This guide provides an operating framework, not legal, financial, safety, medical, licensing, or regulatory advice. Adapt it to your business and local requirements.
Count the drawer at shift boundaries
Count the drawer together at a shift handover, with two staff verifying the count and both signing the sheet, so responsibility stays shared and visible. Do it while the shift memory is fresh, not at close of day. Shift-level counts end the blame games that eat morale.
Set a standard count process
Use one counting order every time, pull the cash, count it against the starting float, compare to the system total, set aside the deposit, and freeze that sequence on a short checklist. Repetition is the whole point here. Habit beats the chaos of a busy night.
Hand the deposit over visibly
Prepare the deposit at a set hour and hand it to the closer in view of a colleague or the camera, then log the bag, mark the amount and date, and write down who took it. Paper trails make theft risky and mistakes loud. A sudden quiet gap shows up fast when every handoff is documented.
Reconcile against the point of sale
Match the physical cash against the POS total at close, and account for every dollar of difference before anyone leaves. A missing ten is a clue, not a shrug. Investigate it tonight, because next week nobody at all remembers the shift.
Protect the cash with physical controls
Lock the drawer and the deposits, limit who holds keys, and angle a camera over the register and the count area. Simple deterrence prevents most internal disputes before they start. A locked cash box and a signed log are plain sense, and the box is cheap insurance.