Count the drawer, and home

Half past nine at night. The shutter at Perera Stores (a sample grocery) is half down, the last customer has taken her bread, and Nimal wants to go home. It has been a busy day: the bread supplier paid in cash at eleven, Kumari paying off part of her account in the afternoon, credit given to Kamala and a few others, and the usual stream of cash sales. Does the drawer add up?

This tour shows the close on the counter phone, from the count to the message he sends before he locks up.

What goes into the night's sum?

Every cash movement of the day, recorded as it happened. Nimal does not add anything at night; he only counts.

Step by step

1. Choose close the till from the day menu. The till bar has carried the day since morning. Its menu now offers the last item on the list: close the till.
2. Count the drawer and type it. Nimal counts notes and coins and types Rs 44,350. It goes at the top of the summary under You counted.
3. Read what should be there. Under the count, the summary lists Started with, Cash sales, Collected on credit and Paid out of the drawer, then the total line, Should be in the drawer: Rs 44,400.
4. Read the difference in words. A label says Short Rs 50. No arithmetic, no misreading. Fifty rupees on a day of more than forty thousand in cash is a coin given as change twice, and Nimal treats it that way.
5. See the day already in the sum. Kumari's afternoon payment is inside Collected on credit. The bread supplier's Rs 4,800 is inside Paid out of the drawer. Because both were recorded at the time, the drawer is only Rs 50 out instead of thousands.
6. Check credit given and sales. Two figures sit side by side: Credit given today Rs 3,250, and Sales today Rs 41,700. Together they tell him how much of the day's trade is cash in hand and how much he is still waiting for.
7. Look at who has owed longest. The summary closes with the longest-owing customers and how many days: Kumari at 24 days and Sunil at 19. These are tomorrow's conversations.
8. Share the summary on WhatsApp. At 21:35 Nimal taps Share the summary on WhatsApp and sends the day to a family member who helps with the accounts. The till is shut for the night.

Why record during the day instead of at night?

Because memory at half past nine is not reliable. If Nimal had not recorded the bread money at eleven, he would now be looking at a Rs 4,850 short and trying to remember what happened twelve hours ago. Recording each cash movement at the moment it happens means the close is just a count, and a difference that does appear is small enough to explain.

What do the credit figures tell an owner?

They show how much of the business runs on trust. In the sample, Rs 3,250 of credit was given today and Rs 6,100 was collected, so more came in than went out. That is a good day for the credit book. If credit given is larger than credit collected day after day, the amount owed to the shop is growing, and that cash is not available to pay suppliers. The cash flow guide shows how to keep an eye on it over a month.

What if the drawer is over, not short?

An over is just as worth a second look. It usually means a sale was rung up as credit but paid in cash, a payment was dropped in the drawer without Got paid, or change was short-given to a customer who did not notice. The first two leave a customer's balance wrong, so check the credit book before going home. If a regular paid cash and it was not recorded, record Got paid now; the over disappears and her account is right for the morning. An over that cannot be explained is noted like a short, not pocketed, so the record stays honest.

Tips for the night close

• Count away from the counter. Close the shutter halfway and count where customers cannot see the cash.
• Count twice if it is out. Before accepting a short, count again. Most differences disappear on the second count.
• Leave the same starting cash every night. It makes tomorrow's opening a single tap.
• Send the summary even on good days. A message every night builds a record anyone in the family can look back on.

Common mistakes

• Taking cash for home before counting. Count first, then take out what you are banking or taking home.
• Ignoring a pattern of small shorts. Rs 50 once is nothing. Rs 50 every day is Rs 1,500 a month.
• Adding forgotten payouts to the count. If you paid something earlier and did not record it, record a cash out now rather than fiddling with the count.
• Not reading who owes longest. It is the shortest list on the screen and the one most likely to cost money if ignored.

What to do next

Tomorrow begins where tonight ends: with the starting cash. Open the till at half past six shows last night's figure filled in. For the customers on tonight's owing list, a polite reminder, and the money comes in shows how to chase them kindly.

The step-by-step method behind any cash up, with overs, shorts and floats, is in the end-of-day cash up guide.