If you run a shop, a cafe, a pub or a market stall in the UK, learning how to cash up a till in the UK is one of those jobs nobody enjoys but everybody has to get right. It is the quiet half hour at the end of the day when you count every note and coin, check the card terminal, and make sure the money in the drawer matches what the till says you sold. Get it right and your books stay clean, your staff stay honest and HMRC stays happy. Get it wrong and you end up with mystery shortfalls, stressed staff and a bookkeeping mess that haunts you for months.
This guide walks you through the whole process in plain English. It covers what you need before you start, a simple step by step method you can use every single day, how to handle card payments and vouchers, what to do when the figures do not balance, and how to keep records that keep you safe. Whether you are cashing up for the first time or training a new team member, you will have a routine you can follow tonight.
What It Means to Cash Up a Till in the UK
Cashing up is simply the end of shift or end of day routine where you count the money taken, compare it against the till records, and record the result. It tells you three things. First, how much money your business actually took that day. Second, whether the physical cash matches the sales recorded on the till. Third, whether anything is missing, which is where you spot mistakes, till errors or theft early instead of discovering them weeks later.
There are a few terms you will hear constantly, so let us get them straight. The float is the starting amount of cash you put in the till at the beginning of the day so you can give change. Most small shops keep a float of around fifty to one hundred pounds, though this varies with the kind of business. An X read is a report that shows the sales so far without resetting the till. You can run one at any point during the day. A Z report is the final report that resets the sales totals to zero and marks the start of a new trading day. When you hear people talk about over and short, they mean the difference between what you counted and what the till expected. Over means extra money, short means money missing.
What You Need Before You Start Counting
Good cashing up starts with good preparation. Trying to count a till with customers still buying, phones ringing and no paperwork is how mistakes happen. Before you touch the drawer, close the till on the register or POS system so no more sales go through. If you are mid shift rather than closing for the night, choose a quiet moment and put a clear sign on the counter so everyone knows the till is closed.
Gather a few basics. You need a cash up sheet or till sheet, which can be a printed form or a simple spreadsheet, a calculator, a pen, and the float figure written down so you are not relying on memory. Print or display the Z report from the till so you have the expected totals for cash, card, refunds and vouchers. Run the end of day settlement report on your card terminal too, because you will reconcile that separately. If your business uses petty cash, keep those slips handy, since any money taken out of the drawer for milk, postage or similar spending affects the count.
Security matters at this point. Count the till somewhere out of sight of customers, ideally in a back office with the door closed. If you have CCTV, make sure it covers the counting area. Many shops have two people present for the count, especially where the takings are large. This protects both the business and the staff member doing the counting, because nobody can be accused of pocketing money if there was a witness.
How to Cash Up a Till in the UK in 9 Simple Steps
Follow this routine in the same order every day and it will become second nature. The exact wording on your till may differ, but the logic is the same on a basic cash register and on a modern EPOS system.
1. Close the till and finish all transactions. Make sure no sales, refunds or voids are still open. Everything must be in the system before you count, otherwise your expected figures will be wrong from the start.
2. Print the Z report. This is your expected total. Note the separate figures for cash sales, card sales, refunds, voids and any gift vouchers or store credit redeemed. Write them onto your cash up sheet.
3. Separate the float. Take out the starting float first and set it aside. Everything left in the drawer should be the day’s takings. This is the single most common source of errors, so double check the float amount against your records.
4. Count notes by denomination. Sort the notes into piles of fifties, twenties, tens and fives. Count each pile, write down the totals and add them up. Working from the largest notes downwards makes it easier to keep track.
5. Count coins by denomination. Do the same for two pound and one pound coins, then the silver and copper. Coin bags from the bank make this faster, and many shops pre bag coins during the day when it is quiet.
6. Record the cash total on your cash up sheet. Add the notes and coins together. This is your counted cash figure.
7. Compare counted cash with expected cash. Take the Z report’s expected cash figure and subtract it from your count. If they match, the till balances and you can move on. If not, do not panic. Recount first, because nine times out of ten the difference is a counting error.
