one knows where a difference came from. Balancing once a day prevents most of them.
Receipt rules
- Get it on the spot — take the receipt when you pay. Receipts you plan to pick up later mostly vanish.
- Note it right away — write the shooting day, purpose and who spent it on the receipt, or photograph it and upload it with a note.
- Match the type — agree in advance which documents your company accepts (itemized receipts, card slips, invoices and so on) and get exactly those.
- When there is no receipt — for spending that can’t produce one, record it on the spot the way your company requires.
- Sort by category — collecting receipts by budget line (meals, vehicles, consumables, locations) speeds up reconciliation.
- Ask before big spends — anything above an agreed amount needs the UPM’s or line producer’s OK before you spend. Petty cash is for handling small expenses quickly.
Daily and weekly reconciliation
- 01Collect receiptsAfter wrap, gather each production assistant’s receipts and remaining cash for the day. Keep the originals even for receipts you already uploaded as photos.
- 02Balance the totalsAdd the receipt total and the cash left and check it matches the amount received. If there is a difference, find it that day. That night, while memories are fresh, is the easiest time to track it down.
- 03Log by categoryEnter the date, shooting day, category, vendor, amount and receipt type on the petty cash report, one line each.
- 04Weekly reconciliation and top-upEach week, hand the report and original receipts to accounting and get your float topped up by the amount spent.
Reporting budget vs. actuals
Move reconciled amounts into the budget as actuals for each line and view them side by side with the plan. For lines that scale with shooting days, like meals, the days so far let you estimate spending for the days left. If the gap is large, write the reason in one line and report it to the line producer. When a line is running over, decide that week what to cut in the remaining days or whether to use contingency. Bundle original receipts in the same order as the report, and name photo copies to match, so you can find them right away at final accounting or an audit.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Budgeted | The amount set in the budget |
| Actual this week | The amount reconciled this week |
| Actual to date | Total spent from the first shoot day until now |
| Variance and reason | How far under or over the plan, and why |
In the PDNote budget, you can enter the budgeted amount, actuals, vendor and payment status for each line, and link lines to shooting days or locations. Crew pay is kept separate from petty cash: once you confirm a pay statement built from timesheets, it goes into the budget as actuals.
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