Free Petty Cash Template (Excel)
What is a petty cash log and who needs one
A petty cash log tracks the small, cash-on-hand fund businesses keep for minor expenses — office supplies, postage, a delivery tip — that don't go through a full invoicing or accounts payable process. Every disbursement needs a record, or the fund becomes impossible to reconcile.
Any business that keeps a physical cash fund, from a retail store to a small office, needs a log like this to know what the fund should contain at any moment and to catch discrepancies before they pile up.
What's inside the free petty cash template
The Petty Cash Log sheet holds up to 200 rows, each with a date, voucher number, who was paid or where cash came from, a category (Office supplies, Postage, Travel, Meals, Cleaning, Repairs, Float top-up, or Other), and cash in / cash out amounts. Enter your opening float as the first Cash in row.
Summary formulas total cash in and cash out and break out spend by category — Office supplies, Travel, and Meals get their own running totals — so you can see where the fund's money is actually going without building a pivot table.
How the running balance works
Every row's Balance column sums all Cash in entries up to that row minus all Cash out entries up to that row, so the balance is always current the moment you finish typing a new line — no manual addition, and no risk of a stale total from an old formula.
Because the formula recalculates from the top of the log every time, you can insert a row in the middle of the log for a late-logged transaction and the balance still stays accurate for every row after it.
Reconciling the fund each month
The Reconciliation sheet is where you close out the fund: enter the custodian, the month, total cash in and out from the log, and the expected balance calculates automatically. Then you physically count the cash on hand and enter that as Counted cash.
The sheet compares the two and flags the fund as BALANCED or OVER/SHORT - investigate, so any discrepancy between what the log says and what's actually in the box gets caught right when you reconcile, not weeks later.
How to use it
- Enter the opening float as the first Cash in row of the Petty Cash Log.
- Log every voucher: date, paid to, category, and the amount in or out. The balance updates automatically.
- Check the category totals to see where the fund's money is going.
- Each month, count the cash and reconcile it in the Reconciliation sheet.
Download the free Free Petty Cash Template (Excel)
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Small Business Bookkeeping & Tax Dashboard
If you need to track all your income and expenses, not just petty cash, the paid Bookkeeping & Tax Dashboard ($19) adds Schedule C categories, a quarterly tax dashboard, and a CPA-ready export.
See the full versionFrequently asked questions
Can I use this petty cash template in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload the downloaded file to Google Drive, then open it and choose File > Save as Google Sheets. The running balance and reconciliation formulas keep working.
Is this template really free?
Yes. You give an email address to download it, and then it's yours to use with no further cost.
How many transactions can I log?
The Petty Cash Log has 200 rows. If you need a higher volume or multiple months of history in one file, the paid Bookkeeping template adds a full income-and-expense ledger.
How does the over/short check work?
You enter total cash in, total cash out, and the cash you physically counted. The sheet calculates the expected balance and compares it to your count, flagging BALANCED or OVER/SHORT - investigate.
Can I add my own expense categories?
Yes, the Category column is a standard dropdown list you can edit to match your business's own categories.
What's the usage license?
Personal use or use within one business. It's not meant to be resold or redistributed as a template product.