Balance Tracking

Balance tracking is the financial control center of Shaari's custody system. It shows how much cash each employee has received, how much they have spent, how much they have returned, and what their current balance is. Accurate balance tracking ensures accountability and prevents discrepancies.

Employee Custody Balance Formula

Every employee's custody balance is calculated using a simple formula:

Current Balance = Total Received - Total Spent - Total Returned

Where:

Component	Description
Total Received	Sum of all approved custody amounts disbursed to the employee
Total Spent	Sum of all approved daily expense reports
Total Returned	Cash returned by the employee to the organization
Current Balance	Cash the employee currently holds and has not accounted for

Example

Component	Amount (SAR)
Total Received	10,000
Total Spent	6,500
Total Returned	1,000
Current Balance	2,500

In this example, the employee has 2,500 SAR of custody cash that is either still in their possession or has been spent but not yet reported.

info

A healthy current balance should trend toward zero over time as the employee submits expense reports and returns unused funds. A persistently high balance may indicate unreported expenses.

Balance Dashboard

The custody balance dashboard provides a high-level view of all employee custody balances in one place:

• Total custody outstanding -- Sum of all current balances across all employees
• Top balances -- Employees with the highest outstanding custody amounts
• Recent activity -- Latest custody disbursements, expense reports, and returns
• Alerts -- Employees with balances exceeding defined thresholds or overdue reporting

Navigate to HR Management > Custody > Balances to access the dashboard.

tip

Review the balance dashboard weekly to catch potential issues early. Employees with high outstanding balances and no recent expense reports may need a reminder to submit their documentation.

Balance per Employee View

For a detailed look at a specific employee's custody activity:

1. Open the employee's profile and navigate to the Custody section, or filter the custody balance list by employee.
2. The view shows:
   • Current balance with the full breakdown (received, spent, returned)
   • Active custodies -- All custody records currently assigned to the employee
   • Recent expense reports -- Latest daily reports submitted by the employee
   • Transaction history -- Chronological list of all custody-related events

Transaction Types

The transaction history includes all events that affect the balance:

Event	Effect on Balance
Custody approved and disbursed	Increases total received
Daily expense report approved	Increases total spent
Cash returned	Increases total returned
Custody reversed	Decreases total received
Expense report reversed	Decreases total spent

Reconciliation Process

Periodic reconciliation ensures that the digital records match the actual cash position:

Monthly Reconciliation

1. Review each employee's current balance on the dashboard.
2. Request employees to count their remaining cash on hand.
3. Compare the physical cash count with the system balance.
4. Investigate and resolve any discrepancies.

Discrepancy Resolution

If the physical cash does not match the system balance:

• Cash over (more cash than system shows) -- Likely an expense report was submitted for more than actually spent, or a return was not recorded. Review recent reports.
• Cash short (less cash than system shows) -- The employee may have spent cash without submitting a report. Request they submit the missing expense reports.

caution

Do not adjust the system balance directly to match the physical count. Instead, identify the root cause of the discrepancy and correct it through the proper channels (expense reports, returns, or corrections). This maintains the integrity of the audit trail.

Balance History and Audit Trail

Shaari maintains a complete audit trail of every transaction that affects an employee's custody balance:

• Every custody disbursement is logged with date, amount, approver, and reference.
• Every expense report records individual expenses, receipts, and approval details.
• Every return is documented with date and amount.
• Every reversal records what was reversed, by whom, and why.

Viewing the Audit Trail

1. Open the employee's custody section.
2. Navigate to History or Audit Trail.
3. View the chronological list of all balance-affecting events.

The audit trail is immutable -- entries cannot be edited or deleted. Corrections are recorded as new entries (reversals) rather than modifications to existing records.

note

The audit trail is particularly important for financial compliance and organizational audits. Auditors can trace any balance figure back to its individual transactions, ensuring full transparency of custody cash management.

Reporting

Generate balance reports for management or audit purposes:

• Employee balance summary -- Current balances for all employees in one report
• Transaction detail -- All custody transactions for a date range
• Aging report -- Custodies that have been outstanding beyond a defined period

These reports can be viewed on screen or exported for offline review.