In a cash-heavy business, the end of the night is where small losses either get caught or get buried. A cashier who knows the drawer is counted and matched every night behaves differently from one who knows nobody checks. End-of-day reconciliation is that check.
The idea is simple. You work out how much cash should be in the drawer, count what is actually there, and explain any difference before anyone goes home.
What you need before you start
- The day's sales summary from your POS, often called a Z report, with sales split by payment method.
- The opening float: the fixed amount of change put in the drawer at the start of the day.
- A record of every cash payout from the drawer during the day, with slips.
- A list of cash refunds and voids, with who approved them.
- A printed count sheet and a calculator.
Step-by-step closing routine
- Close the till for new orders. Settle any open table bills.
- Print the day's sales summary.
- Separate card slips and confirm bank transfer and mobile wallet payments against your bank or wallet app.
- Count the cash by denomination, with the cashier and the manager both present.
- Calculate expected cash using the formula below.
- Compare counted cash with expected cash and record the difference.
- Keep the opening float aside for tomorrow and seal the rest for deposit or handover to the owner.
- Both people sign the count sheet.
The expected cash formula
Expected cash = opening float + cash sales − cash payouts − cash refunds.
Card sales and online payments do not belong in the drawer, so they are checked separately against the card machine settlement and your bank statement.
A worked example
Here is a Saturday at a family restaurant in Faisalabad. The POS summary shows total sales of Rs 186,400, split as follows:
| Payment method | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cash | Rs 121,600 |
| Card | Rs 38,500 |
| Bank transfer and mobile wallets | Rs 26,300 |
| Total sales | Rs 186,400 |
During the day, the cashier paid Rs 1,200 for ice and Rs 3,500 for an urgent vegetable purchase from the drawer, a total of Rs 4,700 in payouts. One customer was refunded Rs 900 in cash for a cold dish that went back.
Expected cash = 10,000 (float) + 121,600 (cash sales) − 4,700 (payouts) − 900 (refund) = Rs 126,000.
Counting the drawer
| Note | Count | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Rs 5,000 | 12 | Rs 60,000 |
| Rs 1,000 | 41 | Rs 41,000 |
| Rs 500 | 36 | Rs 18,000 |
| Rs 100 | 52 | Rs 5,200 |
| Rs 50 | 17 | Rs 850 |
| Rs 20 | 10 | Rs 200 |
| Rs 10 | 20 | Rs 200 |
| Total counted | Rs 125,450 |
Counted cash is Rs 125,450 against expected cash of Rs 126,000, so the drawer is Rs 550 short. The manager keeps Rs 10,000 as tomorrow's float and seals Rs 115,450 for the owner or bank deposit.
What to do about a difference
A difference is information, so record every one, even small ones. Then check the usual causes in this order:
- A payout that was made but not written down.
- A card or wallet payment entered as cash in the POS, or the reverse.
- Wrong change given during a rush.
- A refund or void done without being recorded.
- A counting mistake. Count again before you look anywhere else.
Agree a tolerance with your staff, for example up to Rs 200 either way, written in the log with no further action. Anything bigger gets investigated the same night while memories are fresh. Watch for patterns: a small shortage that only appears on one cashier's shifts matters more than one large, explained gap.
Overages count too
Extra cash in the drawer is not good news. It usually means an item was served and paid for without being billed, or a customer was overcharged. Both need fixing.
Special cases that confuse the count
Credit customers
Many restaurants send lunch to nearby offices or let regulars pay at the end of the month. These bills are sales, but no cash comes in today. Record them as credit sales against the customer's account so they do not appear in the cash total. When the office pays Rs 18,000 at the end of the month, that money is a receipt against their account, and it goes into the drawer count for that day as a separate line.
Shift changes
If your restaurant runs a lunch and a dinner shift with different cashiers, do a short reconciliation at each handover. The outgoing cashier counts, the incoming cashier checks, and both sign. Otherwise a shortage at night cannot be traced to either shift.
Delivery riders carrying cash
Cash-on-delivery orders leave the restaurant unpaid and come back as cash with the rider. Keep a rider sheet: order number, bill amount, cash returned, time. Settle each rider before they go home, and only then add the cash to the drawer count. Riders who settle at the end of the week make shortages almost impossible to trace.
Tips
Decide whether tips paid by card are handed out in cash from the drawer. If they are, record each one as a payout, or the drawer will always look short by the amount of card tips.
Keep petty cash separate
Payouts from the sales drawer make reconciliation harder. A better habit is a separate petty cash box with its own fixed amount, topped up from the owner once a week against receipts. Then the sales drawer only ever holds the float and the day's cash sales.
If you must pay from the drawer, every rupee needs a slip with the amount, reason and signature, and the payout should be entered in the system the same day.
Keep a simple reconciliation log
Besides the signed count sheet, keep one running log with a line per day: date, cashier, expected cash, counted cash, difference and a short reason. After a month, the log shows patterns that single days hide. If the drawer was short on 9 of 26 days and 8 of those were the same cashier's evening shift, you have a clear place to start, without accusing anyone on the basis of one bad night.
Controls that prevent problems
- One cashier per drawer per shift. If two people share a drawer, nobody is responsible.
- Voids and refunds above a set amount need a manager's approval, recorded with the manager's name. See voids and refunds.
- Cashiers cannot see the expected total before counting. They count first.
- The owner checks the reconciliation log weekly, along with the sales total.
Using your POS for this
A POS that records payment methods, voids, refunds and expenses in one place cuts this routine down to minutes. ArfaPOS includes expense, petty cash and finance management alongside billing, with restricted staff access so cashiers cannot change bills after the fact. It also keeps a till open and close for each cashier and records cash collected per rider, which makes shift handovers and rider settlement easier to check. The petty cash software page shows how payouts are recorded.
Do the count in a quiet spot away from customers, with the drawer closed to new sales. Counting while still taking orders causes most counting mistakes.