Guideline for Daily Cash Management

February 4, 2025
Categories: Resources, Standards and Governance Tags: Merchant Services

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance for daily cash management of merchant accounts. 

Scope

This guideline applies to all UNC Charlotte employees, affiliates and authorized users who will interact with payment card data, functions or systems as part of their job duties.

Contacts

Direct general questions about this guideline to the Office of the Bursar – Merchant Services at ecommerce@charlotte.edu.

Guidelines

All merchants are subject to University Policy 602.4, University Receipts and Deposits and North Carolina law and policies. All departments or units issued a merchant account must:

  • Daily Batching: Batch and transmit all POS terminal and internet transactions to the merchant card processor on a daily basis. Transactions should not be held more than 24 hours.
  • Settlement Reports: Pull their own daily settlement reports. If the use of a generic merchant account is approved by Merchant Services, Merchant Services will provide the appropriate sales reports to the entity for reconciliation and deposit purposes.
  • Reconciliation: Verify and reconcile all transactions on the settlement report to either the terminal settlement tape or the gateway report (e.g., TouchNet, Bluefin) and any third party reporting system(s) before submitting a deposit. Supervisors should review refunds, chargebacks, reversals and card fees at least monthly.
  • Reporting Sales: Accurately report sales totals (net of refunds) by submitting a Payment Book Receipt (PBR) to the University Cashiers by 12:00 noon on the day that the settlement of funds is reflected in the banking settlement reports. This applies to card transactions debited or credited directly to the merchant account due to sales, chargebacks, retrievals, refunds, reversals or other activity.
    • Weekend or Holiday Transactions: Transactions that occur on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or holidays must be deposited to the University Cashiers on the next business day (usually Monday). 
    • Daily Deposits: Create a separate deposit for each day transactions occurred. 
    • Cashier Review: The Cashiers will review the deposit and inform the merchant of any discrepancies.
  • Backup Documentation: Provide appropriate backup documentation to substantiate the deposit (i.e., a copy of the sales report from the card processor or a copy of the gateway batch totals settlement report, not detail). 
  • Audit Retention: Retain the settlement tape from the POS terminal for audit purposes.
  • Discrepancy Resolution: Resolve any discrepancies identified by the University Cashiers within 24 hours.
  • Periodic Review: Periodically review Banner fund and account balances to ensure that they accurately reflect reported sales, refunds and fees.

Note that if they do not have an approved device to accept card present transactions at an event (in a face-to-face environment), a merchant must accept cash or checks and follow all cash handling procedures in University Policy 602.4, University Receipts and Deposits.

Related Resources

Revision History

  • Initially approved by the AVC for Finance on November 25, 2024