At closing time the drawer holds some amount of cash, and the day's sales and expenses say it should hold another. When the two differ, the question is where the difference came from. The sooner you ask, the easier the answer. This is an evening routine for a Kiryana or general store, built around the eKhata cash book.
Key points
- Record cash in and cash out as they happen, not at the end of the day
- Keep cash, bank, Easypaisa and JazzCash separate
- Compare the drawer with the cash book for the day, every evening
- Investigate a difference the same day, while memory is fresh
Start the day from a known figure
Reconciliation begins in the morning. The cash book shows the day's opening balance, which is last night's closing figure. If you count the drawer at opening and it matches, you know you start clean.
If it does not match, you have found a problem a day early.
Record money as it moves
The cash book only helps if it is current. When a customer pays, record it. When you pay a supplier, buy tea or hand out an advance, record it. Sales bills, expenses, salary payments and party payments post to the cash book on their own, so most entries need no extra typing.
- Cash received from customers
- Cash paid to suppliers
- Shop expenses such as rent, electricity and tea
- Staff advances and salary
Keep the payment modes apart
A rupee in the drawer is not the same as a rupee in a bank account or an Easypaisa wallet. Mark each entry with its mode, whether cash, bank, Easypaisa or JazzCash, so the cash you count in the drawer is only the cash that should be there.
Our separate guide on wallets goes into this in more detail.
Tally at closing
At the end of the day open the cash book for today. It shows the day's opening balance, what was received, what was paid out and the net position. Count the physical cash and compare.
If the figures agree, you are done. If they do not, the register is in front of you, one line per movement, so you can go down the list and check each against what you remember.
Find the difference the same day
Common causes are simple: a payment taken and not recorded, an expense paid from the drawer and forgotten, change given wrongly, or a bank or wallet receipt entered as cash. Check these first.
Because every entry has a date and a note, you can usually find the missing line in a few minutes. Left until the month's end, the same difference can take hours and may never be found.