Open the till at half past six

The bread van pulls up outside at half past six. Nimal, who runs Perera Stores (a sample grocery at 27 Temple Road), still has the shutter half up and a queue forming behind the bread man: school children wanting sweets, a three-wheel driver wanting tea leaves, a neighbour who needs eggs before work. There is no time for menus. He needs the till open and taking money in under a minute.

This tour covers the first stop of a small grocery's day: getting from a locked phone to a working till, with the cash in the drawer set right so the evening count makes sense.

What happens when the owner signs in?

The phone goes straight to the till. Nimal sells from one counter with one phone, so EasyTaskr skips the dashboard and puts the first job in front of him: confirming how much cash is in the drawer.

The opening screen is plain on purpose:

Step by step

1. Sign in on the counter phone. Nimal signs in on the shop phone. Instead of a page of charts, he lands on Start the day. Every tap saved before six forty matters.
2. Read the amount already filled in. The big figure says Rs 5,000. Underneath, a smaller line says Left in the drawer at last close: Rs 5,000. That is the change he left in the drawer last night when he closed up.
3. Glance at the drawer. He opens the drawer and looks: the five-hundred and hundred-rupee notes and the coins he bundled last night are there. If someone had borrowed a thousand for the gas cylinder, this is the moment to notice.
4. Fix the figure if it is different. If the drawer holds Rs 4,000, he types 4000 on the keypad. The evening sums start from what was really there, not from what should have been.
5. Tap Open the till. One tap and the till is open. The first customer is served while the bread is still warm.
6. On a mad morning, open without counting. Some days the van is late and the queue is long. The line under the button reads: Not sure? Open without counting. The day summary will say so. Nimal can use it, and tonight's summary will state that the start was not counted instead of pretending to know whether the drawer is over or short.
7. Check the till bar at the top. Once open, a bar across the top of the till reads Till open since 06:30. It stays there all day, so Nimal or anyone helping at the counter knows the day has started properly.
8. Find the day menu. At the right of that bar, The day opens the menu for everything that happens around sales: got paid, cash out and close the till. These come up again later in the day, when a supplier wants paying or a regular settles her account.

Why does the starting cash matter so much?

Everything at night is measured from it. The evening count works out what should be in the drawer as starting cash, plus cash sales, plus money collected from credit customers, minus anything paid out. If the start is Rs 1,000 too high, the drawer looks Rs 1,000 short at night, and Nimal spends half an hour hunting for money that was never there.

Filling it in from last night's close takes the guesswork out. Most mornings the figure is right and the owner just confirms it. On the mornings it is not, the keypad is right there.

What does "open without counting" actually change?

Only the evening summary. Sales, credit, cash out and got paid all work the same way on an uncounted day. The difference is at close: the summary still shows what came in and went out, but it tells Nimal plainly that the start was not counted. That matters because a made-up starting figure would produce a made-up over or short, and he might blame a helper for a gap that came from his own guess at 06:30.

Tips for opening a grocery

• Leave the same amount every night. If Rs 5,000 stays in the drawer every evening, the morning figure is always the same and any change stands out at a glance.
• Keep small notes for change. The first hour brings children with hundred-rupee notes for a Rs 50 sweet and workers buying a loaf for Rs 160. Make sure the opening cash includes enough coins and small notes.
• Use "without counting" rarely. It is honest, but a week of uncounted starts means a week of evenings where you cannot tell if money went missing.
• Let helpers open the same way. If a son or a helper opens on a day you are at the wholesale market, they see the same screen and the same figure.

Common mistakes

• Taking cash out before opening and not recording it. Paying the bread man from the drawer before the till is open makes the morning figure wrong. Open first, then use cash out from the day menu.
• Typing the night's takings as the starting cash. The starting cash is only what stays in for change, not everything that was in the drawer before you banked.
• Counting in a hurry with customers waiting. If you cannot count properly, say so with open without counting rather than typing a guess that looks like a real count.
• Ignoring a different figure. If the drawer does not match last night, find out why that morning, while people still remember.

What to do next

With the till open, the next stop is the rush. The morning rush: tap, tap, done shows quick keys for bread, eggs and tea and how a sale goes on credit. Later, count the drawer, and home shows how this morning's Rs 5,000 feeds the night's count.

For the counting method itself, the end-of-day cash up guide explains floats, overs and shorts. If you are still choosing a till, how to choose a POS system lists what a small shop really needs.