Daily cash closing at a medical store, counting the drawer and finding shortages

The last job of a long day at the counter is also the easiest one to rush: counting the cash. A proper routine for cash closing for pharmacy counters takes a few minutes and tells you whether the day's money is all there, and if not, where it went. The trick is to close every single day, while everyone still remembers what happened.

Start with a fixed opening float

A float is the change you keep in the drawer at the start of the day, so the first customer with a Rs 1,000 note can be served. Keep it the same every day, for example Rs 3,000 in Rs 10, 20, 50 and 100 notes, so you always know what should stay behind.

Count the float before the first bill, with the person who will run the drawer. At closing, everything above the float is the day's takings and goes to the safe or the bank.

Record every rupee that moves during the day

The drawer only balances if each cash movement is recorded when it happens, not remembered at night. Cash comes in and goes out in more ways than sales:

Every cash-out item needs an entry the moment the money leaves. A salesman paid while the owner was out, or Rs 200 for tea, is exactly what turns into a mystery at night.

Keep EasyPaisa, JazzCash and card money separate

A wallet or card payment never enters the drawer. If a customer pays Rs 1,250 by JazzCash, the money is in the wallet, so check it against the wallet or bank statement, not the drawer.

The mistake to watch for is a wallet payment billed as cash. The drawer is then expected to hold Rs 1,250 more than it does. Ask the cashier to pick the payment method the customer actually used, every time, and to note the transaction ID.

Count the drawer note by note

At closing, count everything in the drawer, float included. Sort the money into piles by note, count each pile twice and write down the number of each note. It is slower than one quick total, but far easier to recheck.

Here is an example close. The figures are made up. First, what the drawer should hold:

Then what was counted:

The drawer is short by Rs 1,250. Before blaming anyone, check the day's JazzCash and EasyPaisa messages against the cash bills. Here, a Rs 1,250 JazzCash payment had been billed as cash. The money is safe in the wallet; only the record was wrong. Note it at closing and tell the owner or accountant, so the books can be put right.

Short or over, and the usual causes

When expected and counted do not match, recount first. Then work through the likely causes:

• Wallet or card payments billed as cash. Compare wallet messages with the bills marked cash.
• Unrecorded payouts. Tea, a repairman, a rickshaw to the distributor, a salesman paid from the drawer.
• Udhaar billed as cash. A regular customer took medicines on credit, but the bill went through as a cash sale. The drawer is short and the customer's account is missing the debt. Fix both records the same day.
• Voids and refunds. A bill cancelled, or money refunded, by someone else while the cash came out of this drawer.
• Wrong change. Rs 500 handed back instead of Rs 50, or change counted for a Rs 5,000 note when the customer gave Rs 1,000.

An over matters too. It can mean a cash sale that was never billed, change a customer never got, or bills rung up before the session was opened. It is not a bonus; a record is wrong somewhere.

A shift handover routine

When one person hands the counter to another, for example between the day and evening shift, treat it as a small closing:

1. The outgoing person counts the drawer, with the incoming person watching.
2. The count is compared with the expected figure, and any difference is written down.
3. Takings above the float go to the safe, and that move is recorded.
4. The incoming person counts the float and starts their own session with it.
5. Nobody works from someone else's drawer. One person, one drawer, one count.

Step 5 is what makes a shortage traceable. When three people share one drawer all day, a shortage belongs to nobody.

Where the cash book and day book help

A drawer count covers one person's session. The cash book covers all the money you hold, across every shift and day, with a running balance for the counter, the safe, the bank and each wallet. If every drawer balances but the safe does not match the cash book, the gap lies between the counter and the safe.

The day book lists everything posted on one date in the order it happened. An owner who was away can read the whole day in a few minutes and spot the payment nobody mentioned.

How shifts work in MediPOS

A register or generic billing software can total the day's sales. It cannot tell you, cashier by cashier, what should be in each drawer. That is what shifts in MediPOS's pharmacy POS software are for.

A shift is one person's session on the drawer. The cashier opens it from Money → Shifts, or from the POS, by entering the Opening cash. The owner can make shifts compulsory in Settings → POS & receipts, so the POS refuses bills until a shift is open.

While the shift is open, MediPOS builds the expected cash from the float and every movement recorded in it: Cash sales, Sales voided, Refunds to customers, Customer payments, Supplier payments, Expenses, cash put in or taken out, and money transfers. Card, bank, EasyPaisa and JazzCash payments are listed separately under Collected by card, bank & wallet, ready to check against the statements. Cash moved to the safe or handed to the owner goes through Put in / take out cash with a reason. A cost paid from the drawer is recorded as an expense, so it reaches the profit and loss too.

At closing, Count & close takes the count note by note, from Rs 5,000 down to Rs 1, or as one total. The shift closes as Short, Over or Exact, the difference goes to the Cash short / over account in the profit and loss, and a closed shift cannot be reopened. A void, refund or expense counts in the shift of the person who records it, so record them from the login of whoever holds that drawer. Managers can count and close other cashiers' shifts. On the Offline edition, closing a shift also starts a backup on the main PC.

Common questions

How big should the opening float be?

Big enough to give change to the first few customers without going to the safe. Notice which notes run out on a busy morning and keep more of those. Keep the amount the same every day.

Who should count the drawer, the cashier or the owner?

The person responsible for the drawer counts it, and the owner or manager confirms the count, ideally by watching.

The drawer is short by a small amount almost every day. What now?

Treat it as a pattern, not bad luck. Compare shortages by cashier and by day, and look at the voids, discounts and refunds in the same shifts. In MediPOS the Voided bills and Sales by cashier reports show these per staff member.

Do I need a daily close if I am alone at the counter?

Yes. Even alone, a daily close catches wrong change, unrecorded expenses and wallet payments billed as cash while you still remember the day. A session left open into the next day mixes two days' money and makes any gap harder to trace.

Related reading

• Shifts and the cash drawer
• Cash book and day book
• Recording expenses
• Managing udhaar in a pharmacy without losing money or customers