8. Investigate any difference. Recount everything once more, slowly. Check for the usual suspects, which are covered in the section below on balancing problems.
9. Secure the takings. Put the float back in the till for the next shift, place the day’s cash in a tamper evident cash bag or the safe, and file the Z report and the cash up sheet. Note any over or short on the sheet with a brief explanation.
How to Reconcile Card Payments and Vouchers
Cash is only half the story for most businesses today. The rest of your takings flow through the card terminal, and reconciling these figures is just as important. Start by running the end of day or settlement report on your card machine. This shows the total value of debit, credit and contactless payments processed that day. Compare it with the card total on your Z report. The two should match exactly.
Small differences usually come from refunds processed after the Z report was printed, failed payments that did not fully authorise, or a duplicated sale. Check the terminal’s transaction log for anything unusual. If your POS and card machine are integrated, mismatches are rare, but you should still verify because even automated systems can lose a transaction during a network drop.
Vouchers, gift cards and store credit need attention too. Your Z report should show the value redeemed. If you keep paper vouchers, count them and match the physical pile to the reported figure. A common mistake is forgetting to enter a voucher into the till at the point of sale, which makes the cash look short when it is not. Train staff to record every tender type at the time of the sale, not from memory afterwards.
If you take PayPal, bank transfer or invoice payments alongside till sales, list them on the cash up sheet as separate lines. Mixing them into the card or cash totals is how reconciliation goes wrong, and separating them keeps your bookkeeping clean when the accountant asks questions later.
What to Do When the Till Does Not Balance
Every shopkeeper has faced the moment when the till is twenty pounds short and nobody knows why. The key is to stay calm and work through the possibilities in order, starting with the most likely. First, recount everything. Most discrepancies are simple counting errors, a miscounted coin pile or a note stuck to another note. Count a second time from scratch rather than just checking your first total.
Next, check the float. Ask whether the float was correct at the start of the day. If someone put in sixty pounds instead of the usual fifty, or took float change without recording it, the whole count shifts. This is why writing down the float each morning matters so much.
Then look for unrecorded transactions. Was a refund given but never entered into the till. Was a staff purchase rung up incorrectly. Was a cash sale entered as card by mistake, which shows up as a card overage and a cash shortage at the same time. Was a voucher accepted but recorded as cash. These cross errors are very common and they often explain the difference completely.
Check whether any cash left the drawer during the day. Petty cash spending, a cash drop to the safe during a busy spell, or change taken from the drawer for another till will all show as a shortage if they were not written down. A simple paid out slip, signed and dated, prevents most of these mysteries.
If the difference survives all of that, record it honestly on the cash up sheet as over or short, with the amount and the date, and sign it. Do not adjust the figures to force a balance, because that creates a false record. Small occasional differences are normal in any cash business. A pattern of shortages on the same shifts, however, is a signal to look closer at procedures or, in serious cases, possible theft. Keep the sheets so you can spot patterns over weeks rather than guessing from memory.
Banking the Takings and Keeping Records That HMRC Accepts
Once the till balances, the money needs to go somewhere safe. Do not let large amounts of cash sit in the till overnight. Move the day’s takings to a safe, and bank them regularly. Many high street banks offer business customers night safe facilities, and some shops use a cash collection service for larger sums. Vary your banking routine and avoid carrying cash alone late at night. Prepare your paying in slips in advance so the bank visit is quick.
Record keeping is where cashing up pays for itself twice over. HMRC expects you to keep business records for at least six years, and your daily cash up sheets, Z reports and banking slips form the backbone of that evidence. They prove what you took, when you took it, and that your tax returns are based on real figures. Scan or photograph paper sheets each week and store the copies with your other records, because thermal till rolls fade and paper gets lost. If you want a full routine for protecting all of this paperwork, read our guide on how to back up your business files automatically so nothing important ever goes missing.
