Cash Drawer and Shift Control

Cash control starts at shift open. The cashier, drawer, location, opening float, time, and supervisor context should be clear before sales begin.

A weak opening process makes the close harder. If the starting float is guessed or shared across users, the end-of-day variance becomes a debate instead of a control signal.

In practice, the cashier counts the float, confirms the drawer, opens the shift, and starts sales only after the opening amount is recorded. Accountability begins before the first receipt.

A cash drop moves money out of the drawer during the shift for safety, banking, or manager custody. AWRA records the amount, the time and who recorded it; use the drop’s note to say why and who received the cash.

Drops protect the drawer from holding too much cash, but they also change what the close should expect. A close that ignores drops will make a correct drawer look short.

In practice, a busy retail branch may require a drop whenever cash crosses a threshold. The cashier records the drop and the supervisor receives it, preserving both security and reconciliation.

At close the cashier enters the counted cash. Expected cash is the opening float plus cash sales less cash drops, and the variance is counted less expected. Closing saves both, with the cashier’s note, and the drawer then shows Awaiting sign-off — a filter on the Cash Drawers list, on the web and in the app.

Sign-off is the review path, and it is a second person’s act: someone holding the sign off POS cash drawers permission who did not close the drawer signs it off, with an optional note, once. That is when the variance reaches the ledger — a shortage posts Dr Cash Over and Short, Cr Cash; an overage posts Dr Cash, Cr Cash Over and Short; a balanced drawer posts nothing. In the app the Sign Off button is on the drawer detail screen and needs a connection. Reconciliation is not only about catching theft: it also catches training gaps, refund mistakes, wrong payment methods, missed drops, and poor close discipline.

In practice, a supervisor starts the morning on the Awaiting sign-off filter. A KES 150 short drawer with a clear note is signed off and posts KES 150 to Cash Over and Short; a KES 4,000 short drawer is recounted with the cashier before anyone signs, because once signed the journal is posted and the drawer cannot be signed again. Over weeks, the Cash Over and Short account and the drawer reports turn individual closes into a pattern by cashier and location.