Cash-drawer-based day openings and closings

General concept

Drawer count is typically used in store setups where cash-drawers are mobile within the store.

With this setup, typically each employee is assigned a cash-drawer that they use during their shift and for each sale they process. Users can use any of multiple computer POS stations within the store but always deposit cash payment within their assigned cash-drawer.

Terms to know

Hardware:

• POS station: the physical register station, typically a computer but can be a tablet. This is physically fixed.
• Cash-drawer: the physical container for storing cash taken from sales during the day. Can be attached to a POS station or mobile.

Software:

• Register: the record in Erply referring to a POS station
• Drawer: the record in Erply referring to a mobile cash-drawer, and assigned to one or multiple employees

Drawer count vs Register count

By default Erply supports Register-based count, where any employee counts the cash in the cash-drawer of a computer POS station at the beginning of the day, and any employee counts the cash left in the cash-drawer of the POS station at the end of the day.

With this setup, X-reports are issued per day opening period and per register / POS station.

When Drawer count is enabled, an employee is expected to count the content of their personal cash-drawer when opening the day in Erply, using any POS station within the store. At the end of their shift, the employee is expected to count the content of their personal cash drawer and close the day in Erply at any POS station within the store.

With this setup, X-reports are issued per day opening period and per employee / mobile cash-drawer.

Enabling Drawer count

Drawer count can be enabled from different places within Erply applications.

In Erply Wizard (recommended)

• Visit Erply Wizard, log in with the same credentials you use at the POS or back-office (user rights restriction may apply)
• In the left-hand menu, unfold the “POS Settings” and click on “Start and End of the Day”
• Check the box for “Use drawer counting instead of default register counting”

In Configuration Admin (for account administrators)

• Add the following parameter:
  • Name: pos_shift_count
  • Value: BY_DRAWER

You can also contact Erply support to enable Drawer count.

Setting up drawer IDs

To set up the drawer ID, simply go to an employee card in Erply POS (under Settings > Employees) and fill in the “Drawer identification” field.

Drawer IDs are strings that can contain letters and numbers. Drawer IDs are case and space sensitive.

An employee can only be assigned 1 drawer ID.

But 1 drawer ID can be assigned to multiple employees.

Opening and closing the day with Drawer count

Opening and closing the day with Drawer count follows the same steps at the POS as with Register count.

With Drawer count enabled, you will notice that when opening or closing the day, instead of the register name, the drawer ID is showed at the top of the window.

Reporting with drawer count

X-report

An X-report is a report listing all sales paid at the POS during a day opening period.

With Drawer count enabled, X-reports are generated per drawer ID instead of per register.

X-report can be generated:

• At the POS
  • By clicking on the “X-report” button mid-shift 
  • After closing the day
• In the back office
  • From the page of a day opening and closing entry, by clicking on “Z Report” in the top right-hand corner

Z-report

An X-report is essentially a Z-report issued for a specific drawer ID (or specific register with default setup).

A Z-report allows to report on multiple shifts a time.

A Z-report can be issued from the Back-office under Reports > Z Report.

A Z-report will show the counts broken down either by drawer ID or by register, depending on whether Drawer count is enabled or not.

Payment summary (cash audit)

When Drawer count is enabled, each row of the Payment summary report corresponds to a day opening period recorded for a specific drawer ID.

Use case examples

Where each user has their own assigned drawer

Frodo and Sam are two employees of the same store.

• Frodo is assigned a mobile cash-drawer, drawer ID = D1.
• Sam is assigned a mobile cash-drawer, drawer ID = D2.

Frodo uses the store’s only computer and open the day at 8am. After logging in Erply POS, he is prompted to count the content of the drawer D1.

Sam starts his shift at 10am, logs in Erply on the store’s computer after Frodo logged out. Sam is prompted to open the day and counts the content of his drawer D2.

Throughout the day Frodo and Sam make sales on the same computer but collect cash payments in their respective cash-drawers. They make sure to log in with their username and password before starting to use the POS and log out when they are done with the computer.

At the end of the day, each in turn logs in the POS at the computer, closes the day, counts the content of their cash-drawer and deposits extra cash in the safe, logging out of Erply after they are done.

• Each of them is able to print a X-report after closing their day
• Each X-report only lists the sales made by the employee who just closed their drawer.
• Despite using the same computer (POS station) sales are separated based on the employee who made the sale and in which drawer the cash went.

Where 2 users or more share the same drawer

Gandalf and Sarum are two employees sharing the same drawer.

On both their employee cards in Erply back-office, the drawerID is set to D3.

• Whether Gandalf or Sarum logs in Erply POS, the system recognizes that whatever cash payment they take will go to the cash-drawer D3
• Which ever of them 2 logs in first in Erply POS is prompted to open the day and count the drawer’s content. Once the day is opened for drawer D3, the next of the 2 employees logging in will not be prompted to open the same drawer again.
• At the end of the day, one of the 2 employees needs to close the day and count the cash-drawer content and the amount being deposited in the safe. Only one of the 2 employees need to close the day, since they are sharing the same drawer.
• After closing the day, the X-report printing lists all the sales for which a payment was taken, either by Gandalf or Sarum.