Move money between cash and bank with a contra voucher

Q: The account I want is not in Transfer to .

Transfer to lists the cash and bank accounts except the one you chose in Transfer from . An account that is not set up as a cash or bank account is not offered.

A contra voucher moves money between two of your own cash or bank accounts: a cash deposit to the bank, a withdrawal, or a transfer between banks. It debits the account the money went to and credits the account it left. It is not income and not expense.

Accounting Cash and bank vouchers
4 min read
Updated October 20, 2026

For Cashier Accountant

On this page

What it does
Make a contra voucher
What the screen checks
After saving
Common questions

What it does

A contra voucher records money moving from one of your cash or bank accounts to another. Nothing is earned or spent: the total of your money is the same before and after. Use it for:

cash taken to the bank (cash to bank),
cash drawn from the bank (bank to cash),
a transfer from one bank account to another.

Open Contra voucher. The list shows the Voucher no, Date, Transfer from, Transfer to and Amount, and an Approved or Pending status when your company uses approval for vouchers. A tile shows the Total contra voucher.

Make a contra voucher

Choose Add
Who
Cashier or accountant
Where
Contra voucher > Add
What changes
Add contra voucher opens. It needs a numbering series for cash bank vouchers (Before you buy or post vouchers: the setup checklist).
Choose the two accounts
What changes
Transfer from (where the money leaves) and Transfer to (where it goes). Both are cash or bank accounts.
Fill the rest
What changes
Date, Cheque No and Cheque date for a cheque, Currency and Currency rate, Project/Business Unit, Reference Voucher (up to 20 characters), the Amount and Notes.
Needs
An amount above 0: "Transaction with zero (0) value not allowed."
Save
What changes
"Contra voucher (number) saved successfully." One account goes up and the other goes down by the amount.

What a contra voucher changes

Area	Change
The account money leaves	Goes down by the amount
The account money goes to	Goes up by the amount
Profit	Nothing: it is not income or expense
Stock, IRD	Nothing

Worked example: banking the day's cash, and drawing cash back

At the end of the day the shop takes 50,000 of its cash to the bank. The cashier makes a contra voucher with Transfer from "Cash in hand", Transfer to "Bank current account" and Amount 50,000.

Account	Before	After
Cash in hand	62,000	12,000
Bank current account	140,000	190,000
Total of the two	202,000	202,000

Profit does not change. On the bank reconciliation list of the bank account the voucher shows 50,000 under Dr amount (money in), ready to match with the deposit on the statement (Reconcile a bank account with its statement).

A week later the shop draws 10,000 from the bank for petty cash: Transfer from the bank, Transfer to the cash account, with the Cheque No and Cheque date of the cheque used.

What the screen checks

Check	Message
The date is before the fiscal year starts	The financial year for this transaction date has already been closed, so you are not allowed to make a transaction on this date.
The amount is 0	Transaction with zero (0) value not allowed.
A foreign currency has no rate	Please set the rate for the currency selected.

The screen does not check that the account has enough money. Transfer to leaves out the account you chose in Transfer from.

After saving

Edit works until the voucher is approved (where approval is on), reconciled with the bank or its year is locked; Delete until it is reconciled or its year is locked, and an approved contra voucher is not deleted. A reconciled one says "This voucher has already been reconciled and is not editable" (Change or delete a saved voucher, Reconcile a bank account with its statement). You can import many contra vouchers from a spreadsheet (Import receipts, payments, contra and journals from a spreadsheet).

Common questions

Which account goes in Transfer from?

The account the money leaves. Cash taken to the bank: the cash account. Cash drawn from the bank: the bank account.

The account I want is not in Transfer to.

Transfer to lists the cash and bank accounts except the one you chose in Transfer from. An account that is not set up as a cash or bank account is not offered.

The cash account went below zero after the transfer.

The screen does not check that the account has the money. Check the Transfer from account's balance before you save, and correct the voucher with Edit if the amount was wrong.