There is a bigger reason to treat your daily figures as gold. Your cash up sheets are the raw material for understanding how money moves through your business. When you know exactly what each day brings in, you can spot your quiet weeks early and plan around them. Our guide on how to manage cash flow during slow months shows how these simple daily numbers feed into forecasts that keep small businesses steady all year.
Common Mistakes That Make Cashing Up Harder
Most cash up problems come from habits, not from maths. Letting too many people dip into the same drawer during the day is the biggest one. When three staff members share one till, nobody owns the result, and tracking down a shortage becomes impossible. Give each cashier their own drawer where you can, or assign one person per shift to the till.
Counting in a rush is another classic. Cashing up with the shutters half down and a queue of closing tasks waiting leads to skipped steps and transposed figures. Build the cash up into the closing routine with a realistic time slot, and treat it as seriously as locking the doors. Skipping the recount is closely related. When the first count does not match, the temptation is to adjust the sheet and move on. A careful second count takes five minutes and resolves most issues.
Poor float discipline causes endless confusion. The float should be the same every day, counted and recorded each morning. If staff borrow from the float for change at another till or top it up without noting it, every later figure is suspect. Finally, many shops never train anyone properly. The manager knows the routine by heart, but the Saturday staff member is left to guess. Write your cash up procedure down, keep a copy by the till, and walk every new starter through it in their first week.
A Simple Cash Up Routine You Can Teach Your Staff
If you manage staff, the goal is a routine so clear that anyone can follow it without you standing over them. Put a one page checklist next to the till with the steps in order: close the till, print the Z report, separate the float, count notes, count coins, record the total, compare with the report, recount if needed, secure the cash, file the paperwork. Laminate it so it survives the counter.
Pair new starters with an experienced team member for their first few cash ups. Watching someone count a till properly teaches more than any manual. Rotate the task so everyone on the team can do it, which means you are never stuck if your usual person is off sick. And make the rule clear that discrepancies are reported, never hidden. Staff who fear being blamed for a small shortage will be tempted to fudge the figures, which destroys the whole point of the exercise. A calm, no blame culture around till differences actually reduces them, because people report problems early instead of covering them up.
Conclusion
Learning how to cash up a till comes down to a simple routine done consistently. Close the till, print your Z report, separate the float, count notes and coins carefully, record everything, reconcile the card payments, and investigate any difference before you file the paperwork. Keep your records for at least six years, bank your takings regularly, and train every team member to follow the same steps.
The businesses that rarely lose money at the till are not the ones with the cleverest systems. They are the ones with the simplest routine, followed the same way every single day. Start tonight, write your checklist, and within a week the cash up will feel like any other part of closing. That is the whole secret.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should you cash up a till?
Cash up at the end of every trading day as a minimum. If you run multiple shifts, cash up at each shift change so each cashier is responsible for their own drawer. Busy shops also do a midday cash drop to the safe to keep the drawer from overflowing.
What is a good float amount for a small shop till?
Most small UK shops keep a float of fifty to one hundred pounds in mixed notes and coins. The right amount depends on how much change you typically give. Review it occasionally: if you keep running out of pound coins, increase the float slightly.
What should I do if my till is short by a small amount?
Recount everything first, then check the float, unrecorded refunds, petty cash slips and tender type errors. If the difference remains, record it honestly on the cash up sheet with the date and sign it. Occasional small differences are normal; a pattern on the same shifts needs investigating.
Do I need to keep cash up sheets for HMRC?
Yes. HMRC expects you to keep business records for at least six years. Your daily cash up sheets, Z reports and banking slips are the evidence that supports the figures on your tax returns, so file them carefully and keep digital copies as backup.
Should two people count the till together?
It is good practice, especially for larger takings. A second person counting or witnessing the count protects the business against errors and protects the staff member against accusations. At a minimum, have a clear written procedure so anyone can check the figures afterwards.
