# Cash Handling Procedures for Registers and Tills

- Author: PreciseBankFlow (https://www.precisebankflow.com)
- Published: 2025-03-20
- Updated: 2025-03-20
- Category: Internal controls over cash
- Canonical: https://www.precisebankflow.com/blog/cash-handling-procedures

> Cash handling procedures for registers and tills: opening floats, drops, voids, end-of-shift counts and the deposit trail that ties to the bank.
Cash handling procedures give every register shift one sequence: count and sign for a fixed opening float, move excess cash to a drop safe during trading, get a second person to approve voids and refunds, count the till against the register report at close, and send a deposit that can be traced to one line on the bank statement.

## Opening the till: float count and cash handling sign-in

A till opens with a float, a fixed amount of change such as 200.00 in small notes and coins. The cashier counts it with the manager before trading starts and both sign that it is correct. From that moment, the cashier is responsible for the drawer, and any later difference is measured from that agreed starting point.

Each till should have one cashier per shift. When two people share a drawer, a shortage at close cannot be traced to either of them, and both know it. If the business is too busy for that, give each cashier a separate cash tray or a separate register login, and count each tray separately at close.

The opening record is short:

- **Till or register number.**
- **Date, shift and cashier name.**
- **Float amount by denomination**, for example ten 10.00 notes, twenty 5.00 notes and coins.
- **Signatures of the cashier and the manager who issued it.**

Floats come out of a safe and go back into it. Keep the float amount the same every day so that any change in it stands out. Count the safe's total, including all floats not in use, at least weekly and whenever the person holding the safe combination changes.

## Cash drops during the shift and the drop safe

A cash drop moves excess notes out of a till during the shift and into a locked drop safe, so the drawer never holds more cash than it needs. It limits what a robber, a careless cashier or a dishonest one can take, and it makes the end-of-shift count smaller and quicker.

Set a drop threshold, such as any time the drawer holds more than a set amount in large notes. The amount is a judgment based on trading volume and risk. Each drop follows the same steps:

1. The cashier counts the notes being removed, in view of a camera or a second staff member.
2. The cashier fills in a drop slip with the till number, time, amount and their initials.
3. The cash and slip go into a sealed bag or envelope, which goes straight into the drop safe through its slot.
4. The register records the drop as a pickup, so the system knows the cash has left the drawer.

The cashier cannot open the drop safe. Only the manager or the person who prepares the deposit can, and ideally two people open it together. That separation is what makes the drop meaningful: once cash is in the safe, the cashier can no longer reach it, and the manager has the drop slip as a record of what should be there.

## Who may approve voids, refunds and no-sale openings?

Voids, refunds and no-sale openings should need a manager's approval, entered with the manager's own code or key at the register. These three events are the main ways a cashier can take cash and make the register's total agree with the drawer, so a second person must see each one as it happens.

How each event can hide theft:

- **Void.** A sale is rung up, the customer pays cash, then the cashier voids the sale after the customer leaves and keeps the money. The register now expects less cash.
- **Refund.** A fake refund is processed to a customer who does not exist, and the cashier takes the refund amount from the drawer.
- **No-sale opening.** The drawer is opened without a sale, which is how cash is taken from a customer who did not want a receipt.

### Rules that keep these events visible

- **Manager code required** for every void after the sale is complete, every refund and every no-sale.
- **Refunds need the original receipt** or a lookup of the original sale, and the customer's name and contact on the refund slip.
- **The manager does not approve their own sales.**
- **A daily exception report** lists voids, refunds and no-sales by cashier and by approving manager.

Review the exception report weekly. Look for a cashier with far more voids than the others, refunds just after a shift opens or just before it closes, and repeated approvals from one manager for one cashier. Patterns matter more than single events.

## End-of-shift till count and the over or short report

The end-of-shift count compares the cash in the drawer with what the register says should be there. The cashier and a manager count together, by denomination, and record the result on a count sheet. Any difference between counted and expected cash is entered as over or short, signed by both, and never adjusted to zero.

