Understanding Station Cash Drawers

Types of Cash Drawers – Station and Employee 

Station Cash Drawers: A physical drawer attached to a station. An employee with proper security can start a cash drawer or be assigned to a cash drawer. The cash drawer can be set up to allow only user at a time or multiple users. The cash drawer must be then reconciled at the end of the shift or business day. 

Employee Cash Drawers: A floating(virtual) cash drawer. No physical cash drawer is present, and each server/driver is responsible for the orders they tender. Employee Cash Drawers act as a virtual drawer or bank for employees to be able to keep track of the cash, credit card, gift card and other payments. The other benefit of the Employee Cash Drawer is that it shows orders under the ‘Order Detail’ tab and calculates the tips from the credit card payments that are given to the employee.  

ORDER OF CLOSING DRAWERS:

1. Close out Employee Cash Drawers (Server and Driver Drawers)

2. Close out the Station Cash Drawer (both physical and virtual drawers)

3. Create Deposit

With Server and Driver Cash Drawers, it is important to close these out first, because many stores are set up to have the employee drawers be assigned to a specific station drawer. Meaning that after they’re balanced, those numbers merge to that station’s drawer. This setting is found in Config>System>Cash Mgmt.

What is the Balance Drawer button/feature?

Cash>Balance Drawer

The Balance Drawer (button) initiates the cash drawer reconciliation for a workstation. Here is where managers can reconcile station drawers.

Note: A Cash Drawer is a physical drawer attached to a workstation. An employee with proper security can start or be assigned to a cash drawer. The cash drawer can be set up to allow only one user at a time or multiple users and must be reconciled at the end of the shift of business day.

Business Date

The Business Date menu allows you to traverse through previous dates. After selecting a date, the system will update the screen to show you the cash drawers associated with the selected date.

You can edit the cash drawer information from any previous date without “rolling back the day.” However, reconciling will be limited to the data already associated with a day.

For example, if you need to void, add, or modify an order prior reconciling, you will need to roll the day back.

Computer/Cash Drawer

The Computer Menu will default to the current POS station/workstation that you’re on. In general, the computer field is used to display what station you are currently on, but it also allows drawers to be balanced from another computer.

The Cash Drawer field defaults to the last cash drawer opened on the workstation and can be changed by selecting the drop-down in this field. The Cash Drawer menu is used to select the cash drawer a user wishes to reconcile.

Note: Users must first select a “Computer” and then the “Cash Drawer” they wish to view. The appropriate monetary data associated with the selected drawer will then be displayed.

Not every station will have a cash drawer. To check what stations have a cash drawer you can:

• Manually check each “Computer” and “Cash Drawer” value under Balance Cash Drawer section.

• Navigate to Config>Cash Drawers and view what stations and cash drawers have been configured.

Note: Just because a drawer has been configured under Cash Drawer configuration, it does not mean it was utilized for the day. Make sure to check the cash drawers under Cash>Balance Drawer to view active cash drawers.

Start Amount

The Start Amount field displays the starting cash amount that was declared in the cash drawer.

This amount is usually selected upon opening a cash drawer. To change the default Starting Amount, a user can navigate to Config>Cash Drawers and select the default starting amount. 

Additionally, it will show you who opened the drawer in the "Opened By:" section. 

Other Users

The Other Users field displays any other employee who has access to the drawer. Will have no users listed if the drawer is not shared with other employees.

No Sales

The No Sales field keeps track on how many times “No Sale” was pressed.

CC Tips, Grats

CC Tips show the total tips earned on credit cards tendered to this drawer. CC Tips can be entered from the Credit Card Detail screen or from within the Order Lookup screen on the cash drawer workstation.

Grats will also be auto generated and display the total amount of gratuities associated with the selected cash drawer.

Total Cash

Total Cash will display the total cumulative cash that was declared to be collected to this drawer.

Ttl Cash is calculated by adding the Totals from Cash+ CC Tips + Grats.

For example, (Totals Cash $138.98) + (CC Tips $415.26) + (Grats $.0.00) = $554.24.

Status

The cash drawer status indicator will display one of three statuses: 

Open: The Open status indicates that the selected drawer is still open and available to take orders.

Closed/Not Balanced: The Closed/Not Balanced status indicates that the selected drawer has been closed (can no longer be used to take orders). It also indicates that the drawer has not been properly reconciled/balanced.

Closed/Balanced: The Closed/Balanced status indicates that the selected drawer has been closed (can no longer be used to take orders). It also indicates that the drawer should have been properly balanced/reconciled.

Additional Information

Always make sure to close any open orders associated with a cash drawer before closing and balancing. If the system detects an open order, it will trigger a warning message.

Actuals

The Actuals section should display how money the selected cash drawer currently has. By default, the Actuals section will be set to $0.00 until closing the drawer. After closing the drawer, you will receive the option to balance the drawer (by hitting close>detail>and reconciling). 

