Jack and Jill Went to the Till

Once upon a time Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch a pale of water. But on this day they started new jobs as bank tellers. However, when Jack and Jill went to the till to fetch a totally balanced cash drawer, to their surprise, their eyes grew twice wide when they discovered the till was cash poor. They grew terribly distressed, and as their fears mounted they mutually confessed, “Because of this, I do not want to get fired!” And so they discussed the dilemma with the other bank tellers who found, in this situation, a good solution was required.

To their surprise they were comforted to realize “the till does not always balance out correctly, as one might surmise, with the various daily receipts.” Where it is the bank teller’s responsibility to balance out their till, if the till is reported to be under or over the amount the teller started with, regardless of the daily transactions, the teller could be fired if the till was not exact.

So to avoid being fired, the tellers had created something known as “petty cash” – found money that could be tapped into and applied to anything – and in tight situations “petty cash” would always be handy to balance the till, to ensure that dollar amount matched.

To Jack and Jill’s delight, their fear of being fired took flight and they were happy to know that they were not alone. They knew that they could depend on the entire crew of bank tellers who had devised the necessary solution to ensure that the bank ledgers were balanced daily with confidence.

The Moral of the fable: When faced with new tasks, it is good to set expectations and ask, for when uncertainty arises, it is better to be safe instead of full of surprises.

NOTE: As every business has a method for defining business processes, finding out what those processes are, prior to coming up short, helps everyone to achieve a greater sense of confidence.