Cash drawer

Your venue has one cash drawer per business day, shared by every iPad. This page covers starting the day's drawer, a drawer left open from an earlier day, the Register sheet, counting the drawer when the night starts, recording cash in and out, the reason lists, opening the drawer without a sale, and where drawer money shows up. Counting the drawer at the end of the night and the Z-report are in Closing the day.

The day's drawer

The drawer opens when the first person to sign in taps Start the day at the PIN pad, and it stays open, on every iPad, until a manager closes the day. Every payment, every customer-account payment and every cash in or out taken on any iPad in between lands on that drawer, and the Z at the close is that drawer's record.

Start the day

Anyone on the staff can start the day — it doesn't have to be a manager.

1. Sign in at the PIN pad.
2. When no drawer is open, the greeting (for example "Hi, Ana") asks you to start the day. Tap Start the day.
3. Count the cash in the drawer when the iPad asks (see Count the drawer when the night starts).

The full sign-in steps are in Signing in on the iPad.

How the drawer works

• There is never more than one open drawer. If two iPads start the day at the same moment, both end up on the same drawer.
• The drawer opens with the float not counted. Whoever starts the night counts it next.
• Whoever tapped Start the day shows as the drawer's Opened by in Reports › Shift closes (Z).
• Signing out never closes the drawer. Signing back in lands on the same open drawer.
• After the day is closed, iPads that are still signed in show "The day is closed. Start a new day on the PIN screen to continue." See Closing the day.

A drawer left open from an earlier day

When your venue's open drawer belongs to an earlier service day than today's, the iPads name that day at every sign-in and keep a banner on the floor, asking for that day to be closed before tonight's service. Tonight then starts on a new drawer, with a Z of its own. The iPads only ask: nothing is blocked.

What everyone signed in sees:

• Right after sign-in, the floor opens on the card "The drawer from Mon, Oct 5 is still open".
• An amber banner under the floor's top bar. Admins and managers read "The drawer from Mon, Oct 5 is still open — close that day before tonight's service."; everyone else reads "The drawer from Mon, Oct 5 is still open — ask a manager to close that day before tonight's service." The banner takes no taps: the tables under it still work.

Close the earlier day

Who can do this: admins and managers. Everyone else is asked to get a manager.

1. Sign in. The card says "Close that day before tonight's service." Under the buttons: "Until it's closed, every sale lands on that day's Z."
2. Tap Close the day. The usual close screen opens, under your own sign-in. Its header shows when the drawer was started, with the day — for example "since Mon, Oct 5, 5:09 PM".
3. Close as usual: settle any tab left from that day, count the cash and close. See Closing the day.
4. On the Z, tap Done — sign out. Sign in again and tap Start the day for tonight.

To leave it for now, tap Not now. The banner stays, and the next sign-in shows the card again. ··· › Close the day closes it later.

As a bartender, server or barback, the card says "Ask a manager to close that day before tonight's service." Tap Got it and call a manager.

When a drawer counts as an earlier day's

• A drawer belongs to the service day it was started on, the same night the reports file it under. Once a new service day has begun, a drawer from an earlier one is left open.
• Your Service time (back office, Settings › Hours & scheduling) decides the moment, in your venue's time zone. With a 6:00 AM service time, a drawer started on Monday at 5:09 PM becomes an earlier day's at 6:00 AM on Tuesday. With 4:00 PM, it does at 4:00 PM on Tuesday, so a Tuesday-afternoon sign-in is still Monday's day and isn't asked.
• A drawer started before your service time belongs to the previous day. With a 4:00 PM service time, a drawer started at 2:30 PM is the previous night's, and the iPads ask about it from 4:00 PM — the reports file it there too. If your staff open the drawer before your service time, set an earlier one: any hour after the last close and before the first drawer of the day (see Venue settings).
• Each iPad checks again every 30 seconds and when the app comes back to the front. An iPad left signed in past the service time shows the banner within a minute, and the card once nothing else is open on the floor.
• The card opens once per sign-in, so every new sign-in shows it again until the day is closed. It never opens over a check, another sheet or a message; the banner says it in the meantime.
• Nothing is blocked. Tabs, payments and cash in and out still land on the open drawer.
• The opening count isn't asked for on such a drawer: the Opening float sheet doesn't open by itself, the top bar's "· Opening float not counted" note is hidden, and no cash waits for a count. Tonight's cash isn't that day's float. The close screen still catches a float nobody counted.
• The Close the day tile under ··· names the day instead of a time: "shift since Mon, Oct 5 · float $2,000.00".
• When another iPad closes that day, the card and the banner go away at once, and the closed-day banner takes their place.

