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.

Income and expense

Money leaves and enters the drawer for reasons that are not sales — paying a courier, taking cash to the bank, putting in change from the safe, an owner deposit. Record each of those as Income or Expense as it happens.

The form asks for more than an amount: category, how it was paid (cash, card, bank, or other), who it came from or went to, a reference (receipt number), and a note. Only cash rows change the expected drawer; a card or bank expense still appears on the shift close and end-of-day reports so the day is complete.

You can enter a row from the POS More menu, or from the Income / Expense tile on the home screen. That screen lists every row for a date range, with totals. Add entry opens the form. Filter only changes which rows you see: dates, All / Income / Expense, and search.

Cash a driver brings back on a delivery is not income. Settle it on Deliveries when they report to the office; that cash counts as a sale on the cashier’s open shift. See Delivery orders.

An unrecorded cash movement shows up at closing time as a variance, and by then nobody remembers what it was. Recording it takes a few seconds at the moment it happens. The printed shift close and day close list every income and expense line, not just the totals.

The cash drawer button

There is a Cash drawer button at the checkout. When you turn on the kick in Settings → Printing, that button sends an open pulse through the receipt printer. You can also have the drawer open after a cash sale, or after every sale. Commands differ by printer brand — pick a preset or enter the hex from the printer manual. See Receipt printer setup.

Closing a shift

At the end of a session, close the shift. One full-screen window opens. Expected cash and what you have counted stay on the left, and the difference updates as you count. Notes and coins are one short list: type how many of each. Print or close from the bar at the bottom. Close shift asks you to confirm before the shift closes and the report prints. The rest of the shift (voids, top items, income and expense) is under More about this shift.

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 cash income and expense, 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 income and expense first (especially cash), 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. Close day asks you to confirm before the day closes and the report prints.

It produces a printable summary of the whole day, which is the document to file or hand over. The header uses the same company name and logo as receipts. 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 income or expense 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.