[font:Arial]Can anyone tell me how often they do surprise cash counts in their branches? Cash counts meaning teller windows and vault cash and ATM's if applicable? Do you do the counts monthly, quarterly or not at all? I would appreciate any input I
can get!

Monthly

Quarterly.

Quarterly by Accounting; monthly by Head Tellers

Security Officer - random
Head Teller - monthly

I believe ours is this too.

Audit Guy, do you recommend that the compliance officer or the auditor ever do any of the cash counts? Or vary it from the head teller? Thanks.

I'm not AG but I am the auditor at our bank. I audit to ensure the process is happening. I check to make sure Accounting independently counts at least quarterly at every branch. I recommended via an audit the monthly counts by the Head Tellers start.
I guess I see my job as ensuring an adequate process is in place and then checking to see that it is fully functioning.

Thank you, Blue.

Same as blue. Cash counts are a control process that management should be performing and the auditor auditing to ensure the control is functioning. That being said, during an audit an auditor might want to perform a count or two just to make sure everything is in line.

The externals also do some cash counts at year end for financial statement purposes.

Thanks, Audit Guy. I thought it would be best to do some surprise counts now and then.

Weekly cash counts on ATMs
&
Montlhy surprise cash counts on tellers and vault

Duplicated post!!!!!!!

You (well maybe not you, but someone in management) do a suprise cash count on the ATM weekly?

duplicate post here too

Quarterly surprise cash counts of tellers, vaults, and ATMs by the senior operations officer and compliance officer.

Change up the person doing the audits. If Head Teller and Teller #1 are in on it together, there is the loss potential.

In addition to in-branch audits each month, we have a regional ops manager conduct drawer counts on any teller, vault, or other cash device randomly. It is truely random - could be monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc.

I agree--change it up to avoid complicity. And make sure your folks are balancing back to the right totals. It sounds silly, but I have found (on more than one occasion), head tellers balancing to teller machine totals instead of to the tellers' GL accounts. Also, be sure to verify all items processed since start of day to identify lapping and misappropriation of funds.