Good to know

• The banner is on the floor only, not on the check screen. While the iPad is offline it gives way to the offline banner: the close needs a connection anyway.
• The close still needs every tab settled or closed. If tonight's tabs are already open on the old drawer, it can close only once they're settled, and both nights still end up on one Z. Close it before the first tab of the night.
• The close clocks out the closer. Unless your venue allows closing the day with staff still on the clock, everyone else has to be off the clock first. So close the earlier day before people clock in for tonight.
• A drawer whose start time is ahead of the iPad's clock is never called an earlier day's.

Open the Register

The Register is the manager's drawer sheet. It holds three jobs: the opening float, cash in and out, and opening the drawer without a sale.

Who can do this: admins and managers. The Register tile only shows under ··· for a signed-in admin or manager. Other roles only get the no-sale row under This iPad (see Open the drawer without a sale).

1. Tap ··· in the top bar, then Register. The tile's line reads "opening float · cash in / out".
2. Pick a row:
   • Opening float — shows the float, or Not counted in amber. It only shows while a drawer is open. Tap it to count again (see Count again).
   • Cash In / Out.
   • Open Drawer (No Sale) — opens the drawer straight away, with no PIN.
3. Tap Done to close the sheet.

Everything in the Register is recorded under the signed-in admin or manager's name. There is no second approval.

The tile also shows when no drawer is open — for example on an iPad that stayed signed in after the day was closed. The float row is then hidden, and Cash In / Out is refused with the day-closed message.

Count the drawer when the night starts

The opening float is the cash the drawer starts the night with. Whoever starts the night counts it, and the iPad checks the count at once against what the last close left in the drawer. The cash expected at the close starts from this figure, so count it before the first sale.

Who can do this: anyone signed in, on a paired iPad. The float can't be counted from the back office.

1. Start the day, or sign in while nobody has counted tonight's drawer. The Opening float sheet opens: "Count the cash in the drawer now, before the first sale. It's checked against what the last close left."
2. Tap Open the drawer to open the cash drawer, then count the cash in it. This works with Barform 1.2.2 or later on the iPad; it's recorded, and it never makes your count late. If the drawer can't open — no receipt printer, printing paused, or the printer isn't responding — the sheet says why: open it by hand.
3. Type the amount on the pad: digits are whole pesos, and the point adds centavos (1136.50 = $1,136.50). For an empty drawer, type 0.
4. Tap Save count. The sheet shows the answer, with what you counted — for example "Counted: $1,500.00" — and, when the last close recorded it, what that close left.
5. If you mistyped the figure, tap Count again and type it again.
6. Tap Done. The notice says "Opening float recorded."

What the answer means

If cash had already gone through the drawer before you counted — a cash payment, a tip in cash, cash paid into an account, a cash in or out, or a no-sale opening — the answer adds "Recorded as a late count — cash had already gone through the drawer tonight." Even then, type the cash the drawer opened with, not what is in it now: the expected cash at the close adds the night's cash to this figure.

The back office sees each answer too (see What the office sees).

Count later

To count later, tap Later. The amber note "· Opening float not counted" stays in the top bar, next to the name of whoever is signed in. Tap it to count.

• The night's first cash asks for the count again, and then it can't wait (next section).
• The sheet opens by itself once per drawer on each iPad. After Later, it doesn't open again at sign-in on that iPad, but the note stays until someone counts or a manager skips the count.

When the night's first cash asks

The count can't wait past the night's first cash. Until the drawer is counted, or a manager skips the count, these ask for it first:

• Cash on the payment sheet;
• Tip in cash on a card payment;
• Record on a cash payment into a customer account;
• Cash In / Out in the Register;
• Open Drawer (No Sale), in the Register or under This iPad.

Card payments, charges to customer accounts and everything else never wait.

1. The Opening float sheet opens in front of what you were doing: "The drawer hasn't been counted tonight. Count it before the first cash goes in or out."
2. Count the cash, type it and tap Save count.
3. Read the answer and tap Continue. What you were doing goes ahead: the cash step opens, the drawer opens, and so on.

To back out, tap Cancel. Nothing happens, and the cash waits for the count.

If someone has just counted on another iPad, the iPad checks first and lets you straight through.

Skip the count (manager)

When the drawer can't be counted right now, a manager can let the night's cash go ahead without a count. The skip is kept on the record, with who asked and who approved it, and the office sees it like a difference.

