Cash is cleared immediately.
There is only a Clearance Cycle when it comes to cheques & the time for this is 5 working days. Reason being ( & you will only appreciate this if you're the drawer of the chq ) that you can put a stop on a chq if it hasn't hit the a/c.
If you have paid someone by chq & then you're not happy you can notify your bank to put a stop on it. If the person you've paid has lodged that chq but in a different financial institution, it will take 1 day to go to the Central clearing, then 1 day to get to the notice of the account holders branch. This chq may be returned unpaid up to 4 o'clock of the following day. Hence a chq is not 100% clear or sure not to bounce for the 5 working days.
The cycle is shorter if it's all happening within the same bank but the computer system is set up not to clear funds for the 5 days as lots of lodgements are mixed anyway.
Most banks will allow you to draw on unclear funds once you have an a/c operating with them for a while & you're a/c has been in good order - in other words able to take the hit if a chq does bounce.
Cash from one institution to another takes a day or two to go through, but as these funds are done electronically they are automatically clear straight away. In the same bank it's generally same day value......you transfer from one a/c to another & it's instant. Even chq ldgs go in to an a/c straight away. The funds are actually in the a/c & earning interest if it's an interest bearing a/c, but still techincally not cleared.
I hope I explained this clearly....it's a bit difficult to clarify