Foreign Currancy Cash Advance and accounting

[Acme Thunderer]

I've been lurking for a couple of months now and I dodn't remember seeing this come up - so I'll ask the question

I've been abroad on client business and used company funds to buy some foreign currency before I went. In effect it was a cash advance to myself (as an employee)

How are you supposed to record this in accounting spreadsheets?

For the timebeing I've accounted for "buying" the currency but I now need to show the receipted expenses and put the leftover money back onto the company balance sheet. To complicate matters I used some of the money to buy goodies for the family at the airport. I was planning to deduct that from mileage expenses I'm due.

Any help appreciated

[Craig@Clarity]

You could treat the foreign currency as petty cash so that it still belongs to the company rather than expenses advance to yourself. Any "goodies" you bought should be treated as personal purchases so simply convert the foreign currency to sterling and treat it as a director's loan account item.

The receipted expenses should be treated as direct company expenditure from petty cash which is converted to sterling at the time of the transaction in the accounts. When you put the leftover money back into the company bank account, the difference between what was taken out in sterling less expenditure converted to sterling less what is repaid back into the bank in sterling should be treated as differences on currency exchange.

Hope this helps.

[Acme Thunderer]

Thanks Craig - That makes sense to me. I hadn't thought about treating it as petty cash from the word go.