Cash handling tips for small business owners

Getting your float right

Your float is the cash you start the day with. Get it wrong and you're either apologising to customers because you can't break a tenner, or sitting on a pile of cash that makes you a target. Neither is good.

A decent float for a market stall or small shop looks something like this:

Denomination	Count	Value
1p coins	20	£0.20
2p coins	20	£0.40
5p coins	20	£1.00
10p coins	20	£2.00
20p coins	20	£4.00
50p coins	20	£10.00
£1 coins	20	£20.00
£2 coins	10	£20.00
£5 notes	6	£30.00
£10 notes	4	£40.00

That's roughly £127.60. Adjust it to what you sell: if everything is priced in round pounds you won't need many small coins, but if your prices end in .50 or .99, load up on 50p and £1 coins — you'll burn through them fast.

Reconciling at the end of the day

Most people dread this bit. It doesn't need to be a nightmare if you have a system:

Count all the cash in the till — separate notes and coins, count each denomination, write down the total.
Subtract your opening float — that gives you the day's cash takings.
Compare with your till records — if you used Mini Till, the dashboard shows total cash sales, which should match your counted takings.
Check card totals separately — your card reader shows a daily total; compare it with the card sales on the till.
Note any discrepancies — small differences (under £2) are common and usually down to wrong change. Large differences need investigating.

Common cash handling mistakes

Talk to enough market traders and small shop owners and the same mistakes come up again and again:

Not counting the float before starting — if you don't know exactly what you started with, you can't reconcile at the end. Count it, write it down.
Making change from memory — when it's busy, it's easy to hand back the wrong change. Say the amounts out loud: "That's £7.50, paying with £20, your change is £12.50."
Mixing personal money with business cash — never put your own money in the till or take cash out for personal use. It makes reconciliation impossible.
Not banking regularly — don't let large amounts of cash accumulate. Bank your takings at least weekly, daily if possible.
Forgetting to record sales — every sale needs recording, however busy it is. A missed sale is lost data and makes your accounts unreliable.
Accepting large notes early in the day — a £50 note on your first sale wipes out your change. Politely ask for a smaller note, or put up a sign.

Security tips

Cash makes you a target. How not to be an easy one:

Never count cash in public — reconcile somewhere private, not at your stall in front of passing strangers.
Skim the till regularly — don't let it build up with £500 of notes. Move large notes to a zipped pocket, a locked cash box or your vehicle.
Use a cash box, not an open dish — notes in an open container are an invitation.
Watch for distraction theft — one person engages you in conversation while another reaches for your cash. Keep the till behind your stall, not on the front table.
Vary your routine — don't always pack up at the same time and walk to the car with the same bag.
Bank promptly — don't take the day's takings home and leave them overnight. Go to the bank or use a night safe.

Record keeping for HMRC

HMRC doesn't care that you're "just a market stall" — you're a business, and you need records. The minimum:

A record of every sale, ideally with date, description and amount
A daily summary showing total cash sales and total card sales
Records kept for at least five years (six for VAT-registered businesses)
Receipts for any business expenses paid in cash

This is exactly why a till worth its salt exports your data. In Mini Till, open the Sales history section and use Export CSV at the end of every trading day — save it to a cloud folder or email it to yourself. Thirty seconds now can save hours of grief later.

When the cash doesn't add up

It happens to everyone. You count up and you're £3.40 short, or £7.20 over. Don't panic — small discrepancies are normal, and usually caused by:

Incorrect change (the most common cause)
A customer paying the wrong amount without either of you noticing
A sale that never made it onto the till
Coins falling and getting lost

If you're consistently short by large amounts, that's different and needs proper investigation. But a few quid either way on a busy day is normal: write down the discrepancy and the date, and move on. If a pattern shows up, look into it then.