Shifts and end of day

A shift is the record of one person’s time on the register and, crucially, of the cash that went through it. Without shifts you can tell what you sold but not whether the drawer balances.

Opening a shift

The first thing at the start of a session: count the cash already in the drawer and enter it as the opening float.

Count it properly. Every figure at the end of the day is measured against this number, so a float entered from memory produces a variance that means nothing and teaches staff to ignore variances entirely.

Cash in and cash out

Money leaves and enters the drawer for reasons that are not sales — paying a delivery driver, taking a float to the bank, putting in change from the safe. Record each of those as a cash in or cash out movement as it happens.

An unrecorded cash movement shows up at closing time as a variance, and by then nobody remembers what it was. Recording it takes ten seconds at the moment it happens.

The cash drawer button

There is a Cash drawer button at the checkout. Today it shows an on-screen prompt; it does not send an electrical pulse to a drawer wired to your receipt printer. Opening the drawer is still a physical action. Automatic drawer kick is on the roadmap.

Closing a shift

At the end of a session, close the shift. The till asks you to count the cash by denomination — how many of each note, how many of each coin — rather than accepting a single total.

Counting by denomination is slower by about a minute and much more useful. It makes miscounts obvious, and when there is a shortfall the breakdown usually tells you what happened.

The till then shows the variance: what should be in the drawer, given the float, the cash sales and the recorded movements, against what you actually counted.

Reading the variance

• Zero. Good. Move on.
• A few units either way. Usually change given wrongly on a busy hour. Worth noting, not worth an investigation.
• A large amount, or the same drift every day. Something systematic. Look at unrecorded cash movements first, then at whether the opening float is being counted honestly, and then at the void log.

Do not let staff close a shift by adjusting the count until it matches. A recorded variance is useful information; a fudged zero is worse than nothing.

End of day

End of day closes off the trading day across all shifts. Run it after the last shift is closed.

It produces a printable summary of the whole day, which is the document to file or hand over. The Reports screen keeps the full history of shifts and end-of-day closes, so you can go back to any date later.

A workable routine

For a small shop:

1. Opening. Count the float, open the shift.
2. During the day. Record every non-sale cash movement as it happens. Lock the register whenever you step away.
3. Handover. Outgoing cashier closes their shift and counts down. Incoming cashier opens theirs with a fresh count. Do not carry a shift across two people.
4. Closing. Last shift closed, then end of day, then print the summary.

The whole thing costs a few minutes a day and it is the difference between knowing your cash position and guessing at it.