Cash Drawer Management

Managing Cash Drawers (Cash Registers)

Summary: This article covers how to manage cash drawers. This includes, how to open a drawer, close a drawer, perform drawer functions and understand cash drawer reporting.

What is a "cash drawer"?

There are two contexts to understand a cash drawer. It can be a physical drawer where cash bills are placed but it is also the "virtual drawer"; the cash balance tracked by the POS system in the course of business.

Drawer Types

There are 4 drawer types a POS tablet can be configured for. Drawer types are set by Rezku Support when creating our back-end template for the tablets in your restaurant.

The 4 drawer types are:

None -- No cash drawer on the POS. Cash transactions are disabled.

Register -- A typical cash register setup where the cash transactions rung up at this station will be placed in a secure physical drawer attached to the POS.

User -- A virtual drawer only, that follows the user's login. This is used for servers who keep cash in their pockets and use mobile handheld tablets or server stations without cash drawers.

Bar -- A hardware/software solution with one POS tablet and 2 cash drawers. An A drawer and a B drawer that are assigned to a specific user. User A deposits all of their cash in Drawer A and User B deposits all of their cash into Drawer B. NOTE: Bar drawer hardware must be special ordered from Rezku.

Cash Register Drawer Management

When the POS station is configured for drawer type: Register.

Open the Drawer

First, the cash drawer must be opened on the POS. This starts the "virtual drawer" and tracking of the cash balance in the drawer.

• Tap the Open Drawer Button

The cash drawer starting amount is the money the drawer starts with for making change. On the Audit Screen you can either enter the cash tender in the drawer or tap "Other" and enter the total drawer balance.

• Use the keypad to enter the initial drawer balance.
• Next takes you to the next bill-size when entering the number of bills.
• C clears the input field if you make a mistake (there is no backspace)
• Tap Submit to start the drawer with this amount.

You can now use the POS to enter orders and complete transactions. Cash transactions will increase the expected cash drawer balance. Any refunds will decrease the cash drawer balance.

The drawer is now "Open".

Manage the Cash Drawer

There are additional drawer controls under the Management Button to manage the drawer.

• Tap the Management Button (icon that looks like a bar graph), located in the top left of the screen.

On the Management Screen, in the section labeled "Cash Drawers", we have the Cash Drawer Type section.

Cash Drawer Type -- Lists one of the 4 types of cash drawer using slightly different nomenclature. 

None -- None register type

Default -- Register drawer type

Server -- User drawer type

Bar -- Bar drawer type

In the section labeled Cash Drawer we have the drawer management buttons.

No Sale -- Pops open a physical cash drawer and displays the current user's name on the screen

Bank Drop -- Specify an amount of cash to be removed from the drawer and placed in the safe

Pay In -- Specify an amount of cash to be added to the drawer (example: Adding a roll of quarters for change)

Pay Out -- Specify an amount of Cash to be removed from the drawer (example: Paying for a delivery)

Audit -- Brings up the audit screen to perform an audit. Count the cash in the drawer and compare it to the system-tracked expected value. Audit does not close the drawer.

Close -- Brings up the Audit screen to perform a final count of the drawer. When the drawer is closed a new drawer must be reopened and the cash data is reset.

To perform a Pay In or Pay Out:

• Tap the Pay In or Pay Out button
• Enter the reason for the Pay In or Pay Out
• Enter the Amount of the Pay In or Pay Out

The drawer balance adjusts based on the amount entered.

The Audit Screen

When performing an Audit or Close, you must count the cash physically in the drawer and enter it here.

The expected value is what the system believes should be in the drawer based on the transactions and drawer activity. If there is any difference between the expected value and what is actually in the drawer, this is a discrepancy. A discrepancy can be a positive or negative amount.

• Tap the submit button to submit the audit.
  • The cash drawer balance expected value updates to the audited amount
  • If there was a discrepancy in the audit, it will be recorded as an adjustment.

Drawer Reports

When you close the drawer it asks to print or skip printing 2 reports from the receipt printer connected to the POS.

Drawer Summary -- A log of all the activity on the drawer including total cash sales, cash refunds, pay ins, pay outs and adjustments.

Day Summary -- An end-of-day report with all of the restaurant's sales and transactions data, not just for cash transactions. The Day Summary can also be reprinted under POS > Management > Dashboards

There are 2 drawer reports in Back Office:

Cash Drawer Summary -- Shows the day and time the drawer was opened, the start and ending balance and the total cash activity for the drawer.

Cash Drawer Activity -- Shows the day, time and user for every cash drawer activity performed on the system including cash sales, pay ins, pay outs audits and adjustments.