How to Become An Expert At Balancing Your Cash Register Drawer

Do you open your cash register drawer and just deposit money without any type of system or checks and balances? If you do, you could be damaging your business without even knowing it. Why? Because balancing your cash register drawer has to do with all kinds of payment methods like mobile payments, credit/debit, checks, and cash, and those need to be accounted for. It helps you keep tabs on where your business is financially, as well as holding employees accountable around the till. You do not want to end up with shortages because of theft. In this article, we’ll show you how to become an expert at balancing your cash register drawer.

First, allow for one person to handle the cash register drawer if you can. The more folks that have access, the more accountability that has to be in place. However, a point-of-sale (POS) system offers features that help monitor which employee performed each transaction.

Read more about how to Track Your Employees With Your POS System.

Next, start by counting the existing cash in the till before you open. Make sure you have enough to make change. What you start with each morning will vary from business to business.

Throughout the day, depending on the volume of business, you’ll want to deposit cash. In some cases it may be a couple times a day. Make sure when you count the money you remove the difference from the initial morning count. It might be good to set a procedure that two people confirm the count and see that it is placed in the safe.

Now, it is the end of the day. Time to count the total amount in your cash register drawer including all mobile payments, credit card transactions, cash, and checks. If the cashier is required to count their own drawer, and you have a good point of sale system, the system will allow you to require cashiers to submit a “blind count.”  

A blind count is where the cashier does not have access to the drawer total before they enter the total cash in the drawer. This is an extra layer of protection against cashiers who may see that there is extra money in the drawer and put it in their pocket. Or if you have a more nefarious cashier, they make sure there is extra money in the drawer so that they can take it at the end when they run the report. It is never   a good idea to allow standard cashiers to run their own reports on cash in the drawer and a good point of sale will assist you with this function. 

When you are finished, use your POS system to see if the amounts match. Small differences are common and are usually human error, but you are looking for large glaring errors whether overages or shortages. Be sure to have a policy for your staff when handling cash, and hold everyone accountable. This will prevent temptation to steal. 

Read more about how to Stop Employee Theft With Your POS System.

You are now an expert at balancing your cash register drawer! Need more tips on how your POS system can help you balance your drawer, prevent employee theft, and more? Contact Bepoz for a free demo!