How to close a shift: count the cash, match the transfers, write down any difference

It is 22:50. The last table has paid and the lounge is emptying. You are tired, your feet hurt, and the owner is waiting for a number. You open the drawer. The cash looks about right. About right is the sentence that causes arguments tomorrow.

The short answer

Close a shift in this order: count the cash before you see what it should be, add up the transfers and cards separately, compare each with what the till says you sold, and write down any difference. Then a second person checks the count and signs.

Do it the same way every night. A routine you can repeat is the thing that protects you. When the numbers are wrong, the written record shows what happened.

Six steps that work in any business

These steps come from standard cashing-up practice (Shopify; Wikipedia; IT Retail), written for a Nigerian counter where much of the money arrives by transfer.

1. Stop selling on your till. Finish the open bills and do not ring anything new until the count is done. A sale added half-way through makes every number wrong.
2. Count the cash first, by note. Write the number of each note and coin down: how many ₦1,000, ₦500, ₦200 and so on. Count before you look at what the till expects. If you know the target, it is easy to find a reason to match it.
3. Take out the starting float. The money you began the shift with stays in the drawer for the next person. What is left is the cash you took during your shift, and that is the number you compare with the till.
4. Add up transfers and cards separately. Do not mix them into the cash. Every transfer should match a sale and a bank record, not a screenshot. If a customer says they paid and you cannot see the money, read what to do when there is no alert before you close.
5. Compare each with what you sold. Cash against cash sales, transfers against transfer sales, cards against card sales. Check refunds, discounts and anything entered under the wrong payment type.
6. Write it down and hand over. Record the counted cash, the difference, the shift, the time and your name. A second person, usually the supervisor, counts the drawer in front of you. You both sign.

When the cash does not match

A difference is normal now and then. Standard practice is to recount first, by denomination, because stuck-together notes and miscounted coins explain many shortages (Wikipedia; Shopify). If it is still wrong:

1. Check refunds, voids and discounts for the shift.
2. Check any cash taken out of the drawer for change, supplies or deposits, and whether each one was written down.
3. Check sales entered under the wrong payment type, such as a transfer rung as cash.
4. Ask who else used the drawer during the shift.
5. Write down the amount, the likely cause and who reviewed it.

An overage is as important as a shortage. Extra cash usually means a customer was undercharged or given too little change. It is the same mistake in the other direction.

Do not agree to cover a shortage from your pocket on the spot, and do not let anyone take it from your pay without a process. Read can my employer deduct a cash shortage from my salary first. A fair process is to investigate, write down the facts, and only then decide.

The hidden cost of closing by hand

Counting by hand is fine. The slow and risky part is everything around it: finding the sales total in a notebook, adding transfers from a phone full of alerts, and explaining a gap at 23:30 with nobody to check your story.

Two things go wrong. First, the person counting sees the expected total and drifts towards it. Second, transfers are matched to sales by memory ("the one at 20:15, I think"), so a real difference hides inside a transfer nobody can place.

How Jollozi closes the shift

On the Jollozi till the routine above is built in.

• Blind cash count. You count the drawer before the till shows what it expects. You enter what you counted, and only then does the difference appear. Nobody has to guess a target.
• Transfers already matched. A FlashPay transfer confirms the sale by itself, so the transfer total is not a pile of alerts you have to match to sales. Each sale shows as paid with the time and the cashier, for example "Transfer · Ada · 20:15".
• Shifts and day close. Each cashier has their own shift on their own PIN. At the end, the shift closes with a summary of cash, transfers and cards, and the day close gives the owner one summary of the day.
• Approvals. Staff roles and approvals let a supervisor sign off sensitive actions, so a difference is not hiding behind a change nobody approved.
• From the owner's phone. The owner can see the day from the app instead of waiting for a call at midnight.

Card payments taken on a separate terminal are recorded by staff, so check them against the terminal slip before you close.