Cash discrepancy: the most common causes and how to reduce it

Calculating the discrepancy

Expected cash = opening float + cash sales – expenses paid in cash. The discrepancy is the counted cash minus the expected cash: negative means money is missing; positive means there is too much.

The most common causes

• Change-giving mistakes, especially at peak times.
• Sales not recorded, or recorded with the wrong amount.
• Mobile money or card payments recorded as cash (and the reverse).
• Expenses paid from the till without being recorded.
• Credit given but not recorded, or repayments received but not recorded.
• Several sellers dipping into the same till.
• Theft or loss, when gaps are regular and always on the same side.

Finding the source of a gap

• Recount the money, notes and coins separately.
• Compare the total of receipts with the total collected, payment method by payment method.
• Check the day’s expenses and credit.
• See whether the gap always falls on the same seller or time slot.

Reducing gaps for good

• One till per seller, or a named seller on every sale.
• Record everything straight away, never “I will note it later”.
• Count the float at opening and at every change of seller.
• Close the day every evening, never once a week: yesterday’s gap can be traced, last week’s cannot.

Seeing the gap with Kaislo

At closing, Kaislo shows the expected cash, you enter the counted amount and the gap appears straight away, with the detail by payment method. Every sale keeps the seller’s name: you see who collected what.