The sheet
Print this page, or download the CSV and fill it in on a screen. Use one sheet per trading day, and keep them: they show patterns that a single day does not.
| Line | What to write | Amount (£) |
|---|---|---|
| Date | ||
| Pitch | ||
| By | ||
| A | Opening float Counted in before the first sale | |
| B | Cash counted in the drawer at close Notes and coins together | |
| C | Cash takings B minus A | |
| D | Cash total on the till The Cash figure in Today's sales | |
| E | Cash variance C minus D. A minus figure means short | |
| F | Card total on the card reader From the reader's day total or report | |
| G | Card total on the till The Card figure in Today's sales | |
| H | Card variance F minus G | |
| I | Float kept back for next time | |
| J | Cash to bank B minus I | |
| Notes | ||
How to fill it in
Do it somewhere private, at the end of the day, before you look at the till's figures. That way you are not counting towards the answer you expect.
- Write the float (A). This is what you counted into the drawer before you served anyone. The free till does not hold a float for you, so it lives on the sheet.
- Count the drawer (B). Notes and coins, and write the total down.
- Work out the cash takings (C). B minus A.
- Copy the till's cash figure (D). Open the Today's sales panel in the till and copy the Cash figure. It already has change taken out, so it is the net cash you should be holding.
- Find the cash variance (E). C minus D.
- Do the card check (F, G, H). Take the day's total from your card reader and compare it with the Card figure in Today's sales.
- Set the float aside (I) and work out what to bank (J). Keep tomorrow's float back and bank the rest, or lock it away.
A worked example
These figures are made up. A coffee stall starts with a £50.00 float and counts £161.20 in the drawer at close.
- A, opening float: £50.00
- B, cash counted: £161.20
- C, cash takings: £161.20 minus £50.00 is £111.20
- D, till cash total: £112.00
- E, cash variance: £111.20 minus £112.00 is minus £0.80, so £0.80 short
- F and G, card: the reader says £78.50 and the till says £78.50, so H is £0.00
- I, float kept back: £50.00, so J, cash to bank: £161.20 minus £50.00 is £111.20
Eighty pence short on a busy day is ordinary. Write it in the notes and move on.
What a variance means
A variance is the gap between what you hold and what the till says you took. A few pence either way is normal. What you are looking for is a pattern, which is why the sheet is worth keeping on quiet days too.
- Short on cash is most often wrong change, a sale that was never rung up, or a payment recorded as cash that was paid by card.
- Over on cash is usually the reverse: a card sale recorded as cash, or change not given.
- A card gap is nearly always a card sale taken on the reader that never went onto the till, or a refund done on the reader and not noted.
If you voided a sale in Sales history, write the amount and the reason in the notes, so the sheet and the till tell the same story. A void takes the sale out of the till's totals, and the refund itself still has to be handed back from the tin or the reader.
Keep the records
The sheet is a working record, and the till's CSV export is the digital one. Export the sales history at the end of the day from the Sales history section. What to keep and for how long is in what HMRC expects from your till records.
For the habits behind a clean cash up, read cash handling for small businesses. The till manual has the full cashing-up steps.