How to close the till: daily cash counting and reconciliation

31 Ağustos 2026 · 4 dk okuma

Closing the till is one of the most important ten minutes of the business day. It tells you whether the money in the drawer matches the sales you made, and it catches mistakes while they are still fresh. Done the same way every day, it also protects your staff, because everyone knows exactly what is expected.

Start the day right: the opening float

A good close begins in the morning. The opening float is the fixed amount of cash you put in the drawer at the start of the day so you can give change. Choose a set amount, for example 200, made up of useful coins and small notes.

Count the float when it goes into the drawer and record it. If someone else hands the till over to you, count it together. Never accept a till you have not counted; otherwise you cannot know whether a difference at closing was yours.

The closing routine, step by step

Pick a quiet moment after the last sale. Close the till in a private area, away from the shop floor and windows, ideally with a second person present.

1. Stop taking sales on the till you are closing.
2. Print or open the end-of-day report showing sales by payment method.
3. Count the cash in the drawer, sorting notes and coins by value.
4. Write down the count for each value, then add them up.
5. Calculate the expected cash using the report.
6. Compare the counted cash with the expected cash and record any difference.
7. Check card and other non-cash totals against the payment terminal or provider reports.
8. Take the float out for tomorrow, and prepare the rest for the safe or the bank.

Working out the expected cash

Expected cash is what should be in the drawer if every transaction was handled correctly. The calculation is:

Opening float + cash sales − cash refunds − cash paid out = expected cash.

Here is an example. You started with a float of 200. The report shows cash sales of 1,450. You gave one cash refund of 30, and paid 50 from the till to a cleaner, with a signed slip. The expected cash is 200 + 1,450 − 30 − 50 = 1,570.

You count the drawer and find 1,565. The till is 5 short. If you had counted 1,580, it would be 10 over. Both are differences worth recording.

• Payments out of the till must always have a slip or receipt, or they look like missing cash.
• Payments received into the till for customer accounts must be included as cash in.
• Cash sales do not include card, mobile or credit account sales; check those separately.

Handling differences

Small differences happen in every business: a coin dropped, change miscounted in a rush. What matters is that they are recorded honestly and investigated when they grow or repeat.

• Recount before recording a difference. Many “shortages” disappear on the second count.
• Check for common causes: a card sale entered as cash, a missing paid-out slip, a sale not completed.
• Record every difference, however small, with the date, the till and the person responsible.
• Agree a tolerance with your staff, and investigate anything outside it.
• Look at the pattern over weeks; regular shortages on the same shift need attention.

Being over is not good news either. It usually means a customer was given too little change or a sale was entered wrongly, and it can hide other problems.

Keep a simple daily record

Each day, keep a short record of the float, cash sales, refunds, paid-outs, expected cash, counted cash, difference, banking amount and who closed. Store it with the end-of-day report. Over a month this becomes a valuable picture of how cash moves through your business.

Point-of-sale software can calculate the expected cash automatically, track each shift separately and keep the history for you, which turns closing into a quick count and a confirmation rather than a calculation.

Daha fazla rehber

• How to choose a POS system for a small business
• Inventory management basics for small retailers
• Practical ways to reduce stock loss and shrinkage