The terms cash overage and cash shortage are used for all systems that operate with a cash account behind them.
Cash overage means that the balance physically present in the till is higher than the amount that should be there according to the cash ledger or account.
Cash shortage means that the balance physically present in the till is lower than the amount that should be there according to the cash ledger or account. This situation is also called a cash deficit.
In payment systems, the terms cash shortage and cash overage are used in connection with ATMs.
Behind ATMs there are also separate cassettes (for 10 TL notes, 20 TL notes, 100 TL notes, US Dollar and Euro cassettes, etc.). The money held in these cassettes, together with the money deposited into and withdrawn from the ATM, is expected to be reconciled at the ATM's end-of-day batch close against the movements on the bank's side. However, in some cases this reconciliation may not be achieved.
So how is this reconciliation check performed?
Cash overage or shortage is detected by performing a cassette reset under the end-of-day operations menu on the Operator Panel at the back of the ATM. Branch staff responsible for the ATM need to perform this cassette reset operation daily or weekly. In this process, the closing balance of the cassette between two resets is compared with the closing balance that results from all the cash withdrawal and deposit transactions carried out during that period. If there is a difference between them, a counter discrepancy occurs. In addition, even if the closing balances match, the physical cash inside the ATM is counted. The result is then compared with the amount shown by the counters. If there is a difference, a physical overage or shortage is identified.
So what can cause a cash overage or cash shortage to occur?
- During an ATM cash withdrawal, if the ATM fails to dispense the cash to the customer, it informs the bank's system that the transaction did not take place and that a reversal has been performed. If the bank's system receives this information but does not refund the amount it had debited from the customer's account, a cash overage occurs.
- If, during a customer's cash deposit, the ATM retains the cash for any reason and does not credit it to the customer's account, a cash overage occurs.
- During an ATM cash withdrawal, if the ATM dispenses the cash to the customer but the corresponding amount is not debited from the customer's account, a cash shortage occurs.
- With the functionality, now supported by BKM, that allows other banks' credit card debt payments to be made from ATMs, if the card-issuing bank cannot be reached after cash has been deposited into the ATM, a cash overage occurs.
- In cases where cash cannot be dispensed to the customer due to mechanical problems with the ATM, either a cash overage or a cash shortage occurs, depending on the financial direction of the transaction.