Who can do this: admins and managers. Anyone else needs a manager's PIN.

1. On the sheet the night's first cash opens, tap Skip the count — manager approval. The skip is only offered there.
2. A signed-in admin or manager skips straight away. Anyone else hands the iPad to a manager, who types their PIN on Skip the opening count: "Skipping is kept on the record, with who asked."
3. The sheet says "Count skipped." and "It stays on the record with who approved it, and the office sees it like a difference." Tap Continue. What you were doing goes ahead.

After a skip the iPads stop asking. A manager can still count the drawer later, from Register › Opening float or on the close screen; once cash has gone through the drawer, that count is a late count.

Count again

• Straight after counting, to fix a typo: tap Count again on the answer and type the figure again. You can do this for your own count until cash has gone through the drawer; an admin or manager can at any time.
• Later in the night (admins and managers): tap ···, then Register, then Opening float. The sheet says "Count the cash the drawer opens with." Type the figure, tap Save count, read the answer and tap Done. Once cash has gone through the drawer, it's a late count.
• Someone already counted, on another iPad for example: the sheet shows their count, with "Already counted by", their name and the time. What you were doing goes ahead on their count.

Rules for the count

• The count is checked against what the last close left in the drawer: the Stays in the drawer figure the closer typed (see Closing the day). The difference is your count minus that figure.
• One drawer, one count, shared by every iPad. A new count replaces the old one, and the expected cash at the close starts from the latest.
• Not counted is different from $0. A float nobody counted counts as $0 in the expected cash, but the Z — on screen and on paper — says Not counted.
• The close screen still catches a float nobody counted: Opening float not counted › Set, for the admin or manager closing.
• No count is asked for on a drawer left open from an earlier day (see A drawer left open from an earlier day).
• Counting needs a connection: Save count and the skip are disabled while the iPad is offline.
• After the close the float can't change: "The day is already closed — its float can't change."

What the office sees

In the back office, every opening count is checked against the last close:

• Today's Needs attention lists an opening that was $100 or more short or over what the last close left, one counted late, and a skipped count nobody made up for — until a manager explains it. See Today.
• Reports › Shift closes (Z) shows, under each drawer's float, how its count compared with the last close — for example "$50.00 less than the last close left", "matches what the last close left" or "counted late" — and lets a manager explain an opening with a note, even while the drawer is still open. See Closing the day.

Where the float shows:

• the line under the Close the day tile in ··· — for example "shift since 4:39 PM · float $2,000.00", ending in "not counted" when nobody has counted it (on a drawer left open from an earlier day, the day replaces the time);
• the Opening float row in the Register;
• the close screen's Confirm step;
• the Z, on screen and on paper;
• the Opening column of Reports › Shift closes (Z), with "—" when it wasn't counted;
• under the drawer's row on Reports › Shift closes (Z), as "Opening count" — or "Late opening count", or "corrected" with the earlier figure — with how it compared with the last close and who counted it.

The float isn't part of the Income report.

Record cash in or out

Records cash put into or taken out of the drawer outside a sale, with a reason — change from the bank, buying bottles, paying the musicians, a bank deposit. Each movement counts in the expected cash, is listed with its reason, time and who recorded it on the close screen and the Z, and opens the drawer so the cash can actually move.

Who can do this: admins and managers, from the Register on a paired iPad. There is no PIN route for other roles, and it can't be done from the back office.

1. Tap ···, then Register, then Cash In / Out. If nobody has counted tonight's drawer yet, the opening count comes first (see When the night's first cash asks).
2. Choose Cash In or Cash Out at the top.
3. Type the amount on the pad: digits are whole pesos, and the point adds centavos. The figure above the pad shows the sign the drawer feels — for example $500.00 in, or −$500.00 out.
4. Under Reason, tap one of your venue's reasons. Or tap Other… and type a reason in the box ("e.g. taxi for a guest").
5. Tap Record. The drawer opens and the notice says "Movement recorded — drawer opened."
6. Put the cash in, or take it out.

To cancel, tap Cancel before Record. Nothing is recorded.

Move cash to or from the safe

At a bar that uses the safe, each direction has one more option, first among the reasons: From the safe on Cash In, To the safe on Cash Out. One Record then records both sides, so the drawer's expected cash and what should be in the safe change by the same amount.

