Cash Drawer & Shift Handover

At the end of every shift, the person leaving the desk counts the till. Zitlin says what should be there, they say what is, and the difference is recorded against their name — with a note explaining it. Three weeks later you can still find the short shift and the reason for it.

Cash goes missing in small amounts. Not dramatically, and usually not dishonestly — a deposit taken and never entered, change given from the wrong pocket, a supplier paid from the till on a Tuesday that nobody wrote down. By the time the numbers are looked at, three shifts have run through the same drawer and there is no way to say which one the ₹1,200 walked out of.

Zitlin's cash drawer answers exactly one question: is the money actually in the till, and if not, whose shift was it? Everything on these screens exists to explain how the expected figure was arrived at, so the person counting can tell a mistake from a discrepancy.

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It closes a shift, not a day

This is the distinction that decides whether you need it. Zitlin has both, and they do different jobs.

The two are independent — closing one never closes the other, and plenty of properties run one without the other. A guesthouse taking mostly card and UPI can skip the drawer entirely. A restaurant taking half its takings in notes cannot.

It is also not bookkeeping. Nothing here posts to an accounting ledger. It answers the till question and stops.

Opening a shift with a float you actually counted

The first person on counts what is already in the drawer and opens their shift with that figure. Zitlin pre-fills it with whatever the last shift left behind — to be confirmed, not trusted. An optional shift name (Morning, Evening, Night) makes the history readable later.

Zitlin never opens a shift for you, and that is deliberate. Every figure at the end is measured from this one, so a shift opened with the float left at zero reports a surplus of exactly the float when it closes, every single time.

One drawer, one person. Zitlin allows one open shift per person, and several people can hold one at once — a hotel front desk and a restaurant till run side by side, counted separately, each answerable to whoever holds it. Two people sharing one physical drawer is the single arrangement no software can help with: the difference at the end belongs to nobody.

What builds up during the shift

The drawer screen shows what has passed through it so far:

Opening float          2,000
Cash taken in         +6,500
Cash paid out           -600
─────────────────────────────
Expected in drawer     7,900

Not in the drawer
Card                  12,400
UPI                    4,200

Cash taken in is deposits, bills settled in cash, and event-space cash payments. Cash paid out is expenses paid in cash straight from the till — the vegetable supplier, the plumber, the diesel run.

Card, UPI and transfers are shown but never counted. No drawer moves when a guest taps a card, so they carry no difference. They sit there to be ticked off against the card terminal's own batch total, which settles on the acquirer's schedule rather than yours.

One consequence worth knowing: a backdated cash expense keeps its own bill date for the accounts, but the money leaves today's till. Pay last month's electricity bill in cash this morning and both readings are correct at once — the drawer is simply the one that has to match the notes in your hand.

Counting at handover

At the end of the shift the person leaving hits Close shift and counts. Four fields, and the difference updates as they type rather than after they commit:

The result is one of three words: balanced, short by, or over by.

A drawer that doesn't balance is never blocked. Zitlin records the difference and closes the shift. It does not ask you to try again and it does not refuse — the point is the record, not the veto. Software that argues with a count only teaches people to type a number it agrees with, which is the opposite of what the feature is for.

The note is required when the figures differ, because "why" is the part nobody remembers three weeks later. "Two hundred short, gave change from the till for a card refund" is a complete answer in September. A blank field is not.

A closed shift stops being a place money can land

Once a shift is closed, its figures are frozen and no money can ever be added to it. Anything recorded afterwards — even backdated — belongs to whatever shift is open at the time.

That single rule is what makes the count worth signing:

• Editing an invoice a week later cannot quietly change what somebody was asked to stand behind
• A late payment lands in the next person's drawer, which is where the cash actually went
• Nothing else is locked — reports stay live, bookings stay editable, invoices stay correctable

So when a short drawer turns out to be a mistyped deposit found an hour later, you leave the closed shift alone. It records what was true at the time, which is the honest answer. Fix the underlying record and the correction lands in the current shift.

Reviewing the counts

Shift history is where a manager actually spends time — and the filter that matters is Did not balance. Pick a date range, apply it, and you see only the shifts that came up short or over. Scanning a list of zeros is exactly the work the feature exists to remove.

Each row shows who held the drawer, when it ran, what they counted, the difference, and their note. That is enough to have the conversation, or to decide there isn't one to have.

Shift history is open to Admin, Accountant, Rooms Manager and Restaurant Manager. Front Desk is deliberately excluded even though it sits higher on the role ladder than Restaurant Manager — "which of my colleagues came up short last Tuesday" is a supervisor's question, and a front-desk clerk holding a till of their own is exactly who it is being asked about. It is the one place the ladder is broken on purpose.

