Combined with her delayed payroll, Ms. Klobuchar’s spendable cash reserves are about $1 million less than the $6.7 million figure that appears in her filing. Her campaign declined to comment.

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Then there is Mr. Inslee, the Washington governor. He reported $1.2 million in cash on hand, which would appear to rank him 14th in the field. But Mr. Inslee’s actual financial position is far weaker. He had nearly $172,000 in unpaid bills. Nearly one-third of his funds, more than $400,000, was earmarked for the general election. And he did not pay June’s final payroll — another $75,000 or so — in that month, records show.

Accounting for those maneuvers, Mr. Inslee’s actual cash position was less than half of what it initially appeared — a little shy of $550,000. His campaign declined to comment.

The campaigns of Mr. Inslee, Ms. Klobuchar and others who delayed payroll had been sending their second bimonthly paychecks on the last day of the month, which fell on a Sunday in June. The campaign of Mr. Bullock of Montana was the only one to respond to a request for comment, saying the delay was simply because June 30 fell on a Sunday. But other campaigns with bimonthly payouts, such as Senator Kamala Harris of California and former Housing Secretary Julián Castro, cut checks on Friday June 28, the last workday of the month.

Reliance on financial gimmicks to boost the bottom line is most common among those polling toward the back of the pack. But upper-tier candidates are not immune.

Former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas bragged about breaking Senator Bernie Sanders’s 24-hour record for fund-raising in March. Only later, when he filed his full financial report, was it clear his total included general election funds he could not spend in the primary. And the campaign of Ms. Harris pushed a $1 million payment to her digital consultancy until the first day of the second quarter, boosting her first cash-on-hand report. The $1 million payout was the largest single payment any campaign has made to any vendor.