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Cash drawer & shifts

Open a float, track cash movements and close out with a Z-report.

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The cash drawer keeps your till accountable. A shift starts with an opening float, records every cash movement during service, and ends with a reconciled close-out.

The shift lifecycle

  1. 1On the POS, open the ≡ menu › Cash drawer. With no shift open it says Open a shift: count the cash, enter the Opening float and press Open shift.
  2. 2Cash sales, refunds and every movement are tracked as they happen.
  3. 3Expected in drawer shows what the till should hold right now; View X-Report prints a mid-shift read without closing anything.
  4. 4Press Close shift, count all the cash (float included), decide what stays for the next shift, and the drawer tells you it’s balanced, over or short.

One shift per branch — open it from anywhere

  • A shift belongs to the branch, not to one device: open it on any POS — the main terminal, a tablet, or the web POS at home before you get there — and every till uses it.
  • The main terminal picks it up as soon as it’s online (about 20 seconds after it’s switched on). If someone presses Open shift there first, it takes yours and says A shift is already open instead of opening a second drawer. Without internet it can’t know, so let it connect first.
  • An opening float entered from home isn’t a count: if the drawer turns out different, record the difference with Cash in or Cash out.

Every movement the drawer records

  • Opening float — the counted cash you start with.
  • Cash sales — added automatically as cash payments settle; cash refunds come off.
  • Cash in (top up change), Cash out (cash for the house), Payout (pay a supplier) and Drop (move to the safe) — each with a reason and the staff member attached.
  • Close count & variance — you count the drawer; Menulisa compares it to expected and shows the difference (“balanced” when it’s zero).
  • The Z-report — the shift summary: sales by tender, tips, service charge, movements and variance; printable, exportable as CSV, and kept under Z-Report history on the drawer screen.

When the drawer opens by itself

  • The drawer is kicked by a receipt printer that has Cash drawer on this printer switched on (POS › Printing).
  • It opens only for payment methods set to Open the cash drawer (POS › Settings › Payment methods). By default it opens Only when a receipt prints for a payment just taken — the automatic receipt, or the first Print receipt on the Check settled screen. Reprints never open it, and no receipt means no drawer. Set it to Never under POS › Printing › Receipts & labels › Open the cash drawer.
TipSensitive actions like the drawer, voids and discounts can be protected by a staff PIN, so every movement is attributed to a person.

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Cash drawer & shifts · Menulisa