Somebody went home without closing. An Admin can close the drawer on their behalf from the history. The shift keeps its original owner — only the "counted by" line names the manager — so the difference stays attributed to whoever actually ran the till.

Making it compulsory (and why most properties shouldn't)

Require an open cash drawer is off by default. Turned on, cash cannot be recorded until the person taking it has opened a shift — they are prompted to open one and the action then completes on its own. Card, UPI and transfers are never blocked, because no drawer moves.

Our advice is to leave it off unless you specifically need it. A guest standing at the desk with cash should never be refused for a bookkeeping reason: the clerk takes the money anyway and records it later, or wrong, which manufactures exactly the untracked cash the feature exists to catch. Where the setting is off, cash recorded with no shift open is still recorded — it just belongs to nobody and shows up that way for a manager to chase. Most properties get everything they need from the prompt and the unassigned figures alone.

Who this is for

• Hotels and guesthouses working two or three shifts where the desk changes hands and the till goes with it
• Restaurants and bars taking a meaningful share of takings in notes, with waiters settling table bills on a shared POS
• Properties with a separate restaurant till that needs counting independently of the front desk, at a different time, by a different person
• Owners who are off site and want the short shifts surfaced rather than discovered

It needs staff sign-in turned on first — a drawer belongs to a person, and without a name there is nobody to hold answerable. Both are part of Zitlin Pro.

If your property is one person taking mostly digital payments, skip it. It earns its keep where cash is a real share of takings and more than one pair of hands touches it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a cash drawer do in a hotel PMS? It closes a shift. The person taking over the desk opens a drawer with the cash already in it, Zitlin tracks every cash payment and cash expense that passes through during their shift, and at handover they count what is physically there. Zitlin records the difference between expected and counted against their name, with a note explaining it.

How is the cash drawer different from the night audit? The night audit closes a business day and runs once, usually overnight. A cash drawer closes a shift and runs every time somebody hands over — three times a day at a property working three shifts. They are independent: closing one never closes the other, and a property can run either, both, or neither.

Can two people run a cash drawer at the same time? Yes. Zitlin allows one open shift per person and several at once, so a hotel front desk and a restaurant till run side by side, counted separately, each answerable to whoever holds it. What no software can help with is two people sharing one physical drawer — the difference at the end belongs to nobody.

What happens if the drawer does not balance? Zitlin records the difference and closes the shift. It never refuses the count or asks you to try again — a system that argues with the count just teaches people to type a number it agrees with. A note is required whenever the figures differ, because "why" is the part nobody remembers three weeks later.

Are card and UPI payments counted in the drawer? They are shown but never reconciled. No physical drawer moves when a guest taps a card, so card, UPI and transfer totals carry no difference — they are there to tick off against your card terminal's own batch. Only cash produces a short or over.

Can I force staff to open a drawer before taking cash? Yes, with Require an open cash drawer — off by default. Once on, cash cannot be recorded until the person taking it has opened a shift; they are prompted to open one and the action then completes on its own. Card, UPI and transfers are never blocked. Most properties leave it off and rely on the prompt and the unassigned-cash figures instead.

What if somebody takes cash without opening a shift? The money is still recorded — the payment goes through normally. It is simply not attached to a drawer, and shows as unassigned when a manager reviews the period. Opening a shift afterwards does not retroactively claim it.

What happens if an invoice is edited after the shift closed? Nothing lands in the closed shift. Once a shift is closed its figures are frozen, and any money recorded afterwards — even backdated — belongs to whatever shift is open at the time. That is what makes the count trustworthy: editing an invoice a week later cannot quietly change what somebody was asked to stand behind. Nothing else is locked; reports stay live and bookings stay editable.

Somebody went home without closing their drawer. What now? An Admin can close it on their behalf from the shift history. The shift keeps its original owner — only the "counted by" line names the manager — so the difference stays attributed to whoever actually ran the till.

Who can see other people's cash counts? Admin, Accountant, Rooms Manager and Restaurant Manager. Front Desk is deliberately left out even though it sits higher on the ladder than Restaurant Manager, because a front-desk clerk holding a till of their own is exactly who the question is being asked about. Anyone from Waiter upwards can open and close their own drawer.

Do I need staff sign-in turned on to use the cash drawer? Yes. A drawer belongs to a person, so staff sign-in has to be on first. Without it there is nobody to hold answerable, which is the only question a cash count answers.

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