Pop-up tills and floats for an event
How an organiser opens several pop-up tills for one event, each with its own counted float and stock location, and keeps track while the event runs.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Events businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A one-day festival might need a main bar, a coffee cart, a merchandise stand and a ticket-upgrade desk at the gate. Each is a till in its own right, with its own cashier, its own float, its own stock and its own problems. At the end of the night, someone has to make all of them add up.
The organisers who manage this well decide the shape of their tills before the event, not on the day. This article walks through setting up several pop-up tills in Achekam, from naming them and counting floats to tracking takings while the gates are open and closing the day properly.
Plan the tills on paper first
Before anyone opens a till, write down every selling point at the event. For each, decide:
| Decide | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| The till's name | Each open till is known by its name, and only one session per name can be open |
| The cashier or cashiers | The cashier on a till is whoever is signed in |
| The float | It is counted when the till opens and checked at cash-up |
| The stock location | Sales take stock off at that location |
| The payment methods | Cash, card on the bank's terminal, QR, or a mix |
Use names people will recognise at a glance under pressure: "Main bar", "Coffee cart", "Merch north". Avoid "Till 1" and "Till 2"; at midnight nobody remembers which was which.
Opening a till: a name and a counted float
Achekam's till comes with the Point of Sale add-on. A cashier opens a till by naming it and entering the float they counted. If the page is reloaded, the till finds the open session again, so a cashier who accidentally refreshes does not lose their place.
Only one session can be open per till name. That is a useful safeguard at events: two people cannot each open a "Main bar" session and split the takings between them. If the main bar genuinely needs two tills, give them two names, such as "Main bar left" and "Main bar right".
Count floats before the event, in a quiet room, with two people present. Put each float in a bag or tray labelled with the till name, and have the cashier recount it when they open the till. The amount they enter is the starting point for cash-up later.
Tills tied to stock locations
Several tills can run at once, and each is opened at one of the business's stock locations. With the Warehousing add-on, a business keeps its stock locations on the server, such as warehouses, stores, bins and vans, with the quantity on hand at each.
For an event, that means you can keep a location for each stand, or for the van that serves several stands, and see the quantity on hand at each. A till sale takes the sold quantity off stock at its till's location in the same step, and refuses to sell more than is on hand unless the business allows negative stock. At the end of the night, what remains at each location is what should come back to the store.
Receipt numbers that do not clash
With several tills selling at once, receipt numbers could easily collide. They do not, because the server hands out receipt numbers: two tills never issue the same one. If a guest returns with a query, the receipt number leads straight to the sale and the till it came from.
While the event runs
Large events need checks during trading, not just at the end.
- X reports. A live X report of any open till can be opened as a PDF at any time. A supervisor can check how a stand is trading mid-event without closing anything.
- Safe drops. When a till's drawer is holding more cash than you want at a stand, take a safe drop. Safe drops, cash paid in and cash paid out are each recorded on the server and post their own journal. Input VAT is claimed on a payout only when a tax invoice number is given, so ask suppliers paid from the till for a proper tax invoice.
- Supervisor actions. Discounts above the business's limit, refunds, voids and cash paid out need a supervisor or manager. Decide who covers which stands.
Later, cash banked from the safe is recorded as a deposit, and a deposit can never be more than the safe holds.
Closing the day
When trading ends, each cashier cashes up their own till. They count the drawer by notes and coins, and the server works out the expected cash, records the difference and posts it to cash over and short. A Z report, frozen at cash-up, can be opened as a PDF for each till.
Then the business day for that branch is closed by a supervisor or manager who was not a cashier that day. Closing freezes the Z reports, payments, VAT by rate and differences. At an event, choose that person in advance: someone senior who did not take money on the night. The principle is segregation of duties, which AccountingTools describes as assigning the steps in a process to different people so that no one can both commit and conceal theft or error.
If the venue's signal was patchy, a till still holding unsent sales cannot be cashed up until those sales go through. That and the other offline limits are covered in selling when the venue signal drops.
Before the next event
Draw up the till plan, count and label the floats, and set up a stock location for each stand. Name the supervisor who will close the day. With that done, the night's figures should come together from the tills themselves rather than from a pile of notes. For the costs on the other side of the event, see keeping vendor spend inside the event budget.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
