What does cash at bank and in hand mean?
What does the line include?
Cash at bank and in hand is the balance of the company's bank accounts plus notes and coins held on the premises, measured at the balance sheet date. It is the last item in current assets on the statutory balance sheet formats, after stocks, debtors and current asset investments.
Typical contents:
- Current account and deposit account balances.
- Short notice savings accounts that the company can draw on.
- Petty cash and till floats.
A bank overdraft is not netted off here. It is a liability and appears under creditors due within one year, so a company can show £20,000 of cash and a £50,000 overdraft on the same balance sheet.
Where do you find it in real accounts?
On the balance sheet it sits inside "Current assets", usually as "Cash at bank and in hand". Under FRS 102 you may also see "Cash and cash equivalents". Micro-entity accounts often do not show it at all: the micro-entity format allows a single "Current assets" total, so the cash figure is only visible when the company chose to give more detail.
In iXBRL filings the figure is tagged CashBankOnHand under the FRC taxonomy. Older UK GAAP filings use CashBankInHand. As with every balance sheet tag, each filing carries the current year and the comparative year, so a parser must read the value whose context date equals the balance sheet date. Our iXBRL parsing guide shows how.
How much cash do UK companies hold?
Most UK companies hold very little. Across active companies whose latest machine-readable accounts have a balance sheet date of 1 January 2024 or later:
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Cash, 25th percentile | £613 |
| Cash, median | £10,127 |
| Cash, 75th percentile | £67,541 |
| Companies holding £100,000 or more | 20.3% |
| Cash at least equal to creditors due within one year | 35.3% |
| Median cash ratio (cash divided by creditors due within one year) | 0.50 |
Cash varies sharply by industry, from a median of £28,863 in manufacturing to £6,266 in real estate. See how much cash UK small companies hold for the breakdown by sector and year.
How to use the figure when checking a company
Cash is most useful compared with something else. Three simple tests:
- Cash ratio: cash divided by creditors due within one year. Below 1 means the company relies on collecting debts, selling stock or new borrowing to pay its short-term bills. Most companies are below 1, so treat it as context, not a warning on its own.
- Trend: compare with the prior year column on the same balance sheet. A fall of half or more in a year, with creditors rising, is worth a question.
- Against turnover or costs, where the company publishes a profit and loss account. A business with £5 million of turnover and £3,000 in the bank has very little room for a late payment.
You can work out the cash ratio and current ratio from any balance sheet with our balance sheet ratio calculator.
What the figure cannot tell you
- It is one day's balance. Many companies pay salaries, VAT or rent just before or after the year end, so the figure can be unusually high or low.
- It may be months old. A private company has nine months after its year end to file, so the cash on the public record can describe a position from well over a year ago.
- It does not show facilities. An unused overdraft or revolving credit line is not on the balance sheet.
- Restricted cash is still cash. Client money or deposits held for others may be included unless the notes separate them.
To see a company's cash at each balance sheet date across its past filings, search the company.
Sources
- The Small Companies and Groups (Accounts and Directors' Report) Regulations 2008, Schedule 1 (balance sheet formats)
- Companies Act 2006, section 442: period allowed for filing accounts
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