what causes cash over short incidents 
internal tampering could cause a business to be over and short in its accounting usually however the cause results from simple human error an employee ringing up a sale incorrectly or making another error like miscounting cash can generate a disparity between the sales price of the merchandise the amount collected and the amount recorded in the accounting system the function of a cash over short accounta firm should note instances of cash variances in a single easily accessible account this cash over short account should be classified as an income statement account not an expense account because the recorded errors can increase or decrease a company s profits on its income statement a company may use the data in the cash over short account to determine why cash levels are in discord and try to reduce the number of cash over short occurrences by using better procedures controls and employee training thus this account serves primarily as a detective control an accounting term for a type of internal control that aims to find problems including any instances of fraud within a company s processes 