End of day, done properly

The close of day is where a business finds out whether the day's money actually adds up. Done well, it's a five-minute routine that catches problems while they're small. Done badly — or skipped — it's how shortfalls go unnoticed for weeks.

Start with a float you've actually counted

The day begins by opening the register with a known opening float — counted by denomination, recorded, not assumed. Everything you reconcile at the end measures against this starting point, so if it's a guess, your variance is a guess.

Record cash movements as they happen

Through the day, cash leaves and enters the drawer for reasons that aren't sales — a drop to the safe, a pickup, opening for change. Each should be recorded and attributed to the person who did it. Expected cash at close becomes a simple sum: opening float, plus cash sales, minus refunds, minus drops, plus pickups, adjusted for rounding. Skip these and the drawer will never reconcile.

Count blind, then compare

The most useful way to count at close is "blind" — staff enter what's physically there without seeing what the system expects. Only after they commit does the system reveal the expected figure and the variance. That removes the temptation to make the count match, and gives you an honest number. Small variances happen; what matters is a threshold, where anything over it requires a reason before the close completes.

The Z-report: the day's sealed summary

Closing produces a definitive summary — sales, tax, tender breakdown, float, expected versus counted cash, variance. Once done, it's fixed. This is what you keep and what feeds your reporting.

Reconcile cards against settlement

Cash is only half the money. Comparing what the POS thinks went through on cards against what the processor actually settled, per banking day, catches the discrepancies that matter — a payment recorded but never settled, a surcharge not captured, an uncertain outcome that needs chasing.

Why the routine pays off

A proper close tells you today's money is right while you can still remember today, builds a trail you can review when something looks off, and keeps your card takings and settlement in agreement. A few minutes of counting and confirming — the difference between running on facts and running on hope.