Cash floats for guides on a trip
How a tour operator gives guides cash for park fees, fuel and meals on a trip, and accounts for what they spend, what they claim and what comes back.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Travel businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A guide leaves the office on Monday morning with a small group, a vehicle and an envelope of cash. Over the next week that cash pays for park entry where cards are not taken, fuel in towns without card machines, a puncture repair, lunches at roadside stops, porters' tips and a replacement cooler box. On the way back, the guide hands in what is left and a handful of slips, some readable, some not.
Every tour operator that runs its own trips knows this envelope. Handled loosely, it is where costs go unrecorded, VAT goes unclaimed and, occasionally, money goes missing. Handled with a simple routine, it is as controlled as any other bank account. This article sets out that routine in Achekam.
A float is your money in the guide's hands
The cash in the envelope is still the company's money. Until it is spent on the trip, it has not become a cost; it has only moved from the bank to the guide. So the float belongs on the balance sheet, as an asset, until receipts show what it was spent on.
The classic way to run it is an imprest float: a fixed amount issued, and topped up by exactly what was spent, against receipts. AccountingTools sets out how a petty cash fund is run and replenished against vouchers, and the same discipline applies to a guide's trip float.
A float account for each guide or trip
Each business in Achekam has its own ledger, and accounts can be added. Add a float account, either one per guide who regularly carries cash, or one per trip for large expeditions, named so anyone reading the ledger knows whose money it is: "Trip float: guide name" or "Float: departure reference".
When the float is issued, by a cash withdrawal or a transfer to the guide's card or mobile wallet, the money leaves your bank. Import the bank statement; each import is checked so that the opening balance plus the movements equals the closing balance. The withdrawal appears as a line, and a line not yet in the books becomes a suggested journal a person approves. Approve it to the float account, not to an expense. At this point no cost has been recorded, which is correct.
Receipts back from the trip: uploaded and posted
When the guide returns, collect every receipt the same day, before they are lost in a vehicle or a backpack. Upload them to Financial Intake. Supplier invoices and receipts uploaded there become suggested postings, and AI can suggest, but only a person approves and posts.
For a float, each suggestion should debit the right expense account, such as park fees, fuel, meals or vehicle repairs, and credit the float account, because the cash came from the float, not the bank. Check that on every suggestion before approving it.
Know the limits of reading slips. Scans and photos are read only when an outside OCR service or an image-reading AI key is set up for the workspace, and VAT that is not printed on a slip stays empty. A handwritten fuel slip with no VAT shown will not claim input VAT, and should not.
For expenses with no slip at all, such as a porter's tip, have the guide complete a signed voucher on the spot with the date, amount and reason, and keep it with the trip records.
Expenses the guide paid personally: claims through self-service
Sometimes the float runs out and the guide pays from their own pocket. That is not a float transaction; it is a staff expense claim.
A staff member whose login is linked to their payroll record can submit expense claims through self-service for payroll to decide, and an approved claim is repaid on the next pay run. That suits guides who are employees. Freelance guides are not on your payroll, so they should invoice you for out-of-pocket costs with the receipts attached, as a supplier would. Expense claims through self-service explains the claim route in detail.
Keep the two routes apart. A receipt claimed through self-service must not also be posted against the float, or the cost is recorded twice.
Squaring the float when the trip ends
When the receipts are posted, the float account should show what the guide still holds. Count the cash handed back and compare:
- Cash returned equals the float balance. Bank the cash and post the deposit against the float account; its balance is then nil and the trip is squared.
- Cash returned is more than the balance. A receipt has probably been posted twice, or an amount entered wrongly. Find it.
- Cash returned is less than the balance. A receipt is missing, or money is. Ask the guide first; the gap is often a forgotten slip.
An unexplained shortfall is a serious matter. A manual journal can move it out of the float to a separate account while you investigate, so the float stays clean; a posted journal is corrected only by a reversal if the slip later turns up. Salary advances and staff loans can be recorded and recovered from pay runs, but take advice before treating a shortfall as money a guide owes, and never deduct from pay without proper agreement.
Rules for the guide before departure
Give every guide a one-page note before each trip:
- Get a slip for every payment, and ask for one with the business's name where possible.
- Write the trip reference on the back of every slip.
- Use a signed voucher for anything without a slip.
- Keep the float separate from personal money.
- Return all receipts and cash on the day the trip ends.
If the trip includes lodge or airline deposits paid by the office, those are handled separately; see recording deposits you pay to lodges and airlines. The intake flow for receipts is the same one shown in carrier invoices turned into suggested postings. Brief the next guide before their departure, and square the float within the week they return.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