### An example end-of-shift count sheet

All figures below are examples.

| Line | Amount |
| --- | --- |
| Opening float | 200.00 |
| Cash sales per register report | 1,845.60 |
| Cash refunds per register report | (42.00) |
| Cash drops during shift (three drop slips) | (1,300.00) |
| **Expected cash in drawer** | **703.60** |
| Counted cash in drawer | 698.60 |
| **Over (short)** | **(5.00)** |
| Float retained for next shift | 200.00 |
| Cash to deposit bag | 498.60 |

The drawer is 5.00 short. The cashier and manager both sign. The sheet notes the shortage. The 5.00 is not taken out of the float or made up from a tip jar, because doing so would hide the record of the shortage.

### Counting rules

- **Count away from customers**, in a back office with the door closed.
- **Count by denomination**, multiply and add. A loose pile counted once by eye is not a count.
- **Record card and other payments separately.** Only cash goes on the cash line.
- **Remove the float first**, then count what remains for the deposit.
- **Never let the cashier count alone** or take the register report before counting.

Small differences happen. Cashiers give wrong change. What the procedure must do is record each difference so that patterns become visible over weeks.

## From till count to bank deposit: the cash handling trail

The cash handling trail links each till count and drop slip to a deposit bag, and each deposit bag to one deposit line on the bank statement. Anyone checking the trail should be able to start from a bank deposit and work back to the shifts and cashiers it came from, or start from a shift and find its deposit.

Build the trail with these records:

1. **Count sheets** for every till and shift, signed by cashier and manager.
2. **Drop slips** retrieved from the drop safe and agreed to the register's pickup records.
3. **A daily deposit summary**, prepared by someone other than the cashiers, totalling all count sheets and drops for the day.
4. **A deposit slip** for the total, with a numbered tamper-evident bag if cash goes by courier or night safe.
5. **The bank's deposit receipt** or courier receipt, kept with the summary.
6. **The bank statement deposit line**, matched to the summary by date and amount.

### Where the trail breaks

- **Deposits made every few days** combine several days into one bank line, which hides a missing day. Deposit daily where volume allows.
- **Cash used for expenses before it is deposited.** Paying a supplier from the till means the deposit no longer equals sales. Pay expenses from petty cash or by bank.
- **Bank adjustments.** A bank that counts the deposit and finds a different total will post an adjustment. Match each one to the deposit it relates to and ask the person who sealed the bag.
- **Accounts nobody watches.** A business with several locations may have a separate deposit account for each. Keeping a [bank account inventory that lists every account you own](/blog/bank-account-inventory) makes sure each store's deposit account is in the reconciliation.

Matching daily summaries to deposit lines is repetitive work across a month of statements. PreciseBankFlow reads each deposit from the bank statement PDF and matches it to your records, listing deposits that do not tie on an exception report. The [sample reconciliation report for audit workpapers](/blog/reconciliation-report-sample) shows what such a report should contain. Request access through [Get started](/get-started).

## What should happen when a cashier is short again and again?

When the same cashier is short again and again, the pattern itself is the finding, even if each shortage is small. Look at it in the records first: shift times, voids and refunds, and who else was present. Then talk to the cashier about what the records show, without assuming theft.

### Reading the pattern

Keep an over and short log by cashier for each week. Compare cashiers who work similar shifts. A useful check is whether shortages:

- appear on the same days or when the same manager is on duty;
- follow a high number of voids or no-sales on the same shift;
- are close to round amounts, such as 10.00 or 20.00, which suggests notes removed rather than wrong change;
- stop when the cashier is moved to another till or another shift.

Occasional overs also matter. A cashier who is regularly over may be short-changing customers, or ringing sales short and pocketing the difference only some of the time.

### Following up

Retrain first if the pattern looks like errors, such as overs and shorts mixed with similar amounts. If shortages are consistent and one-directional, involve the owner, and move the cashier to supervised shifts while you look further. Document each conversation and keep the count sheets.

Cashiers who never take time off can also keep a scheme hidden, for example by ringing their own corrections the next day. A rule that every cash handler takes consecutive days away, with someone else running their till, is explained in [mandatory vacation policy: a fraud control that works](/blog/mandatory-vacation-policy-fraud).