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Doing the end-of-day cash count

Count the drawer at close without being shown what should be in it, print the docket, and recount if the numbers don't look right.

At the end of the night you count everything in the cash drawer, the till prints a docket, and it tells you whether the cash matches what was taken.

It takes a couple of minutes. Here's what happens and what the numbers mean.

Finding it

On the till, tap Till admin (top right), then End of day in the menu down the left. The count fills the rest of the screen, and the menu stays put so you can step back to Cash drawer or Reports whenever you like.

There is also an End of day button inside Cash drawer, for when you are already in there doing cash in or cash out. It takes you to the same place.

Note

No End of day button? Either this venue uses the cash drawer ledger instead — a different way of doing the same job, set by whoever runs your store settings — or your role doesn't include end of day. The till will tell you which. It's a permission, not a fault, and a manager can change it in seconds.

One till, or all of them

If your venue has more than one till, the first thing you see is a choice:

  • Close all tills — count every drawer together, as one number.
  • Or close just one drawer — tick the till whose drawer you're about to count, then tap Count selected. Only that till's cash is checked, and only that till starts again from zero. The others carry on until somebody closes them. If two tills share one drawer, tick both.

Closing a till on its own works for cash taken earlier the same day, even if the till was only updated this afternoon — every sale already remembers which till took it.

Card machines aren't in the list. A handheld shouldn't be taking cash; if one does, nobody can say which drawer it went into, so it shows up on the venue summary as Cash not in any till.

When you close one till, take the takings out and leave the float — the next count on that drawer expects just the float plus whatever is taken afterwards.

A venue with a single till never sees this screen.

The venue summary

Once every till that has traded is closed, the till asks "Every till is closed — print the venue summary?". It's one last, longer docket: each till's declared, taken and variance, then the whole venue's totals. You can also print it at any time from the bottom of the first screen; if some tills are still open it says NOT COMPLETE and names them.

Why you can't see the cash total

The first screen shows what was taken on card, and says plainly that the cash figure is hidden.

That's on purpose, and it isn't about trusting you. If the till showed you the number it expects, it would be very easy — without meaning to — to count toward it: to recount until you get the "right" answer rather than the true one. Counting blind is the only way the number you type is genuinely what's in the drawer. Every venue that does this does it the same way.

The card figure is shown because our card machines report it to us directly. We already know it and it can't be wrong, so there's nothing to check. Cash is the one that can go astray.

Counting

  1. 1

    Tap Start counting

    The cash drawer pops open so you can take the cash out to count — as long as a drawer is connected to your receipt printer. Every coin and note is on one screen, no scrolling, starting from the smallest: pence down the left (1p at the top), then pound coins and notes down the right, up to £50. The keypad sits on the right-hand side.

  2. 2

    Enter each one

    Tap the Count box for a row and type how many you have, and the amount fills in for you. Or tap the Amount box and type the money, and the count fills in. Whichever is easier for that pile — counts for coins in bags, amounts for notes, whatever you like. The number you typed shows in black and the one worked out for you shows in grey. Above the keypad, Typing into tells you which box the keys go to.

  3. 3

    Tap Next to move down

    Next, under the keypad, jumps to the next coin or note up — 1p, 2p, 5p and so on to £50 — so you can work down the list without reaching back to the screen. It goes to the same box you used before for that row, so it never wipes anything. Counted, above the Submit button, adds up as you go. That's your own total, not ours — it's just there so you don't have to add up in your head.

  4. 4

    Submit and print

    Tap Submit and print, and confirm. The docket prints from the till's printer — unless your venue has switched the cash-up slip off to print only its own report (see below). The figures still show on screen.

Heads up

If a row goes red, the amount you typed isn't a whole number of that coin or note — £55 typed against the £10 row, say. The till won't guess what you meant and it won't round it, because rounding would quietly change your total. Fix that row and the Submit button comes back.

What the docket says

Three lines:

  • CASH DECLARED — what you counted, minus the float. The money the night actually produced.
  • CASH COLLECTED — what the till recorded as cash taken.
  • CASH VARIANCE — the difference. £0.00 means they match. A minus figure means there's less cash in the drawer than there should be; a plus figure means there's more.

Small variances happen — a mis-hit key, change given wrong, a tip in the wrong place. Your manager sets a tolerance, so only the ones worth looking at get flagged.

Recounting

After it prints you can tap Recount and do it again from scratch. The drawer pops open again so you can get the cash back out.

Every count is kept, including the first one. That's deliberate and it isn't a trap: if you were £50 out and then found the £50, the record shows exactly that, which is a much better story than a single number nobody can explain. Tap Done when you're happy with the count.

Leaving the result screen any other way — the X, or tapping another section in Till admin — counts as Done too. The docket has printed and the takings are coming out, so the count stands. Recount is the only way to not keep it. If the till can't confirm the count (no connection), it says so on screen; tap Done again once you're back online.

A report that prints when you're done

Your manager can set one of the venue's own reports — the Z report, say — to print by itself after every count. If they have, it prints straight after you tap Done: no need to go to Reports for it. It covers today's trading for the till you counted, or every till if you closed them all together.

If the report can't be printed, the till prints a short note instead. Your count is still saved, and you can print the report from Reports in Till admin. It is switched on in the back office under Store settings → Cash drawer → Print after a count, and needs the latest version of the till app.

If you'd rather have only that report and not the small cash-up docket as well, switch off Also print the cash-up slip in the same place. Nothing prints when you submit; the report prints when you tap Done. With no report switched on, the docket always prints.

FLOAT NOT SET

If the docket says FLOAT NOT SET and shows no variance, nothing has gone wrong with your count — it's recorded and it's safe.

It means nobody has told the system what float you keep in the drawer, so it can't work out how much of what you counted was the float and how much was takings. Rather than print a figure that would be wrong by exactly the float amount, it prints nothing and says why.

Whoever runs your store settings fixes it in Store settings → Cash drawer → Float in each drawer. Tonight's count is still saved.

Note

A float of £0 is different from a blank one. £0 means you genuinely run no float and the variance works normally. Blank means nobody has set it.

If nothing prints

The till will tell you if the count was recorded but didn't print — usually the printer is off, out of paper, or off the network.

Your count is saved either way. Sort the printer out and you can do a recount to get the paper, or your manager can see the figures in the portal under Reports → End of day.

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