Count the drawer in five minutes, every night.

Why count at all

Most businesses count the money at night. Fewer know what they’re counting it against. A pile of notes on its own tells you how much you have, not whether it’s right. A count becomes useful the moment there’s a number to compare it with: what the drawer should hold.

Before you count

• Know your float. Write down how much change went into the drawer at the start of the day. Always the same amount is easiest.
• Know your cash sales. From your daily record or your till. Cash only: MoMo and card never go in the drawer.
• Know what left the drawer. Money paid to a supplier, a staff advance, a run to the market for tomatoes. Each one should be written down with what it was for. If it isn’t, it will read as missing money.

Counting, note by note

Take the drawer somewhere quiet, away from the counter and the customers. Then use the sheet above:

1. Sort the notes and coins by value, largest first.
2. Count each pile and type or write how many. The sheet multiplies it out for you.
3. Read the total in the drawer.
4. Type what the drawer should hold: the float, plus cash sales, minus money paid out, plus money paid in.
5. The sheet tells you: right on, short or over, and by how much.

Count the same way every night, in the same order. It’s faster, and a habit is harder to get wrong.

What the numbers mean

Right on. Good. Write it down anyway; a run of right-on days is worth knowing about.

Short by a little. Change given wrong in a rush, or a coin in the wrong pile. Worth noting, not worth a meeting. Watch whether it happens every day.

Short by a round number. ₵20, ₵50. That’s usually a note: given as change for a smaller one, paid out and not written down, or a sale taken as MoMo but rung as cash.

Over. Money came in that wasn’t rung up, or change was short-changed to a customer. Over is not good news; it means something happened that the record didn’t see.

When it’s short

Do it the same night, while everybody still remembers the day, and do it calmly. Look for the dull explanations first:

• a sale rung up twice, or rung as cash when it was MoMo;
• money paid out without a note;
• change given from the wrong note in a rush;
• a sale on credit that was taken as cash.

If you can’t find it, write the difference down against the date and whoever had the drawer, and move on. One short night is noise. The same drawer short three Fridays running is a pattern, and a pattern is worth a conversation. When the drawer is short goes through finding the hole without accusing anybody.

Habits that keep it honest

• Count with two people when you can: the one closing, and one other.
• Keep the float separate and the same every day.
• Never lend from the drawer. If it happens, write it down as money paid out.
• Keep the owner’s money out of the drawer, and the drawer’s money out of the owner’s pocket until it’s counted.

Letting the till do the sums

A till knows the one number this sheet asks you to work out: what should be there. In Tabworthy, on Pro, a shift opens with a float and closes with a count; you type the total, and the drawer’s expected figure already allows for every cash sale and every pay-out. Short or over shows at once, against the name of whoever had the drawer. Closing up shows how.