How to Cash Up a Pub Properly

Last updated: 2 May 2026

Most pub landlords think cash-up is just counting the till and going home. It’s not. I’ve watched licensees miss hundreds of pounds in discrepancies because they didn’t follow a proper closing procedure — and I’ve learned the hard way that an incorrect cash-up at the end of the night leads to inaccurate accounts, wasted time chasing phantom losses, and zero visibility into what actually happened behind the bar.

If you’re taking on a pub, whether it’s a tied tenancy under Marston’s CRP or a free house, knowing how to cash up properly is non-negotiable. It’s not glamorous, but it’s where you’ll catch till fraud, spot staff mistakes, and build the financial foundation that keeps your pub running profitably.

This guide covers the exact procedure I use at Teal Farm Pub — a 180-cover community operation running quiz nights, match days, and food service simultaneously — and the processes that turned our best revenue year in 2025.

You’ll learn the step-by-step process, the common mistakes that cost money, how to spot discrepancies, and why proper cash-up is the first line of defence against unreliable numbers.

The difference between a pub that knows its numbers and one that doesn’t comes down to discipline at close. This is where that discipline starts.

Why Cash-Up Procedure Matters More Than You Think

A proper cash-up procedure is the bridge between what your EPOS says you’ve sold and what money you actually hold. Without it, you’re flying blind.

Most small pub operators don’t realise how much cash leaks away through sloppy closing routines. Not always through theft — though that happens — but through:

• Staff ringing sales into the wrong till
• Card payments not matching till records
• Float overages no one can account for
• Voids and refunds that didn’t get logged properly
• Tills left open between shifts

When I took on Teal Farm Pub three years ago on a Marston’s CRP agreement, the previous operator’s cash-up was chaos. Till readings didn’t match till contents. Floats were all over the place. Discrepancies were written off as “rounding errors.” Within two weeks of implementing a proper cash-up routine, we identified £400 in unaccounted cash that had been written off as loss.

The second reason proper cash-up matters: it’s a legal requirement and an audit requirement. When your pubco conducts an NSF audit (we passed ours in March 2026), they will review your closing procedures and till records. If you can’t show a clear paper trail of cash reconciliation, you look unreliable — even if your numbers are actually fine. A clean, documented cash-up routine proves you’re running a professional operation.

Third reason: it protects your staff. If you don’t reconcile the till every night, you can’t distinguish between till shortages caused by individual staff members and system-wide issues. That makes it impossible to provide fair feedback, identify training needs, or handle genuine security concerns. Good cash-up procedure protects honest staff and identifies problem behaviour quickly.

The Step-by-Step Cash-Up Process

Here’s the exact procedure I follow at Teal Farm Pub. This works whether you’re using a modern EPOS system or an older standalone till.

Stage 1: Pre-Close Verification (30 minutes before closing time)

Before you start the formal close, verify that all tills are still secure and that nothing has changed since the last reconciliation.

• Check that all tills are physically locked and accessible only to authorised staff
• Confirm that no outstanding transactions are pending (all card payments have cleared, all refunds have been processed)
• If you use multiple tills, verify that each one is assigned to a specific person or shift
• Do a quick visual count: do the notes and coins in the float look approximately right?

If something looks off at this stage, investigate it now before you close the till. A suspicious extra £50 in the till could be a genuine deposit from a customer, or it could be a sign of a problem. Either way, you need to know before you sign off.

Stage 2: Close Your EPOS System Officially

Your EPOS system should have a formal close function. Do not skip this.

• Select “End of Day” or “Close Till” in your EPOS software
• Print a Z-Report (or equivalent) — this shows total sales, voids, refunds, card transactions, and cash expected
• The Z-Report is your reference document. Keep it physically with your cash bag
• Do not reopen the till after the Z-Report has been printed

If your till won’t officially close because of a pending transaction or error, do not force it closed and ignore the error. This is how discrepancies compound. Sort the issue first. It might take 15 minutes, but it’s 15 minutes well spent.

