Cash, the drawer and end of day

Opening the cash drawer with a float, paying money in and out, counting and closing it, the Z reading, and the end-of-day figures for the shop.

How the drawer works

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Each POS register has its own cash drawer. You open it at the start of the day with the change in it (the float), and the POS keeps track of what should be in it from then on:

• the opening float,
• plus cash taken for sales on this POS register,
• plus money paid in and change added,
• minus money paid out and cash refunds.

Card and gift card payments are not part of the drawer. At the end of the day you count the cash, the POS compares it with what it expected, and it takes a Z reading.

Take care: Cash sales only count towards a drawer while one is open. The POS still lets you sell with no drawer open, but that cash is in nobody’s count and shows as a warning at the end of the day. Open the drawer before the first sale.

Only one drawer can be open on a POS register at a time. Everything you do on the Drawer screen is recorded under the name of the person serving.

Open the drawer with a float

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1. Tap Drawer.
2. Count the change you are putting in the drawer.
3. Type the amount on the keypad under Opening float. Zero is fine if there is no change.
4. Tap Open with and the amount.

The screen now shows Should be in the drawer, which starts at the float, and when and by whom the drawer was opened.

This POS register already has a drawer open. Close it before opening another. means yesterday’s drawer was never closed. Count and close it first, then open today’s.

Pay money in or out, or add change

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Use these for cash that goes into or out of the drawer without a sale:

• Pay in: cash put into the drawer that is not a sale.
• Pay out: cash taken out, for example to pay a window cleaner or buy milk.
• Add change: more change brought to the drawer during the day.

1. Tap Drawer.
2. Tap Pay in, Pay out or Add change.
3. Type the amount on the keypad.
4. Type what it was for in What was it for?. A reason is required.
5. Tap Record and the amount.

Each one is listed at the bottom of the Drawer screen with the time, the reason and who did it, and the Should be in the drawer figure changes at once.

Tip: An entry cannot be changed or deleted at the POS. If you record the wrong amount, record the opposite entry for the difference and say why in the reason, for example "Correction: pay-out entered twice".

Take care: A drawer that is short with no note against it cannot be explained later. Always record money taken out, however small.

Check the drawer during the day

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The Drawer screen shows Should be in the drawer all day, with the breakdown underneath: Opening float, Cash sales, and any Cash refunds, Paid in and Paid out.

If you think you have given the wrong change, count the drawer and compare it with that figure straight away. It is much easier to find a mistake from the last few minutes than from the whole day.

There is no separate X reading. The Drawer screen and the End of day screen (below) show the running figures at any time without closing anything.

Count and close the drawer

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Do this at the end of the day, or at the end of a shift if each shift has its own drawer.

1. Tap Drawer, then Count and close.
2. Count all the cash in the drawer, float included.
3. Type the total on the keypad under Counted out of the drawer. The box starts empty on purpose, so the drawer is really counted.
4. The POS shows Balanced, or how much it is Over or Short.
5. If it is over or short, type why in Why is it out?. A note is required: Close with stays greyed out until there is one. If it balanced you can add a note, or leave it empty.
6. Tap Close with and the amount.

The POS says Drawer counted. and gives the number of the Z reading it has just taken. The screen then shows That drawer has been counted, with what was counted against what was expected, and a Print the Z reading button.

If a cash sale went through on this POS register after the screen was opened, the expected figure may have moved. The POS then refuses to close with, for example, The drawer is 5.00 short. Say why it is out before closing it. Type a note and tap Close with again.

Take care: Closing a drawer cannot be undone. The count, the expected figure and the difference are fixed from that moment and a Z reading is taken. Count carefully, and count again if it is out, before you tap Close with.

Underneath, the screen offers to open a new drawer for the next shift or the next day.

Tip: If you leave the float in the drawer overnight, open the next drawer with that same amount.

The Z reading

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A Z reading is the record of everything this POS register took between the drawer opening and closing: sales by how they were paid, refunds, VAT at each rate, the cash in the drawer and a running grand total for the POS.

• It is taken automatically when you count and close the drawer. You do not need to do anything else.
• Readings are numbered one after another for each POS register, and the numbers are never reused or reset. A missing number would show a day had gone missing.
• A reading cannot be changed afterwards. A refund made next week appears on next week’s reading, not on this one.

1. After closing the drawer, tap Print the Z reading.
2. The reading opens as a PDF in a new tab.
3. Print it from the browser’s PDF viewer.

Tapping Print the Z reading again opens the same reading; it does not take a new one.

Tip: Every reading is also kept in the dashboard under POS readings, for anyone with access to the finance reports.

The End of day screen

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The End of day screen shows today’s figures for the whole shop, every POS register together. Tap End of day in the row of buttons under Serving, beside Drawer. Anybody serving can open it; it only shows figures and changes nothing. Tap Drawer to go back to the drawer.

• Taken: how many sales, the total, what was Refunded and the Net, then the totals for each way of paying.
• Drawers: each drawer opened today, with its POS, times, who opened it, the Float, Cash sales, money paid In / out, and what was Counted (or what is Expected now if it is still open).
• Under each counted drawer: Balanced., or how much it was over or short, and the note left when it was closed.
• Not counted yet, so this shop’s day is not closed. appears under any drawer still open.

Warnings that may appear at the bottom:

• Needs counting: items whose shelf count could not account for a sale made while the POS was offline. Count those shelves and correct the stock in the dashboard. They stay on this list until somebody does.
• The counted drawers did not balance: the total over or short across all drawers today.
• Cash taken with no drawer open: cash sales made while no drawer was open. That money is in the day’s takings but in none of the drawer counts.
• No drawer was opened today: cash sales still went through and are in the figures, but there is nothing to count them against.

Closing the day, step by step

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1. Serve the last customer and tap Next customer.
2. If any sales were taken offline, make sure the POS is back online and the banner about sales still to send has gone, and deal with any refused sales (see Offline, printers and the customer screen).
3. On every POS register, tap Drawer, then Count and close, and count the drawer.
4. Print each Z reading with Print the Z reading.
5. Tap End of day and check every drawer is counted and the totals look right.
6. Tap Sign the POS out in the thin bar at the top, and confirm (see Setting up and signing in to the POS).

What the back office sees

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Managers with access to the finance reports can see everything the POS registers recorded from the dashboard, for any day and any shop:

• End of day: what each shop took and whether it balanced.
• Drawers: every drawer, its float, its count and the difference.
• POS readings: every Z reading, to download or print again.
• Counts to do: shelves to count after offline sales.

The dashboard can only look. Drawers are opened, counted and closed at the POS, by the person holding the cash.

Tip: More detail: The counter, from the back office.