End-of-Day Close: Cash Reconciliation and Till Counting
A step-by-step guide to closing your till at end of day in AskBiz POS — counting cash, reconciling card totals, identifying discrepancies, and producing a closing summary for your records.
Key Takeaways
- Always count your physical cash before looking at the POS expected total — avoids anchoring bias and gives a true reconciliation.
- AskBiz POS shows expected cash (float + cash sales − cash refunds) so you can instantly see if you're over or under.
- Any discrepancy is logged in the Audit tab with the cashier's name, date, and amount — giving you a full accountability trail.
- The closing report (exported as CSV or viewed in Reports) gives you the day's Revenue, Cash, Card, Refunds, and Net total in one place.
Why end-of-day reconciliation matters
Reconciling your till at the end of every trading day is one of the most important controls in any retail or hospitality business. It catches cash discrepancies before they accumulate, deters internal theft, and gives you an accurate day's-end picture of your revenue split across cash and card. Without a daily close, small discrepancies compound — a £5 shortage every day is £1,825 a year. AskBiz POS makes the process quick: the system already knows every transaction, so reconciliation is a matter of counting your physical cash and comparing it against what the system expects.
Step 1 — Count your physical cash first
Before opening AskBiz's close-till screen, physically count the cash in the drawer. Count by denomination: £50 notes, £20 notes, £10 notes, £5 notes, £2 coins, £1 coins, and so on down to pennies. Record your count on a till-count sheet (a simple paper sheet or a note in your phone). The total is your Physical Cash Total. Counting before seeing the system's expected total is important — it prevents unconscious anchoring where you count to match a number you already know, which defeats the purpose of reconciliation.
Step 2 — Open the Close Till screen in AskBiz
In AskBiz POS, click Open till in the Overview header, then select Close till (if the till is already open and you're ending the session). Alternatively, go to Operations > Till Management > Close Session. The Close Till screen shows: Opening Float (the cash you started with), Cash Sales (total cash transactions during the session), Cash Refunds (cash returned to customers), and Expected Cash (Float + Cash Sales − Cash Refunds). This is the amount the drawer should contain. Compare this figure to your Physical Cash Total from Step 1.
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Start for free →Step 3 — Record and explain any discrepancy
If your Physical Cash Total matches Expected Cash exactly — great, no discrepancy. If they differ, the Close Till screen has a Discrepancy field where you enter the difference (positive if over, negative if short) and a Notes field for the reason. Common explanations include: incorrect change given to a customer, a voided sale that wasn't recorded, a petty cash payment made from the drawer, or genuine counting error. The discrepancy and your note are saved automatically to the Audit log under the cashier's name. Managers can review all discrepancies in the Audit tab without needing to be present at close.
Step 4 — Set tomorrow's float and print the closing report
After confirming the discrepancy (or zero discrepancy), AskBiz asks you to set the Opening Float for the next session — typically £50 to £200 depending on your expected cash volume the following day. Remove any cash above the float from the drawer and secure it in the safe. Then click Close Session. AskBiz generates a Closing Summary showing: total Revenue for the session, Cash total, Card total, Refunds total, Discrepancy (if any), and the next Opening Float. This summary is stored in Reports > Sessions and can be exported as a CSV. Share it with your bookkeeper or accountant as your daily record.
Reviewing patterns across multiple days
Individual day reconciliation is the control. Pattern review is the intelligence. In AskBiz Reports > Sessions, you can view all closed sessions sorted by date, cashier, or branch. If one cashier consistently has small shortages, it's worth investigating — it may be a training issue (incorrect change calculation) or something more serious. If one branch consistently has higher card-to-cash ratios than another, that may reflect the customer demographic or a cashier preference for card-only transactions. Weekly and monthly pattern reviews turn your end-of-day reconciliation from a compliance task into a genuine business insight tool.