Operations · 5 min read
How to close a cash register shift without an argument
Almost every owner has had the conversation where the drawer is short and nobody can explain why. It is a miserable conversation, it damages trust, and it is nearly always caused by a process that never recorded what happened.
A cash session fixes this by making the shift a closed loop with a start, a middle, and an end.
Start with a declared float
The shift opens with a counted opening amount, recorded by the person taking the drawer. Not roughly, not from memory-the actual number.
This one step converts a vague running total into a measurable shift. Without it, no closing figure means anything, because there is nothing to compare against.
Record money that moves for any other reason
Cash leaves the drawer for reasons that are not sales. Somebody pays the delivery man, buys tea, sends change to another counter, or drops the big notes into the safe mid-afternoon.
Every one of those must be a recorded cash-out, and cash added must be a recorded cash-in. This is where most shortfalls actually come from-legitimate movements that nobody wrote down.
Close against a physical count
At the end of the shift, the cashier counts the drawer and enters what is physically there. The system already knows what should be there: opening float, plus cash sales, plus cash in, minus cash out.
The difference between expected and counted is the only number worth discussing. Everything else is noise.
Treat small differences as normal
A drawer that is a few taka out is a rounding and change-making artefact, not a crime. Deciding your tolerance in advance-and telling staff what it is-prevents the daily suspicion that poisons a counter team.
What matters is the pattern. A cashier who is 5 taka out at random is normal. One who is consistently short by a similar amount at the same time of day is a conversation.
Put limits on the things that hide shortfalls
Discounts and refunds are the two doors through which a cash difference can be made to disappear. If anyone can discount an order to any amount, or refund a settled sale without oversight, the closing figure can be made to balance.
Separate the permissions. A cashier might take a small line discount; a large order discount needs a manager to approve it; refunds sit with someone senior. The point is not distrust-it is that the shift figure stays meaningful.
- Line discount - usually fine for a cashier
- Whole-order discount - manager approval
- Refund on a settled sale - senior staff only
- Cash out from the drawer - always recorded, never informal