Why a shift exists
A shift is the span of trading that has to balance at the end of it. Without one, the drawer never reconciles and staff stop trusting the count.
Every selling screen is closed until a shift is open, and every sale, refund and cash movement inside it carries a cashier's name.
Open a shift
Count the cash you are starting the day with and enter it as the opening float. The till opens and the counter is live.
A cashier can open a shift alone — it does not need a manager standing over it, because a shop that opens at seven in the morning does not have one.
Cash in and cash out
Press F10 for the cash drawer dialog and log every movement of cash that is not a sale: paying a delivery driver, taking money to the bank, buying bags, putting a float back.
Type the amount as a positive number and choose a reason; the reason decides the direction. Cash movements are reachable by the cashier, without a manager PIN, because the person paying a driver at the door has nobody to fetch.
Each movement is itemised on the shift reports, which is what makes the closing variance mean something.
Check the shift mid-way
The X report is a live picture of the shift as it stands: takings, the payment breakdown, refunds, and the cash movements so far. Run it as often as you like — it changes nothing.
Use it before a cashier hands over, or at a mid-morning lull, so a discrepancy is found while people still remember the hour it happened in.
Close the shift
Closing asks you to count the drawer. The till compares what you counted with what it expected — the opening float, plus cash sales, less cash refunds, plus and minus every cash movement — and shows the difference.
Over and short
A difference is recorded, not hidden. Over means more cash than expected; short means less. Both go into the shift record with the count that produced them.
Small differences happen. A pattern in one person's shifts is the thing to look at, and that is exactly what the shift history gives you.
The Z report
Closing produces the Z report. It is written once and never recomputed, so nobody can edit the day after the fact — including you.
It sits beside the cash movements that explain it, and it survives its own shift ending: the shift list keeps every past shift and its report.
Past shifts
The back office lists every shift with its opening float, its takings, its variance, and the sales rung up during it. Open one to see its X and Z reports and the sales it contains.
That list, over a month, answers the questions worth asking: which hours actually take money, and whose drawer balances.
Handing over between cashiers
Switching cashier is one tap on the name in the header. It ends that person's session without closing the shift, so the drawer stays continuous across a handover and the attribution stays honest.
To close a shift somebody else opened, you need a supervisor — see Staff, PINs and permissions.