Stage 3: Physical Till Count

Now you count the actual cash in the till.

• Remove the till drawer and place it on a clean, secure surface (not the bar)
• Count all notes first (£50s, £20s, £10s, £5s, £1s)
• Count coins by denomination (£2, £1, 50p, 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p, 1p)
• Have a second person witness the count if possible — especially if you suspect a discrepancy
• Write down the total physical cash amount on your Z-Report or closing sheet

This takes 10–15 minutes if you’re careful. Don’t rush. A miscounted till at 11 p.m. leads to an hour of re-counting at 1 a.m.

If you’re handling multiple tills (and I often am on match days at Teal Farm), count each one separately, record each total separately, then add them together at the end.

Reconciling Your Till and Spotting Discrepancies

Reconciliation is where you compare what your EPOS says should be in the till against what’s actually there.

Here’s the formula:

• Expected cash = Opening float + Total cash sales (from Z-Report) − Total cash refunds/voids
• Actual cash = Physical count from the till
• Discrepancy = Expected cash minus Actual cash

Example: Your opening float was £150. Your Z-Report shows £1,200 in cash sales and £40 in refunds. Your till should hold: £150 + £1,200 − £40 = £1,310. You physically counted £1,308. Discrepancy: £2 short.

A £2 discrepancy is normal and acceptable. A £20 discrepancy is a red flag. A £100 discrepancy means something serious has happened.

What to Do If Your Till is Short

Short tills happen. How you handle them matters.

• Under £5: Accept it as rounding error/coin mix-up. Record it, move on.
• £5–£25: Recount the till. Check the Z-Report for any errors. Ask staff if they remember a specific transaction that might not have rung through. If you can’t identify the issue, record the discrepancy, note the till operator, and have a quiet word with them about care and attention.
• Over £25: Do not accept this. This is a serious issue. Recount everything. Check your EPOS for voids or refunds that might not have been recorded. Review transactions with the till operator. If you still can’t explain it, this is grounds for investigation, retraining, or disciplinary action depending on frequency.

Never just cover the shortfall from your own pocket and forget about it. I know the temptation — you’re tired, you want to go home — but doing this teaches staff that mistakes don’t matter, invites repeated behaviour, and destroys your ability to understand what’s actually happening in your pub.

What to Do If Your Till is Over

An overage is less common but equally important to investigate.

• Check if a customer deposited cash for a tab that hasn’t been settled yet
• Verify that all card transactions have been recorded correctly (sometimes card payments don’t sync immediately)
• Ask staff if they remember a customer paying cash for a round but the till not ringing
• If you can explain it, great — record the explanation. If you can’t, hold the overage separately for a few days before banking it. Overages can be a sign of unrecorded sales, which affects your VAT liability.

During our best revenue year in 2025, I investigated every till overage. Some were genuine customer deposits. Some were staff mistakes in favour of the house. Documenting them meant I understood exactly what was happening with our takings — no mystery gaps, no squirrely excuses.

Common Mistakes That Lose Money

I’ve made all of these. Here’s what not to do:

1. Not Counting Your Opening Float at the Start of the Day

If you don’t verify your opening float, you don’t know if the previous operator closed out correctly. This means discrepancies from yesterday carry forward, get mixed with today’s issues, and become impossible to trace.

Count your float every morning before opening. It should match the amount it closed with yesterday. If it doesn’t, investigate immediately.

2. Letting Staff Count Their Own Tills Without Supervision

This is asking for trouble. Even with honest staff, people count differently, make arithmetic errors, and sometimes make convenient mistakes.

You, the manager, or a trusted senior staff member should always verify the till count. Have the till operator present while you count — they should confirm the amount — but you make the final record.

3. Not Recording Voids and Refunds at the Till

If a customer orders a pint, you pour it, they don’t like it, and you give them a different one, that first pint needs to be voided at the till. If you just throw it away and hand over a new one without ringing anything, your till will be short and you won’t know why.

