Open and close the cash shift

A cashier opens a shift with the cash in the drawer and closes it by counting. The screen compares the count with what the bills say should be there.

Restaurant POS Shift and cash

6 min read

Updated October 20, 2026

For Cashier Manager or owner

Open the shift

Orders cannot be sent to the kitchen without an open shift. Each cashier has their own shift.

Open the screen
Who
Cashier
Where
Restaurant POS › Cash Shift; or Open Shift in the banner of the order screen
Count the float
Where
Open New Shift: Opening Float (cash in drawer at start) and Notes (optional)
What changes
Type the cash you put in the drawer.
Open
Where
Open Shift
What changes
"Shift opened! Redirecting to floor..." The shift tag reads Shift Open.

Close the shift

Count the drawer
Who
Cashier
Where
Close Shift > Count Closing Cash
What changes
Type how many notes and coins of each value you have: Rs. 1000, 500, 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1. Total Cash adds up as you type.
Add a note
Where
Notes (placeholder End of shift notes...)
Close
Where
Close Shift · Cash Rs. X
What changes
"Shift closed!" The Shift Summary appears.

There is no separate end-of-day step in the restaurant: closing the shift and printing the Z-Report (Restaurant Reports: the day's sales) ends the day.

The Shift Summary lists Total Transactions, Total Sales and Opened At, then two tables:

How the sales were paid: Total Sales, Cash (net of change), Card and QR (check against the terminal and QR settlement), Due (not paid yet), Charged to room or event, and Tips, all tenders.
The drawer: Opening Float, + Cash received, - Change given, + Tips (cash), - Cash refunds (returns), Expected Cash, Counted Cash and Variance (+ for more cash than expected, − for less).

Print prints the same figures.

What the expected cash is

Expected Cash = the opening float + the cash taken for the shift's bills − the change given + the tips taken in cash − the cash paid back on returns. It is worked out from the payments Accounting holds for each bill, so a bill paid in several parts counts its cash part: Split Pay, every Split tab bill, and the paid part of a due bill.

Card and QR is one figure: Accounting records both as a bank payment, without saying which was which. Check it against the card terminal's settlement and the QR settlement, never against the drawer. A check charged to a room or an event, and the unpaid part of a due bill, are not cash and are not in the drawer.

Worked example: a shift from the float to the variance

The cashier opens the shift with an Opening Float of Rs 5,000. During the shift the branch posts these bills (the amounts are the bills' totals, and the values are set up for this example):

Bill	Total	How it was paid
1	994	The guest hands over 1,100 in cash, 50 of it a tip. Change 56
2	2,000	Card
3	3,000	Split Pay: 1,000 in cash and 2,000 by card
4	1,243	A due sale to a customer: 500 in cash now, the rest due

A return was refunded in cash: 300. Closing the shift, the cashier counts the drawer: 7,240. The Shift Summary reads:

How the sales were paid	Amount
Total Sales (994 + 2,000 + 3,000 + 1,243)	7,237
Cash (net of change)	2,494
Card and QR (check against the terminal and QR settlement)	4,000
Due (not paid yet)	743
Charged to room or event	0
Tips, all tenders	50

The drawer	Amount
Opening Float	5,000
+ Cash received (1,050 + 1,000 + 500: bill 1 less its 50 tip)	2,550
- Change given	56
+ Tips (cash)	50
- Cash refunds (returns)	300
Expected Cash	7,244
Counted Cash	7,240
Variance	-4

The 2,494 of cash is 2,550 less the 56 change. The variance is the counted cash less the expected cash: 4 less than expected, so a minus. The 4,000 in Card and QR is checked against the card terminal's and the QR settlement, not counted in the drawer. The variance is recorded and the shift closes. Nothing is posted to Accounting: if the restaurant wants the 4 in its books, the accountant makes a journal.

Tips in the drawer

A tip is not a sale, so it is not in Total Sales or Cash (net of change). A tip taken in cash is in the drawer, so it is in Expected Cash and shown on its own line, + Tips (cash). Leave the cash tips in the drawer when you count.

Every tip is recorded in Accounting in the Tips payable ledger (cash tips through the cash book, card and QR tips through the bank). To pay the staff their tips, the accountant (or whoever pays the staff) makes an ordinary payment voucher in Accounting: Dr Tips payable, Cr the cash book (or the bank), for the amount paid out. The balance of Tips payable is what is still owed to the staff.

What happens

Area	Change
Table	Nothing
Customer or cash	The counted cash is compared with the opening float + the cash taken for the shift's bills − change + cash tips − cash refunds; the difference is the variance
Invoice and IRD	Nothing
Stock	Nothing

Common questions

Orders do not send: "No cash shift open".

Open your own shift. A colleague's shift does not count for you.

The variance is large and we cannot find why.

Check whether a colleague took cash in the branch during your shift (their bills count in your expected cash), whether a card or QR payment was keyed as cash, and whether change was given from the drawer. Reports › Sales Revenue shows each payment by method. A cash refund on a return is already taken off the expected cash.

Can two cashiers use the till?

Each opens their own shift. The shift figures count all the branch's bills since the shift opened, so when two cashiers work at the same time, count their figures together.

Does opening the shift put the float into the books?

No. Opening and closing the shift post nothing. The cash itself reaches Accounting through each bill's receipt.

A shift was left open overnight. What now?

Nothing blocks the next day's orders, but the figures would mix two days. There is no business day in the restaurant, only the shift: close the old shift, print the Z-Report, and open a new shift for the new day.