1. Follow the steps above, and in step 4 tap From the safe or To the safe. A line under the reasons says "This amount also comes out of the safe." or "This amount also goes into the safe."
2. Tap Record. The drawer opens and the notice says "Movement recorded — drawer opened."
3. Put the cash in the drawer, or take it out and put it in the safe.

• The options need Use the safe on for your bar and Barform 1.2.3 or later on the iPad. Without either, they don't show, and Cash In / Out works as usual.
• The iPad never shows how much the safe holds.
• The reason recorded is the option's name, in the iPad's language, so the close screen and the Z read From the safe or To the safe like any other reason.
• A reason of your own with the same words moves only the drawer.

The rules for the safe's side, and how a close counts it, are in The safe.

Rules for cash in and out

• Cash in adds to the expected cash and cash out subtracts from it: expected cash = opening float + cash sales + cash tips kept in the drawer + cash payments into customer accounts + cash in − cash out.
• The amount must be above $0 and a reason is required: Record stays disabled until both are there.
• A reason can be up to 120 characters.
• Switching between Cash In and Cash Out clears the chosen reason: each direction has its own list. That clears From the safe and To the safe too.
• The movement lands on the day's drawer. With no open drawer, it is refused.
• A retry can't record a movement twice. If you tap Record again after a failed or unclear attempt — with the sheet still open, and the same direction and amount — Barform recognises it as the same movement. If the first attempt did land, its reason is the one kept. Closing the sheet and starting again counts as a new movement, and so does picking or dropping From the safe or To the safe: only those options move the safe.
• Each movement keeps its drawer, direction, amount, reason, who recorded it and when.
• Movements can't be edited or deleted. A wrong movement can only be offset by recording the opposite one. A wrong From the safe is offset by To the safe for the difference, and the other way round: that puts both sides right.

When it doesn't go through

• Recording needs a connection. While the iPad is offline, Record is disabled and the sheet says "Offline — payments are paused until the connection is back."
• After the day is closed: "The day is closed. Start a new day on the PIN screen to continue."
• If the person recording is no longer an active admin or manager: "This needs an active manager or admin."
• If your bar switched the safe off after this iPad last read the switch, From the safe or To the safe says "This bar doesn't use the safe, so nothing was recorded." and the option goes away at once. A plain Cash In / Out still works.
• Opening the drawer afterwards is best effort. If the printer doesn't answer, or printing is off, the movement is still recorded and the notice still says "drawer opened". Use the drawer key.
• Reasons are your venue's own text and show exactly as saved, in whatever language they were written. From the safe and To the safe are Barform's own words: they follow the iPad's language.

Set the Cash In and Cash Out reasons

The quick-pick reasons a manager taps when recording cash in or out on the iPad, one list for each direction. A reason that isn't on the list can still be typed on the iPad with Other….

Who can do this: admins. A manager can open the page and see it read-only, with "You can view venue settings, but only admins can change them."

1. In the back office, go to Settings › Venue › iPads and service and find Quick picks.
2. To add a reason, click in the box of the list you want, Cash In reasons or Cash Out reasons, and type the reason ("Add a reason…"). Press Enter, type a comma, click outside the box, or click + (Add). The reason appears and saves at once ("Changes save as you make them.").
3. To remove a reason, click the × on it (Remove reason). Or press Backspace in the empty box to remove the last one. It saves at once.

Rules for the reason lists

• Up to 20 reasons per list. When a list is full, the box says "List is full (20 max)".
• Each reason is trimmed and cut at 120 characters. Repeats are ignored; capitals and extra spaces don't make a difference.
• A new venue starts with Barform's built-in reasons (below) already saved, in the language chosen when it signed up. Until someone edits a list, it follows the iPad language if that changes; once edited, it stays as written.
• When a list has nothing saved, Barform's built-in reasons are used, in your iPads' language. In English: cash in "Change from the bank" and "Cash added to the drawer"; cash out "Bottle purchase", "Musicians", "Supplies" and "Bank deposit". An iPad with no saved list shows them in its own app language.
• If you remove every reason from a list, it goes back to the built-in reasons instead of staying empty.
• Each movement keeps the reason it was recorded with. Changing the list later doesn't change past movements on the Z or in the reports.
• The iPad reads the lists at sign-in, so a change reaches each iPad the next time someone signs in on it.

Open the drawer without a sale

Opens the cash drawer with no sale and no paper — for example, to give change. Every opening is recorded under the manager who approved it, with who asked for it.

Who can do this: anyone signed in, with a manager's approval.

If nobody has counted tonight's drawer yet, the opening count comes first (see When the night's first cash asks).

