In banking, the term float refers to money temporarily counted twice due to processing delays. For example, a check written on a Monday might not clear until four days later on a Friday.

How to Calculate Float. The formula to calculate float is: Float = firm's available balance – firm's book balance.

This is usually a relatively small amount of cash, broken up into different bills and change so that customers can receive change. While this money is put forward by the business, it is not spent—the cash drawer is meant to reflect both the total sales of the shift plus the full cash float.

The amount of money you should start with in a cash register is between $100 and $150. Also, a good rule of thumb is to keep at least $20 on a dollar bill and $20 on a $5 bill. That amount allows you to return the change to your customers within one sales shift.

Though the exact amount might vary from business to business, make sure to have cash, sometimes referred to as petty cash, on-hand in the morning. For a small business, $100 to $150 should be more than enough. A good rule of thumb is to keep at least $20 in five-dollar bills and $20 in one-dollar bills.

Cash float is the term for the total amount of checks in between the time when the check is written and taken off the books of the payer, but not out of their bank account, and before it's in the back account of the payee, even though they already would have recorded it in their books.