Cash at hand vs cash in the bank: closing the day the right way
Your sales total is not the same as the money in your drawer. Here is how to close each day and each shift so every naira is explained.
inkeep Team · · 2 min read
At the end of a busy day, "How much did we sell?" and "How much money should be in the drawer?" are two different questions. Customers paid by cash, transfer and POS; some bought on credit; you paid for diesel from the drawer and a supplier by transfer.
inkeep keeps two running balances so you never mix them up:
- Cash at hand — the physical cash that should be in the drawer.
- Cash in the system — money in your bank account, POS settlements and wallet.
Why they drift apart
Money in the drawer goes up with cash sales and debt payments, and goes down with refunds, expenses paid in cash and bank deposits. Transfers and POS payments go to the system side instead. If any of these are not recorded, the drawer will not match.
Close every shift
When a cashier hands over:
- Count the drawer.
- Enter the count. inkeep shows what was expected and the difference.
- The next cashier confirms the count and starts with that float.
If there is a gap, you know which shift it happened on and can check that shift's refunds, discounts and expenses straight away.
Close the day
At closing time, count the drawer again and record it. A small surplus or shortage is recorded as such, so tomorrow starts from the real figure.
What a gap usually means
- Short: an expense paid from the drawer but not recorded, wrong change, a refund given without recording the return — or money taken.
- Over: a sale collected but not entered, or a transfer recorded as cash.
On inkeep Complete, the owner gets an alert when a count is off by more than the amount they choose, so problems are caught the same day.
cash shifts reconciliation