Tips for Balancing a Cash Drawer Quickly and Easily

Balancing a cash drawer is the end-of-shift process of comparing cash, checks, and receipts to sales data in your cash register. 

About 14% of transactions were made with cash, and 83% of US consumers said they paid with cash at least once in the prior 30 days in 2024, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s 2025 consumer payment survey.

Standardized procedures to manage cash transactions can help you keep accurate financial records. Here’s how to balance a cash drawer. 

What is a cash drawer?

A cash drawer—or shop till—is a dedicated compartment in a cash register or a stand-alone component in a point-of-sale (POS) system that holds paper money, coins, and checks. 

There are slots to store different types of bills, like $1s, $5s, $10s, and $20s, and smaller compartments that hold coins. Cash drawers can also be used to hold credit card receipts and gift cards.

Depending on the setup, staff can open the drawer through the POS software running on the cash register or by using a key. 

Why should you balance your cash drawer?

Balancing your cash drawer can help prevent any discrepancies between recorded sales and actual cash. Routine cash-handling procedures safeguard against errors and theft by adding checks at each step of the transaction, while maintaining an accurate financial count. A balanced cash drawer also ensures there’s enough cash to make change for customers. 

How often should you balance a cash drawer?

Balance your cash drawer at least once per day to keep accurate books for a brick-and-mortar business. 

For a single cash register, balance at the end of the business day. If you have multiple cash drawers or shifts, balance each drawer at the end of every shift. Document overages or shortages separately for each drawer. 

Best practices in balancing a cash drawer 

Balance a cash drawer with these practices:

Establish a starting balance

A starting balance, or float, provides cash for change throughout a shift. University of Colorado (UC) cash control guidance recommends limiting cash to the minimum amount needed for operations. Use historical sales reports to determine the right amount based on business size and transaction volume.

Assign one employee per drawer

UC guidance also suggests assigning each cash location, including electronic cash register drawers, to a single person and restricting access to that person. Shared drawers make it harder to track shortages and overages.

Make cash drops

Move excess cash from the drawer to a back-room safe during the shift. Safe drops lower the amount of cash exposed at the register. You can also exchange large bills for smaller denominations or coins at the same time so you can keep giving customers the right change.

Use a secure counting location

Provide a secure space for employees to count cash. Staff should count their drawers at the start and end of every shift. If you’re dealing with large sums of cash, give employees a counting machine for bills.

Document cash paid in and paid out

Record cash entering or leaving the drawer for reasons other than a sale. This includes vendor payments or petty cash use.

Consider blind closing

Require staff to count the cash total before comparing it with the expected POS amount. This is called blind closing, and it helps you spot discrepancies between the counted total and the system total.

How to balance a cash drawer

Balancing a cash drawer keeps the register ready for the next shift. Follow these steps to balance cash drawers:

1. Count drawer at the start of a shift

Set an opening balance for each cash drawer. If the business uses more than one cash drawer, have employees count their drawers after signing in for their shift to match the expected opening balance.

2. Get a sales report at the end of a shift

Modern cash drawers connect to a POS system that generates reports of customer transactions across a shift or day. Pull a sales report from the POS software at the end of a shift. These reports include a breakdown of every transaction. 

Shopify POS register sessions track cash activity during a shift, including the starting float, cash added or removed, cash payments, final count, and discrepancies between expected and actual cash amounts.

3. Count physical cash

Account for the starting float and any cash drops recorded outside your POS software. A manager oversees and double-checks this process.

4. Reconcile any differences

Total cash should match the cash sales on the sales report after subtracting the starting amount and adding any cash drops. Shopify’s cash tracking reports can help reconcile cash drawers, spot counting errors, and maintain accurate records across store locations.

Recount the cash if there is an overage or shortage. Review the POS report if you cannot reconcile the discrepancy.

Develop a policy to address these discrepancies and communicate the plan to cashiers.

5. Record cash drawer transactions

Record the final cash tally, including any overages and shortages, alongside card transactions, refunds, and redeemed gift cards. 

Managers can record sales data on a handwritten daily report and attach it to the printed POS report for the bookkeeper. They can also add these numbers directly to bookkeeping software.

6. Prepare your deposit

Separate the shift’s earnings from the starting balance. This total matches the cash sales on the POS report, minus documented payouts. Confirm the final count before placing the money into a bank deposit bag.

Complete a bank deposit slip with the date and a breakdown of bills and coins. Keep a copy of the slip and the POS report for bookkeeping records.

7. Return starting balance to drawer

Place the starting balance back in the cash drawer for the next shift. Lock the drawer or store it in a secure safe until the next shift begins.

Troubleshooting cash drawer discrepancies

A cash drawer discrepancy is when the physical cash in the drawer doesn't match the expected total. Troubleshooting the problem can help retailers determine whether the difference stems from a counting error, an unrecorded cash movement, a transaction error, or a broader cash-handling issue.

Follow this process to resolve cash drawer discrepancies:

1. Recount the drawer by denomination. Have the cashier or manager count bills and coins again, separating each denomination. This can identify counting errors, stuck-together bills, or miscounted coins.
2. Confirm the opening cash amount. Check that the drawer started with the correct float. If the opening balance is incorrect, the drawer can be short or over, even if the cashier handled the shift’s transactions correctly.
3. Compare the cash count with POS records. Review total cash sales, refunds, voids, discounts, and manual adjustments. Look for transactions entered under the wrong payment type, such as a cash sale recorded as a card one.
4. Review cash movements during the shift. Check for cash paid- in and paid out, including petty cash use, safe drops, tips, or cash removed for another reason. Every cash movement needs a matching record.
5. Look for unusual transaction activity. Review large cash sales, refunds, voided transactions, no-sale drawer opens, and manager overrides to find missed transactions or policy violations.
6. Ask process-focused questions. Talk to the cashier to find out if anyone else used the drawer, whether a customer transaction was difficult, or whether or not a refund, exchange, or cash drop was handled according to protocol.
7. Document the discrepancy. Record the amount, date, shift, employee assigned to the drawer, manager review, likely cause, and corrective action. This creates a record if the issue happens again.
8. Watch for repeat patterns. A single discrepancy is a mistake. Repeated discrepancies tied to the same employee, shift, register, or transaction type may require retraining, tighter permissions, or a deeper review.