The restaurant end-of-day cash-up checklist
A consistent close takes ten minutes and saves hours of arguments about missing money. Here is a routine you can adopt tonight.
First: know what the drawer should hold
Expected cash = float + cash sales + cash in − drops − cash refunds and voids.
- Float: the money the drawer started with.
- Cash sales: only orders paid in cash (not cards).
- Cash in: money you put in during the shift, such as extra change.
- Drops: cash moved to the safe.
- Refunds and voids paid in cash.
Example: float $200 + cash sales $467.81 − drops $0 = $667.81 expected.
The checklist
- Finish open orders. Close, pay or void everything still open, and check nothing is left on a table.
- Run the sales report for the shift and note cash and card totals separately.
- Count the drawer by denomination (notes and coins), not as one number, so a recount is easy.
- Compare the count with expected cash. Write the difference, over or short.
- Look for the usual causes of a difference: wrong change, a cash refund not recorded, a card payment entered as cash, a drop not logged.
- Check card totals against your card machine or provider’s report.
- Take out the deposit and leave the float for tomorrow.
- Write down who counted, and when. Have a second person sign off if you can.
- Close the shift and the day so the figures cannot be changed afterwards.
Small differences, big habits
A few cents over or under is normal. A pattern is not: the same person, the same shift, the same amount. Writing every difference down, however small, is what makes a pattern visible.
How Fresh helps
Fresh’s cash management works out each shift’s expected cash from completed orders, lets you count with your own notes and coins, records drops, cash in and cash refunds, and walks you through a closing checklist you design. A closed shift and a day’s close are written once and never changed.
Questions
What is a cash float?
The fixed amount of money, mostly small notes and coins, that a drawer starts each shift with so staff can give change.
What should I do if the drawer is short?
Recount, check recorded drops and refunds, and look for card payments entered as cash. Record the difference either way, so a pattern becomes visible.