Req. Validation: If an employee’s security access requires validation, the Detail screen must be used to enter actual funds for the cash drawer. An actual amount cannot be entered from the Summary screen.

NOTE: Employee Security changes should be approved by the owner. 

Cash

The Actuals section is broken down into five subcategories. The Cash subcategory should be used to record how much money (physical cash) a drawer has while balancing. The cash field will NOT be autogenerated. The person reconciling must manually enter an amount.

So, what exactly should be taken into account in the cash field?

The most common items associated with the cash field are cash orders. Orders conducted via a cash transaction should be recorded in the cash section.

Gratuities paid by cash should be accounted for in the cash field.

Checks

The next field is classified as “checks”. This section will take account transactions associated with checks, or custom created payment types.

The values in this section should get populated after you reconcile using Detail>Checks>Select all the orders.

Make sure you are reconciling from the Detail screen (Selecting each transaction) and not entering the amount manually (keypad).

Credit

The Credit field will be used to display the actual amount associated with Credit Cards/reconcile credit card transactions.

The values in this section should get populated after you reconcile using Detail>Credit>Selecting all the orders.

Also here, make sure you are reconciling from the Detail screen and not manually entering an amount on the summary screen.

Gift

The Gift section is used to reconcile/enter the actuals amount for transactions conducted with gift cards.

The values in this section should get populated after you reconcile using Detail>Gift>Selecting all the orders.

Make sure you are reconciling from the Detail screen and not entering the amount manually from the Summary screen.

Account

The Account section is used to reconcile/enter the actuals amount from transactions conducted with Accounts.

The values in this section should get populated after you reconcile using Detail>Account>selecting all the orders.

Make sure you are reconciling from the Detail screen and not entering the amount manually from the Summary screen.

Total

The total section adds up all the current values recorded under actuals. This field will auto populate and can change, depending on the values you have recorded under actuals.

As you can see in the image, there is an actuals total amount of $2,210.07. This is composed of Cash $0.00 + Checks $0.00 + Credit $2,210.07 + Gift $0.00 + Account $0.00 = $2,210.07.

Totals

The Totals section is auto generated by the POS system. The amount displayed here is how much revenue the POS system is expecting to get reconciled when closing the drawer.

It is composed of all the monetary transactions recorded for the drawer. As employees conduct sales/transactions, the POS system keeps track of the total amount due.

When closing the drawer, employees will use the Totals section to reconcile their drawers. In theory, the employee should at least have the same amount of money as the Totals.

The Total section below just adds up all the totals together.

Ex.: Cash $138.98 + Checks $0.00 + Credit $2,210.07 + Gift $0.00 + Account $0.00 = $2,349.05.

Over/Short

The Over/Short calculates if there are any shortages or overages present on the drawer. It does this by taking into account all the different payment types and subtracting the actuals amount with that of the Totals.

Ex.: Cash Actuals $0.00 - Cash Totals $138.98 = Over/Short -$138.98.

The Totals section below it just subtracts all the over/shorts together.

Ex.: Cash Over/short -$138.98 - Checks/Credit/Gift/Account Over/Short $0.00 = Over/Short -$138.98

Drops

Any Drops conducted to the drawer will get recorded in the “drops” field.

Drops/Dropping in the act of taking cash and transferring it to another cash drawer or a safe. Drops are usually conducted when an employee has a large sum of money either on them or in their cash drawer. For safety reasons, the employee will transfer this money from their cash drawer to a safe.

Click on the three dots next to the drops field will bring up a window displaying any recorded drops.

NOTE: Drops should ONLY be cash.   

Paid Outs/Ins

Any Paid Outs/Ins conducted to the drawer will get recorded in the “PaidOuts” and “PaidIns” fields.

Paid ins and paid outs are used to track non-sales transactions when cash enters or leaves the cash drawer.

Paid Out example: Fifty dollars is removed to purchase supplies. I.e. Manager sends an employee to the store to buy more tomatoes and flour for the restaurant.

Paid In example: $20 Driver Bank is returned to the drawer after a driver’s shift is over.

Clicking on the three dots next to the PaidOut/Paid-Ins field will bring up a window displaying any recorded Paid-In/Outs.

Grand Total

The Grand Total Sums display the same (Totals) amount calculated alongside the Over/Short Total calculated.

Blind Reconcile:

If the employee is unable to see the cash totals, it is most likely because the owner has enabled Blind Reconcile - therefore all the employee can do is add in what their actuals are. 

They will not be able to know if the drawer is exact, over or short. This helps to prevent theft as the employee can't cheat the system if they have no idea what the actuals amounts are. 

• The Owner would need to disable Blind Reconcile in the employee's security or if the employee has the necessary securities to disable blind reconcile themselves. Have them login and attempt to access the employee security section. Mgmt>Employee>Edit>Security. 

• If they do not have the required security to access that section, we can not assist. Tell the employee to consult a member of their management team that can disable that blind reconcile. 

 

Learn about Employee Cash Drawers here