The end-of-day cash-up, step by step

What a cash-up is for

At the end of a shift or a day you want to know three things: how much cash should be in the drawer, how much actually is, and where the difference came from. Everything else — card totals, the day's sales report, the bank deposit — hangs off those three numbers.

A good cash-up is not about catching people out. Most differences come from ordinary slips: change given wrongly, a supplier paid from the drawer without a note, a card payment rung up as cash. A routine catches those slips while everyone still remembers them.

Start the shift right

The cash-up begins in the morning. Count the opening float — the cash the drawer starts with — and record it before the first sale. If the float is never counted, every count after it is a guess.

Keep the float the same every day if you can, so a missing note stands out.

During the shift: record every cash movement

Cash leaves and enters the drawer for reasons other than sales. Each one needs recording when it happens, not remembered at night:

• Payouts — money spent from the drawer, such as a vegetable delivery or petty cash. These are expenses.
• Cash taken out — cash moved to the safe or the bank during a busy day, handed to the owner, or paid out as tips. These are not expenses; the cash has only moved.
• Pay-ins — cash put into the drawer, such as a float top-up.

Write a reason each time. A payout of 500 "for vegetables" is easy to check; a payout of 500 with no reason is not.

Check mid-shift without closing

On a busy day, check the drawer between services. A mid-shift summary — often called an X-report — shows what the drawer should hold so far without closing anything. It is also the right moment to move surplus cash to the safe, so the drawer never holds more than it needs.

The count

At the end of the shift:

1. Stop taking cash on that drawer while you count.
2. Count note by note and coin by coin, or count the total twice.
3. Compare the count with the expected cash.
4. If it doesn't match, look for the usual causes before you accept a difference: a payout or pay-in not recorded, a cash sale taken as card (or the other way round), wrong change, a refund given in cash.
5. Write what you found in a note — even "no reason found".

Decide in advance how big a difference a cashier can close alone, and when a manager must look. A small allowed difference keeps the routine fast; anything above it gets a second pair of eyes.

Where the cash goes

Once counted, the cash goes somewhere: to the bank, to the safe, to the next cashier, or it stays in the drawer as tomorrow's float. Record that too. When the bank deposit is short a week later, a record of who took how much to the bank, and when, is what lets you find out why.

Close the day

After the last drawer is closed, close the business day. The day's closing report — the Z-report — fixes the record: sales by payment method, tax, the first and last bill number, cash by shift, payouts, discounts, voids and refunds. Before closing, deal with anything still open: unpaid bills, orders not handed over, a drawer someone forgot to close.

Once a day is closed, its figures should not change silently. A sale that turns up later belongs to its own day and should be listed as added after the close, so your accountant can see it.

Read the report, not just the total

Two minutes with the closing report finds most problems early:

• Did card totals match the card machine's own end-of-day total?
• Are voids, discounts and complimentary items at their usual level?
• Were any bills reprinted or changed after the guest had one?
• Was a drawer over or short — and was it the same person again?

How BillDine handles the cash-up

• Opening float. On the POS, Open Cash Drawer • Start Shift records the float; you can count it note by note with Count denominations. A drawer closed before starts from what its last close left in it.
• Cash movements. Under Cash drawers on the POS: Record payout (an expense, with a reason), Take cash out (to the safe or bank, owner, tips paid to staff, change for another drawer) and Pay in. A cashier needs a manager's PIN for payouts and cash taken out.
• X-report. Cash drawers → X-report shows sales by payment method and the expected cash so far, and says "Not a closing report — the cash drawer stays open."
• Close the drawer. Close cash drawer shows the summary, then Verify & Count Cash Drawer: count note by note or type the total, and see Counted · Expected · Variance. A difference larger than the outlet's Allowed difference at close needs a manager's PIN. Under Where is this cash going? you record what was Banked, Taken to the safe or Handed over, and BillDine works out what stays in the drawer.
• Close the day. An owner or manager presses Close the day under POS → Cash drawers. BillDine lists anything still open — open orders, unpaid bills, takeaways not collected, drawers still open — and asks for a reason for each. It never closes a day by itself, and stores the Z-report with Print and Download PDF.
• Later. Shift history shows each close's expected, counted and variance; a count typed wrongly can be corrected by an owner or manager within 7 days, keeping the first count. The nightly email reports cash over or short.

The lesson End of day walks through a close, and reports shows what the Z-report holds.

The routine on one card

1. Count and record the float before the first sale.
2. Record every payout, cash out and pay-in with a reason, when it happens.
3. Check the X-report between services; move surplus cash to the safe.
4. Count the drawer, compare, look for the usual causes, note what you found.
5. Record where the cash goes.
6. Close the day and read the report for two minutes.