Cash book
How much the organisation holds and where it sits: the cash box, the bank, deposits between them, and a month close that checks the counted box and the passbook against the book.
Payments and Expenses record what came in and what went out. The cash book answers the question the committee asks at every meeting: how much do we have, and where is it? It keeps two running figures, the cash box and the bank, and shows a statement for any period: opening balance, money in, money out, and the closing balance each side should hold.
Opening the book
- Turn the cash book on: it is off by default, and an administrator switches it on in Settings, the same way as follow-up rounds.
- Pick one morning and count what the organisation actually holds: the cash in the box, and the balance across its own bank accounts.
- Open Cash book and enter that date and those two figures. Only an administrator can do this.
- From that day on, the statement moves on its own. Entries dated before the opening day are already inside the counted figures, so the book leaves them out.
Reading the statement
- Opening balance
- What each side held when the period began. For the very first period, this is what you counted the morning the book opened.
- Money in
- Every payment received in the period. Cash payments land in the box; UPI, bank transfer, card, cheque and online land in the bank.
- Money out
- Every expense in the period, split the same way by how it was paid.
- Moved between box and bank
- Deposits and withdrawals. Moving money changes where it sits, never how much there is, so this line always cancels to zero in the Total column.
- Closing balance
- What should be in the box and in the bank at the end of the period. Count the box and open the passbook: the numbers should match.
Deposits and withdrawals
When the treasurer takes collected cash to the bank, record it as a deposit: the amount, the date, and the slip number if there is one. Money drawn from the bank back into the box is a withdrawal. These are not income and not expenses; they only move money between the two sides.
Closing a month
At the end of each month, count the cash in the box and read the passbook balance for the month's last day. Under Month close, pick the month and enter both figures. The page shows them beside the book's own figures for that day, with the difference on each side.
When a figure does not match, the page lists what to check: a deposit or withdrawal not yet recorded, an entry of exactly the missing amount recorded with the wrong method, an entry that looks recorded twice, cash still awaiting deposit, a cheque that may not have cleared, or bank charges and interest not yet recorded. Correct the entry, then count again. Every count is kept, and the latest one is the close. If an entry for the month changes after the count, the page says so.
Lines
Below the statement, Lines lists every entry behind each side for the date range, with the balance after each one. Pick Bank to tick the lines against the passbook, or Cash in hand for the box. The list can be exported.
Funds with their own account
A fund that collects into its own account, such as a building committee with its own UPI or bank account, keeps its own book. Its payments and expenses are left out of this statement, and the page lists those funds. Everything else, including salaries paid through Staff, is included.