Cashier balancing
Cashier balancing is a process usually conducted in businesses such as grocery stores, restaurants and banks that takes place at the closing of the business day or at the end of a cashier's shift. This balancing process makes the cashier responsible for the money in their cash register.
The Balancing Process
Note that the balancing procedure may vary drastically from store to store; however, the closing contents of the cash drawer must match (within a certain allowed variance) the number expected on the X-report or Z-report, or "Cashier Closeoff" or "Signoff Report" generated by the cash register. Deposit rules will vary; most modern retailers will deposit only larger bills and not deposit smaller bills or coins but will leave them in the cash drawer to be used as change. In many retailers, the "starting amount" or "float" will fluctuate from shift to shift depending on the number of coins or small bills left in the till. In some retail establishments, credit or debit chits will be added like cash to the total contents of the cash drawer. However, the following applies as a general principle.
In order to balance (or settle) the cash drawer, first, the manager (or sometimes the cashier) prepares to count the money in the register. Counting the money is usually done in the back office: the
Deposits During Shift
Depending on the store's policies and procedures, "drops" or "pickups" or "deposits" may happen in mid-shift if the Cashier or the Manager sees there is too much cash in the cashier's drawer. This is to limit the risk of a robbery and to make the store a less desirable target.
Cash Back on debit transactions is a similar concept to a deposit as the cash in the drawer is replaced by money directly placed into the store's bank account and offers the customer the advantage of not having to make a separate transaction at an ATM. In this way, Cash Back is generally beneficial to both the customer and the retailer, and offers the customer the ability request change or other denominations not generally available from ATMs.
Some
Cashier Accountability
Now, the bills and change that were put off to the side get counted, along with the checks from the cashier's drawer. This is what makes up the cashier's sales deposit. Most cash registers can print up a sales slip and money tendering slip that tells how much money the cashier made in sales and how much money the cashier is accounted for. The manager refers to this slip when counting the cashier's sales money. If the money counted does not match what is on the balancing slip, the cashier may be over or short (in cash). Whenever a discrepancy such as overages or shortages occur, the money is usually counted again to ensure that the amount is correct. The over/short can always be calculated by subtracting the amount of money in the drawer (exclude the "starting amount") from the amount printed on the cashier tendering slip, or balancing slip.
Depending on the amount of over/short and circumstances involved, disciplinary actions may vary. Cashiers often lose their jobs to cash overages/shortages, either for repeated violations or for large overages or shortages. In most establishments, termination on the first offense is usually for $100.00 over/short or more, and can result in criminal charges against the cashier.[citation needed]
Shortages usually result from bills sticking together or from the cashier giving back too much change, or maybe even "pocketing" some money from the register.
Overages occur from taking too much money from customers, not entering the tender correctly other otherwise issuing incorrect change, or not entering items in the point of sale terminal properly.
Honesty and accuracy are paramount.
Over/Short
Cash overages/shortages are usually expressed in several ways. This example shows how it is expressed in writing and how a register printout would show them.
Overage $12.34: is written as +12.34; is printed out as: $12.34 or +$12.34.
Shortage $12.34 is written as: -12.34; is printed out as: ($12.34) or -$12.34.