💰 Cashing up

The end-of-session count. Enter how many of each note and coin are in the drawer; the total builds as you type and is compared against what the till says should be there.

How the expected figure is worked out

Opening float, plus cash taken on sales, plus or minus any cash movements you recorded, less any cash refunds. That is the whole calculation — which is why recording safe drops and payouts matters so much. An unrecorded £50 to the safe is the most common reason a drawer looks short when nothing is wrong.

The wizard

Cashing up runs as five steps: what the session took, a last chance to record a cash movement nobody entered at the time, the denomination count, the comparison, then the float and banking. Going back never loses anything — nothing is saved until you close at the end.

Closing

• Set the float to leave for next time; whatever is above it is suggested as the amount to bank.
• Add a note if the drawer is out and you know why.
• Closing writes a Z report — takings, the split by category and by item, the count, the variance and what was banked — which cannot be altered afterwards.
• If you have switched it on, the takings post into the club ledger at the same moment.

Variances

A few pence either way is normal and not worth chasing. Record it and move on. A large variance is worth investigating before you close, while people are still there to ask: look for an unrecorded cash movement, a card sale rung up as cash, or a refund taken from the drawer without being entered.

Common questions

How do I record petty cash bought out of the till?

Step two of the cash-up wizard has room for it — what was bought and how much, with the receipt to hand. It comes off what the drawer should hold, so the count balances. Without it the drawer is short by exactly the amount of the receipts, which is far harder to explain the next morning.

The till is on a shared account — how do we record who cashed up?

The last step asks who counted it, from a list of everyone allowed to cash up. It is stored separately from whoever was signed in, so a shared steward login does not obscure who actually did the count. “Cash up the till” is its own permission, so a club can let anyone serve while keeping the count to the people responsible for the money.

Can I reopen a session after closing it?

No. The Z report is a permanent record — that is the point of it. If something needs correcting, do it on the current session with a note explaining why.

Do I have to use the denomination sheet?

It is much the safest way, because it makes miscounts obvious. But you can simply enter the counted total if you have counted elsewhere.

Should we cash up daily or per session?

Per session. If the bar opens twice with different people on duty, two cash-ups give you two clean records and a far better chance of spotting where a discrepancy came from.

What if the same session ran over midnight?

That is fine — a session is not tied to a calendar day. It runs from when it was opened to when it is closed.

The takings did not reach the accounts.

Check that “Post takings to the ledger at cash-up” is switched on in Settings. It only ever happens at the moment a session closes, so sessions closed before you enabled it are not posted retrospectively.

Someone took cash to the safe and forgot to record it.

Step two of the wizard is exactly for that — add it there and the expected figure allows for it before you count, so the drawer is not marked down for something you already know about. Better still, record movements as they happen from the Till screen.

The till asked for the PIN again in the middle of a sale.

The unlock had expired. Enter the PIN and carry straight on — the basket is kept exactly as it was, nothing is lost. If it happens often, lengthen “stay unlocked for” in Till settings.

Can I go back a step without losing my count?

Yes. The whole wizard is one form shown a step at a time, so nothing is submitted until you close the till. Move back and forth as much as you like.