Taking Over The Cash

Before entering upon his duties the new teller must take over the cash. As soon as his predecessor has balanced for the day on which the transfer is to take place, he enters the teller's box, and counts the money which makes up the balance of the teller's cash. The officer about to vacate the position is responsible until the whole is formally counted and taken over. It is his duty, therefore, to be present in the box and to personally oversee the whole operation.

The full particulars of the teller's cash are entered every day in the teller's balance book. All the different kinds of money are entered in the proper order. A page of the balance book is given to each banking day. At the top will be the specifications of the bank's own notes. The denominations are printed in, with a blank space in front for the number of each. The cash is all arranged in bundles, 100 notes to a bundle, usually fifty notes facing outwards on each side.

So, beginning with the bank's own notes, the new teller counts them and as he does so, ticks off the specification in the balance book. The broken parts of bundles will be in wooden slats held together by rubber bands. The cash counted and ticked off must be kept apart, in his sole possession. He is responsible for that. So he goes through each subdivision of cash; the bank's own notes, the Dominion notes, or legal tender, the specie, the notes of other banks in Canada, the United States currency.

When the cash is counted there will be, if other banks are in town, a list of cheques on them which are to be cleared next banking day. These are to be ticked off and the total taken in with the others. Now-a-days the silver is to a large extent kept in coin-packages constructed so as to give a clear view of what is inside. But there may be quite a considerable lot, perhaps several hundred dollars, rolled up in paper cartridges of convenient sizes for paying out over the counter. He will have some doubts as to whether he should accept these as containing the amounts marked on the outside, or whether he should break them all open, count them and roll them up again and make sure that the correct amount is contained.

In deciding this question the particular circumstances of the case should help. If the former teller is leaving the bank no chances should be taken; if he is promoted to a higher position in the same branch the rolled up silver can be accepted subject to count, which can be done at leisure. But the incoming teller is responsible for every dollar of cash he signs for, and he should therefore on general principles make sure of everything. On finishing the count, the extensions are checked and all the items composing the balance examined carefully to make sure that all are ticked off.

When the additions are checked the balance shown by the book is to be compared with the cash-book balance, and if it agrees, the new teller initials or signs the balance book, accepting the responsibility for the balance there shown, and releasing his predecessor; the teller's keys are turned over to the new-comer, the cash is locked up in the safe, and everything is ready for the taking up of the new duties on the morning of the next banking day.