Cash accounting is the systematic recording of cash receipts, disbursements, and balances based on source documents. For an accountant in Kazakhstan, the task includes documenting each transaction, maintaining a cash book, reconciling cash on hand with the accounting balance daily, and ensuring that money is stored properly. Data from a cash register with a data recording and transmission function must be monitored separately: it registers cash settlements, while cash movements at the entity's cash desk are recorded using cash documents.
How to Organize Cash Accounting in 2026
Organizations that conduct cash transactions maintain a cash book in the prescribed form. The book is numbered, bound, and affixed with the organization's seal, if it has one. The number of sheets is certified by the signatures of the entity's management and chief accountant.
Entries are made in duplicate: the first copies of the sheets remain in the cash book, while the second copies serve as the cashier's report. Both copies are assigned identical numbers. When the cash book is maintained electronically, its sheets are generated in compliance with the prescribed cash transaction procedure. The printed sheets are bound in chronological order.
The chief accountant is responsible for monitoring the proper maintenance of the cash book. If a small business entity with an average workforce of no more than ten people does not have a cashier on staff, the cashier's duties may be assigned to the head of the entity or the chief accountant. This decision must be documented by a written directive or order.
An individual entrepreneur also organizes the accounting of transactions and money at the cash desk. The entrepreneur may maintain it independently or assign the work to an authorized person acting as cashier. Transactions must be supported by source accounting documents. The entity's management determines the persons authorized to sign accounting documents; for an individual entrepreneur, this decision is made by the entrepreneur. The delegation of authority to prepare and sign cash documents should be documented in writing.
Cash Documents and Daily Reconciliation
The cashier makes an entry in the cash book immediately after receiving or disbursing money under each cash receipt voucher, cash payment voucher, or payroll sheet. Therefore, postponing the recording of completed transactions until the end of the week or month does not comply with the sequential procedure for maintaining the cash book.
At the end of each working day, the cashier:
- calculates the day's transaction totals;
- determines the cash balance for the following day;
- reconciles the accounting balance with the actual cash on hand;
- prepares the cashier's report;
- submits the report together with the cash receipt and payment documents to the accounting department against acknowledgment in the cash book.
Special attention is required when money is disbursed. If a cash payment voucher or payroll sheet does not contain the recipient's signature, the amount disbursed is not supported by a properly executed payment document. During a cash audit, such an amount is treated as a shortage. Cash held at the cash desk that is not supported by cash receipt vouchers is treated as a cash surplus and recognized as a receipt.
Practical control is best structured around the link between the document, the entry, and the actual money. For each amount, the accountant checks the basis for the transaction, the presence of the required signatures, the timeliness of the entry, and whether the balance matches the cash count. This procedure helps identify a discrepancy on the day it arises and determine which transaction it relates to.
Cash, strict-reporting forms, securities, and other valuables belonging to the entity are stored in safes or fireproof metal cabinets. The keys to the storage location are kept by the cashier. Before opening the cash room and storage location, the cashier inspects them for integrity.
Online Cash Register Accounting and Work in the Accounting System
Cash register data should be reconciled with the accounting records for cash. Amounts registered during cash settlements are reconciled with source cash documents, cash book entries, and the actual cash balance. A receipt confirms the registration of a cash settlement, while the receipt or withdrawal of cash at the entity's cash desk is documented using the relevant cash documents.
It is useful to divide control into several levels:
- cash settlements registered through the cash register;
- cash receipt and payment documents;
- cash book entries;
- actual cash on hand;
- recording the transaction in accounting and, where required, tax accounting.
If money is issued to an employee on account, its subsequent recognition depends on the purpose of the expenses and the supporting documents submitted. When inventories are purchased, the advance report specifies their name, quantity, price, and amount. VAT information is recorded based on the supplier's documents prepared for the relevant transaction.
When an accountable person settles with a counterparty, the advance report specifies the counterparty, document, purpose and amount of payment, as well as the data required to account for mutual settlements. If the accounting system populates certain details by default, the accountant checks that they correspond to the actual substance of the transaction and the supporting documents.
Amounts issued on account for the payment of wages are recorded with due regard to the completed payroll sheets and the amounts payable. Payments under enforcement documents are accounted for based on the relevant documents. Goods, work, and services paid for by an accountable person are recorded according to their economic substance and the source documents submitted.
Separate control is required if the tax authority has issued an order suspending cash desk expenditure transactions. Such suspension applies when tax debt exceeding the established threshold remains unpaid and covers expenditure transactions subject to expressly provided exceptions (Article 86 of the Tax Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan). The accountant should consider the contents of the order before documenting a cash disbursement from the cash desk.
What the Accountant Should Check
Before recording a transaction, make sure that its substance, amount, payer or recipient, and basis are clear. Then check for the source document, mandatory details, and the authority of the persons who signed it. After making the entry, reconcile the cash book data with the documents and actual cash on hand.
To maintain a consistent workflow, it is important to establish who receives and disburses money, who signs documents, who maintains the cash book, and who performs the control reconciliation. If there is no cashier on staff, the assignment of the cashier's functions to the head, chief accountant, or another authorized employee must be documented in writing.
When accounting is automated, it is necessary not only to enter transactions into the system but also to comply with the requirements for generating the cash book and storing cash documents. Electronic transaction records must allow the source document, cash book entry, cashier's report, and actual cash balance to be sequentially reconciled.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does cash accounting include? — Documenting cash receipts and disbursements, maintaining the cash book, preparing the cashier's report, determining and reconciling the balance daily, and storing cash documents.
Does a cash register replace the cash book? — No. A cash register records cash settlements, while the cash book contains entries on cash receipts, disbursements, and balances at the entity's cash desk.
When should a transaction be entered in the cash book? — Immediately after cash is received or disbursed under each cash voucher or payroll sheet.
Who may manage the cash desk of an individual entrepreneur? — The individual entrepreneur or a person authorized by the entrepreneur and assigned the relevant duties.
What should be done if the actual balance does not match the accounting balance? — Recount the cash, check the receipt and payment documents, recipients' signatures, and the day's entries, determine the amount and cause of the discrepancy, and then document the identified surplus or shortage.
Sources
Procedure for Maintaining the Cash Book and Storing Money
Procedure for Organizing Tax Accounting by an Individual Entrepreneur