Closing the trading day across bar and restaurant
Who should close a venue's business day after every till is cashed up, what closing freezes, and how to read the day's figures the next morning.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Hospitality businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
At a hotel with a bar, a restaurant and a pool deck, the trading day ends in pieces. The pool bar shuts at sunset, the restaurant after the last table, the bar long after that. Several cashiers have worked several tills, some across two shifts. Somebody has to draw a line under the day so the figures stop moving.
That line is the day close. Done properly, it gives the owner and the accountant a fixed record of what each till took, how it was paid, what VAT it carried and where the cash differed. Done carelessly, or by the wrong person, it fixes mistakes in place.
This article explains how the business day closes on Achekam's till, who should close it, and what to read the next morning, for venues in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
Each till counts up before the day closes
Several tills can run at once in Achekam, each at one of the business's locations. Each one is cashed up on its own. The cashier counts the drawer by notes and coins, the server works out the expected cash, records any difference and posts it to cash over and short, and a Z report for that till is frozen at cash-up.
The day close comes after all of that. Treat it as the final step of the night, not a substitute for the cash-ups. A venue that closes the day while a till is still trading is closing on a figure that is about to change.
The person who closes the day
A branch's business day is closed by a supervisor or manager who was not a cashier that day.
The reason is independence. The person who fixes the day's figures should not be someone whose own drawer is among them. If the duty manager spent the busy hour behind the bar ringing up drinks, they were a cashier that day and someone else must close. This is segregation of duties, one of the controls ACCA describes in its overview of internal controls, alongside the control environment and the other types of control.
That has rostering consequences, especially in a small venue where the manager often helps out at a till:
- On each shift, name the person who will close the day, and keep them off the tills.
- If that person has to step in at a till during a rush, a different supervisor or manager closes.
- Make sure at least one eligible person is on duty, or reachable, at closing time every night.
Picture an ordinary Saturday. The pool bar's cashier counts up at sunset and files the Z report. The head waiter counts the restaurant till after the last table leaves. The barman counts the bar till after last orders. The night manager, who stayed off the tills all evening, checks that all three drawers are counted, looks at the differences, and closes the day. Nobody closed figures that included their own drawer.
What closing freezes
When the day is closed, Achekam freezes its Z reports, payments, VAT by rate and differences. From that moment, the day's figures form a fixed record.
In practice:
| Frozen at close | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Z reports | Each till's record of its session |
| Payments | Takings by payment method across the branch |
| VAT by rate | The VAT the day's sales carried, rate by rate |
| Differences | Each till's cash over or short |
Because these figures are fixed, check them before you close, not after. If a cashier's count looks wrong, recount now.
Reading yesterday the next morning
The morning after is when the owner or manager reviews the day calmly. Useful habits:
- Open each till's Z report as a PDF and set it beside the counting sheet.
- Compare card takings with the settlement slip from each bank terminal.
- Look at the differences. One till that is often short deserves attention; scattered small differences across tills are ordinary.
- For VAT, posted till sales can be listed by VAT rate and tax code for any period, so the same listing can be run for the week or the month when your VAT return is due.
During trading, the live X report of an open till helps a manager see how a till is doing without closing anything.
A till with unsent sales
If a till lost its connection during service, Achekam keeps its sales in the browser and sends them again when the connection returns, and a resent sale is never recorded twice. Until those sales reach the server, that till cannot be cashed up.
At closing time, find the device, restore its connection and let the waiting sales go through. Then cash it up and carry on with the close. Do not open a fresh till or re-enter the sales by hand to save time; that is how the same round of drinks ends up in the books twice.
Close-of-day checklist
- Check for open tabs and parked sales, and settle or drop each one with a reason.
- Confirm every till has sent its sales.
- Cash up each till and file its Z report with the counting sheet.
- Review the differences and recount anything that looks wrong.
- Check the closer did not work a till that day.
- Close the day.
Open tabs are the item most often forgotten; open bar tabs and parked sales across tills explains how they work. Group deposits paid by invoice do not pass through the tills at all and are settled separately, as group booking deposits without a pro-forma describes.
A day close done by the right person, after every till is counted, gives you one fixed point every day. Everything after that, from bank reconciliations to the VAT return, is easier when yesterday cannot quietly change.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
