A day on the till

A shift with a 300 float, two sales — one in cash at 83.95 and one by card at 207 — then closing the shift by counting the drawer.

1. 1.The screen reads “No open shift”, and there is no basket and no items. That is deliberate: no shift, no selling — because counting the drawer at the end of the day means nothing unless its start had a known figure.
2. 2.What is in the drawer right now — counted, not estimated. These three hundred are not takings and will not be counted as any; they are the morning’s change float, and they come back out of the count at the end.
3. 3.The shift is open, and four figures have appeared at the top that will move all day: the number of sales, the total, how much of it was cash, and what should be in the drawer.
4. 4.Expected in the drawer is exactly the float: 300. Nothing has been sold yet. The first customer wants dates — one tap on the item.
5. 5.The price and the tax came off the item card; the cashier typed neither. And a second tap on the same item increases the quantity instead of opening a new line — which is what makes selling one-handed possible.
6. 6.Two items: 73 before tax, 10.95 of tax worked out per line and then added, 83.95 in total. The customer hands over a hundred, and the change appears as you type — with the same function the server will use, so the screen and the printed receipt cannot disagree.
7. 7.Change 16.05. Completing the sale does everything at once: a receipt number is taken for this register, both items come off the showroom’s stock, and an entry is written in the books. The cashier does none of it.
8. 8.The sale is done as C1-00231 — numbered per register rather than per business, so two tills selling at once never collide and every receipt traces to its counter. And expected in the drawer has risen to 383.95.
9. 9.The receipt opens in its own tab at 80 mm: one column, the business name and tax number exactly as entered, the VAT broken out, and what was paid and returned under the total. The next customer will pay by card, and the method stays where you last left it — so you change it before ringing up, not after.
10. 10.With a card there is no “cash received” field and no change, because nothing is handed over and nothing comes back. And more to the point: these 207 riyals will never enter the drawer, so you must not expect to find them there this evening.
11. 11.One sale, one method: the till does not split a single amount between cash and card. A customer paying half each is rung up as two sales, which is clearer in the books anyway.
12. 12.The day’s takings in four figures: two sales, 290.95 in total, of which only 83.95 was cash, and 383.95 expected in the drawer — the float plus the cash, not the total. The gap between 290.95 and 83.95 is what went to the bank through the card machine.
13. 13.You count the cash in the drawer and type what you counted, not what was expected. The difference is worked out and shown before you commit, while the cashier is still standing there with the drawer open — not in a report that lands tomorrow morning.
14. 14.“The drawer balances.” Five riyals short or less would have shown as an amber warning and anything beyond that as red — the threshold is a fixed amount rather than a percentage, because being fifty short is being fifty short whether the day was quiet or busy. The close is committed with the difference recorded, and the screen returns to “No open shift” for tomorrow morning.