This is how to use the cash register

Always produce a cash receipt for the customer

Even if your customer does not wish to have a cash receipt, you must produce a receipt, nevertheless, that you may then throw away. Through always offering a receipt the customer can be assured that what has been purchased has been registered in the till.

A customer who pays by card sometimes obtains both a cash receipt and a receipt for the card payment. This is due to certain cash register systems not being linked together with the card reader. Please note that a receipt for the card payment alone is not a cash receipt.

To bear in mind when using the cash register

1. Ensure that the clock in the register is working properly.
   
2. Register the petty cash in the register before you commence the day’s sales.
3. Remove and save a Z-Report (end-of-day report) for each day that you have had sales transactions.
4. Save the cash register’s tape or journal for seven years since this constitutes necessary accounting information.
5. Keep available the cash register manual which shows all the different functions and how to change the settings.
   

Petty cash and cash box

A cash box may either be free standing or integrated with the cash register. The fact that a cash box is integrated implies that the opening of the cash box is controlled from the cash register, either on payment or in some other way.

An example of a free-standing cash box is

• a tin box
• a safe/strongbox or
• a wallet.
  

A cash register may have more than one cash box. Moreover, there is nothing to stop a business having a cash box that serves several different cash registers. What is decisive is whether it is possible to reconcile the sale transaction that is registered in a cash register with the form of payment that is found in different cash boxes.

At the start of each sale day you must register the petty cash that belongs to a particular cash register. Where the petty cash decreases or increases during a sales day you must register this as a change in the petty cash.

Type of payment method must appear on the receipt

A cash register must be able to register payment with different means of payment. Examples of different means of payment when making a cash payment include cash, debit or credit cards and other electronic payment services, gift vouchers, coupons and such like. On the receipt it must be evident which means of payment has been used. Remember to programme the cash register according to the means of payment that you receive.