As a bartender, server or barback:

1. Tap ···, then Open Drawer (No Sale) under This iPad. It carries a manager lock badge.
2. A manager types their PIN on the Open Drawer sheet: "A no-sale drawer opening requires a manager PIN."
3. The drawer opens and the notice says "Drawer opened."

As an admin or manager:

1. Tap ···, then Register, then Open Drawer (No Sale).
2. The drawer opens straight away — you approve it yourself — and the notice says "Drawer opened."

Rules for no-sale openings

• An opening is recorded only once the drawer has actually opened, under the approving manager, with the person signed in who asked for it. An iPad on an older version records the manager alone.
• On Reports › Shift closes (Z), an opening made while a drawer was open is a line of that drawer's cash: "Drawer opened, no sale", then "asked by" and a name when someone other than the manager asked, and "approved by" and the manager's name — with "not clocked in" when the person had no time entry covering that moment.
• No money moves, and the expected cash doesn't change.
• It works with no drawer open — for example after the close. An opening made then belongs to no drawer, so it isn't listed anywhere.
• If the printer doesn't answer: "The drawer did not open — the printer … is not responding.", with the printer's name. Nothing is recorded.
• With no receipt printer set: "No receipt printer configured."
• If the record can't be written, the iPad says "Could not record the audit log: …". The drawer has already opened.
• The drawer is wired to the receipt printer and opens through it: the one chosen under Settings › Printers › Receipts & bills, or this iPad's own choice under ··· › Receipt printer › Receipt printer (this iPad). See Printing and receipts.

Where drawer money shows

To see one night's cash in and out in the back office:

1. Open Reports › Shift closes (Z) and pick the range.
2. Click the night's row. Under it, The drawer's cash, oldest first lists everything that went into or out of the drawer, each with its time, amount and who — each cash in and out with its reason ("Cash in:" or "Cash out:"), the opening count, the no-sale openings and the close among them. See Closing the day.

To see cash in and out totals over a period:

1. Open Reports › Income and pick the range.
2. Read the Drawer movements card: Paid in and Paid out. The same two columns are in the period table and in the exports. See Income.

What each place shows:

• The iPad's close screen and the Z: Paid in and Paid out totals, each with its movements under it — reason and signed amount, then the time and who recorded it, oldest first. The opening float is on the Confirm step and on the Z. The float and every movement are part of the expected cash.
• The Z's CSV: the cash-in and cash-out totals, one row per movement, and the opening float. See Closing the day.
• Reports › Shift closes (Z): the Opening column, with how each opening count compared with the last close, Expected as stored at the close (movements included), and, under each drawer's row, its cash, oldest first — every movement, the opening count and the no-sale openings included. A difference with a reason a manager knows — a count that left out the float, say — can be marked as explained there, with a note: the stored figures stay, and Today's Needs attention stops listing it. See Closing the day.
• Reports › Income: cash in and cash out added up by the service day each movement was recorded. The page labels it "Cash put into or taken out of a drawer — context for the cash count, not income." The opening float isn't in Income.
• Reports › Safe, at a bar that uses the safe: what each close took out of the drawer — the count minus what stays in the drawer — added to what should be in the safe. Cash in and out of the drawer doesn't change it, unless it's From the safe or To the safe: those show there as the other side of the same move, and open this drawer's row on Reports › Shift closes (Z). See The safe.

Cash moved between the drawer and the safe shows in all of these as the cash in or out it is, under its option's name: "Cash in: From the safe" or "Cash out: To the safe" on Reports › Shift closes (Z). It's never income.

What Barform keeps:

• each cash in or out, with its drawer, direction, amount, reason, who and when — and, for one moved between the drawer and the safe, the safe's entry linked to it;
• every opening count, with the new and the previous amount, who counted, how it compared with the last close and whether it was late;
• every skipped count, with who asked and who approved it;
• every no-sale opening, under the approving manager, with who asked;
• every close, with its figures and what stayed in the drawer;
• every explanation of a drawer difference, and every one taken back, with the note, who and when.

A drawer's row on Shift closes (Z) lists its opening count and recounts, a skipped count, the no-sale openings made while it was open, who closed it and what the close left in the drawer. No screen lists the explanations taken back — Shift closes (Z) shows the explanation that stands — or a no-sale opening made with no drawer open. Back-office pages show what was recorded when they loaded; reload the page to see newer movements.

Related

• Closing the day
• Taking payment
• Signing in on the iPad
• Income
• Printing and receipts