Train your staff: every void, every refund, every comp drink must be rung at the till. This is where your training and discipline make the difference.

4. Not Separating Cash, Card, and Voucher Payments

Your EPOS should show you total sales split by payment method. At cash-up, you physically count cash. Card payments should match your merchant processor’s records (usually reconciled the next day). Vouchers, gift cards, or other payment methods need separate accounting.

If you dump everything together, you’ll never know whether a discrepancy is a cash handling issue, a card processing issue, or something else.

5. Not Keeping Floats Separate Between Shifts

If multiple staff are using the same till throughout the day, reconcile between shifts. This identifies which shift the discrepancy belongs to and makes accountability clear.

At Teal Farm Pub, I often have different bar staff on lunch and evening shifts. I close the lunch till, count it, start fresh with a new float for the evening. This way, if the evening till is short, I know it’s an evening-shift issue, not a carryover problem from lunch.

Securing Your Cash and Closing the Till

Once your till is reconciled and balanced, you need to secure the cash and document it.

Preparing Your Cash Bag

• Place all counted cash into a secure cash bag or envelope
• Write the total amount on the outside of the bag in permanent marker
• Include your Z-Report and reconciliation sheet inside the bag
• Sign and date the bag
• If a second person witnessed the count, have them initial the bag as well

Storing the Cash Overnight

Cash should never be left in the till overnight or in an open area. It goes into:

• A locked safe in your office or back room
• A locked cash box if you don’t have a safe
• Transferred to a bank night safe if you’re using one (most larger pubs do)

During the week, I bank Teal Farm’s takings three times a week — Monday, Wednesday, Friday. On weekends, takings go into the safe until Monday. This limits the amount of cash lying around and reduces the risk of theft or loss.

Banking Your Cash

When you bank your cash, the bank will count it and issue you a paying-in slip. Keep this slip with your accounts. It becomes your proof that the cash you counted at the pub actually made it to the bank.

If the bank’s count doesn’t match your count, investigate immediately. It could be a bank error, a counting error on your part, or a sign that cash went missing between closing and banking.

Recording Your Cash-Up for Accurate Accounts

Here’s where the procedure ties into your actual financial records and becomes evidence that you’re running a professional operation.

Create a Daily Cash-Up Log

You should have a written record of every till close. This can be:

• A handwritten notebook (old school, but it works)
• A spreadsheet where you record each day’s figures
• A dedicated section in your pub management software

At minimum, record:

• Date
• Opening float
• Z-Report total (expected cash)
• Physical count (actual cash)
• Discrepancy (if any)
• Notes (reason for discrepancy, customer deposit held, etc.)
• Who closed the till
• Banking date (when the cash was banked)

Connect Cash-Up to Your Weekly Accounts

Your daily cash-up totals feed into your pub weekly accounts. Each week, you should know:

• Total cash sales for the week
• Total card sales for the week
• Total discrepancies (if any)
• Total cash banked

These figures should match your EPOS reports. If they don’t, you have a reconciliation problem that needs solving.

Using the Pub Command Centre, you can connect your daily cash-up records to your actual profit and loss figures. This is where you see whether your till reconciliation is translating into real profit. It’s one thing to balance the till; it’s another to know whether that balanced till is actually generating the margin you need. The Pub Command Centre does this for you in real time — no spreadsheets, no guesswork — showing your actual labour percentage, VAT liability, and cash position updated daily.

Keep Records for at Least 6 Years

HMRC requires you to keep business records for at least six years. This includes your cash-up logs. If you’re ever audited, these records prove that you:

• Were reconciling your till daily
• Were investigating discrepancies
• Had a documented procedure
• Were banking cash regularly

During our NSF audit in March 2026, our auditors reviewed our cash-up records going back 12 months. Having clear, documented daily records meant we could answer every question about our takings in minutes. A pub without this documentation would have taken weeks to reconstruct the same information — if it could reconstruct it at all.

Professional cash-up procedure isn’t just good habit. It’s a legal requirement and a core part of running a verifiable, auditable business.

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