Home finances is the home's own money: the cash tin and any cards. ARC works out every balance from what is recorded — nobody types a balance in.

Accounts

A company admin sets the accounts up under Admin, then Home finances. An account is Cash, Prepaid card or Debit card. A cash account can be marked Children's money is held here, for a tin that also holds young people's pocket money; that setting is fixed once the tin is open.

Each account shows its balance, when it was last checked, and any flags: Below zero, Needs a check, a count of discrepancies, or Archived. Under it, Entries, Checks and (once something is deleted) Deleted are separate tabs. Entries can be filtered to Not signed off or Signed off.

If you read the page as head office, you see a note that nothing can be recorded or changed.

Open an account

An account takes nothing until it is opened. A new one shows Count the tin with a witness to open it (or, for a card, Read the card's balance with a witness). Anyone in the home can choose Open account.

Enter The count (£), or The balance (£) for a card.
Choose Witnessed by — a colleague, not yourself. It is required.
For a tin that holds children's money, ARC lists every pot with money in it. Set a pot to 0 (Kept elsewhere) if its money is not in the tin. The account opens with your count less the children's money, so the home is never credited with it.

What goes in and out

Entries are labelled Opening balance, Top-up, Spend, Moved to a child, Adjustment in and Adjustment out. Spends are recorded by staff (Record a home spend); money moved to a young person is pocket money.

A top-up is money head office has put into an account. Head office records it and the home signs it off when it arrives. Nobody in the home can correct or delete a top-up; head office does that.

Below zero

An account can go below zero — the money has gone — and ARC still records it. The home's managers are told, and the account shows This account is below zero. The managers have been told and need to account for it.

The old petty cash register

Once a home has any account, the Petty cash home log takes no new entries; count the tin in Home finances instead. Older petty cash entries stay readable.