Cashiering Services: Security Policies and Procedures

If you handle cash or checks, please learn about the BUS-49 physical security policies.

Physical security for cash and checks is cited in UC Business and Finance Bulletin BUS-49 (PDF) and assures that the safety of the staff and the assets are properly maintained, secured, and controlled.

Safes and combinations

• To the maximum extent practicable, keep a safe locked between deposits during business hours.
• Give a safe combination only to supervisory and authorized personnel who commit the combination to memory.
• Record, seal, and maintain the combination away from the safe area.
• Change a safe combination whenever a person having the combination leaves the employ of a cashiering station or transfers with the university to a position in which knowledge of the safe combination is no longer a relevant responsibility. In any event, change the combination at least once a year.
• For audit purposes, maintain a log showing the date and reason for combination changes.

Storage

• Risk Management standards require the use of lockable receptacles or burglar-proof safes to store cash or securities as follows:
  • Up to $1000 in a lockable receptacle
  • From $1,001 to $2,500 in a safe
  • From $2,501 to $25,000 in a steel door safe, with a door not less than 1 inch and steel wall of not less than 1/2 inch
  • From $25,001 to $250,000 in a class TL-15 composite safe
  • Over $250,000 in a class TL-30 steel or better safe
• Provide a night depository which meets the security standards for cash turn-ins after business hours.

Alarms

• If more than $2,500 is regularly on hand, install a manual panic alarm system for use during business hours to alert campus police if an irregularity occurs.
• If more than $25,000 is stored and the storage area is entered after business hours, use an alarm system to alert campus police.

Handling

• Allow only authorized individuals in the cashier's work area.
• Minimize the amount of funds held overnight.
• Provide each cashier with a separate, lockable compartment to which only that cashier has access.
• To the maximum extent practicable, keep a safe locked between deposits during business hours.
• Open a safe so that other people do not see the combination.
• Open and close major cashiering stations at the end of the working hours only in presence of a second person who can observe the general area.
• Count cash for balancing of cash collections so that it is not visible to customers or others from outside the office.

Physical set up

• The Campus Cashier Coordinator with the Campus Risk Management and Campus Police review the physical setup of all cashiering stations to insure that appropriate physical security is provided.
• As a general guideline, if a station collects more than $7,500 on a daily basis, the work area should be protected by doors and windows that meet the standards of the Campus Security Committee, and are in accordance with California Administrative Code, Title 24, Section 2-3303(c), Uniform Building Code, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.