A coffee shop open from six in the morning to ten at night usually runs two shifts. At two in the afternoon the morning staff are in a hurry to leave, the afternoon staff have just arrived and customers are queuing. The whole handover is one sentence: "There's about two million in the drawer." In the evening the drawer comes up short and nobody knows which shift it came from: the morning person says it was fine when they left, the afternoon person says it was already like that. Shift handover is the only moment in the day that separates two people's responsibility. Spend five minutes doing every step and you will not have to trace back through the whole day at closing.
A handover must settle three things
- Money. The cash actually in the drawer against the figure in the system. What stays as change for the next shift, and what is taken out and handed to the owner.
- Unfinished work. Tables still seated and unpaid, takeaway or delivery orders waiting, drinks already paid for but not yet made.
- Notes. Milk, ice or cups running low; a grinder making odd noises; a regular who left something and will come back for it.
Five handover steps in Ordersys
| Step | Who | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Record every payment slip for the shift | Outgoing staff | Ice, parking, straws bought with drawer cash all need a payment slip before the shift closes. Receipts and payment slips of a closed shift are locked and can no longer be edited or deleted. |
| 2. Count the drawer, enter the actual cash handed over | Outgoing staff, with the incoming staff beside them | The system shows the total cash at shift end. Enter the amount just counted and the software calculates the cash difference. |
| 3. Write the end-shift note and close the shift | Outgoing staff | If the cash does not match, the system asks again because the amount handed over differs from what should be in the drawer. Write the reason if known, then close and print the shift closing slip. |
| 4. Open the new shift | Incoming staff | Enter the opening cash amount exactly as just received, and add an opening note if there is anything to watch. |
| 5. Sign the shift closing slip | Both | Both people sign the printed slip and file it where the owner can check it. |
Ordersys does not let a new shift open while the previous one is still open. If the afternoon shift wants to sell, the morning shift has to close theirs first, so "leave it and sort it out together tonight" is not possible.
What the shift details show the owner
The shift details screen and the printed shift closing slip record:
- Shift code, employee, opening and closing time.
- Opening cash, total cash at shift end, actual cash handed over and the difference.
- Revenue split by payment method: cash, bank transfer, card, debt.
- Receipts, payment slips, returns, discounts, surcharges and the total number of invoices in the shift.
- Opening and end-shift notes.
An owner who is not at the shop can still view the shift history. If a printed slip goes missing, reprint the shift closing slip from the shift details.
A few rules worth posting at the counter
- Fixed opening cash. For example, each shift receives the same amount of change, set by the shop. Anything above that is taken out for the owner with a payment slip. If the opening cash changes every day, discrepancies are very hard to spot.
- Count in front of the incoming person. They see that the amount counted and the amount entered are the same.
- Tables still seated go in the end-shift note so the next shift knows what each table ordered and who served it.
- Record a discrepancy straight away; do not top it up. Staff paying from their own pocket to make it match hide the cause. Small differences that keep repeating on the same shift are the signal to look into.
Where to look once the cash is off, and why a surplus is more worrying than a shortfall: when the coffee shop shift close does not match goes through each cause. Opening and closing shifts, reconciling cash and revenue by payment method are part of the Ordersys coffee shop management software, with a 7-day free trial. Bank transfers are reconciled separately, as described in QR payments in store: how to reconcile without leakage.
Checkout in a few taps, print cup labels with toppings, send drinks to the bar screen and issue e-invoices from the POS.
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