Opening and closing the till

Selling tickets for cash at the door happens from a till: you open it with change, record any money taken out along the way, and close it with the counted amount. When you close it, 4planning creates a cash statement PDF, the source document for your bookkeeping.

A till belongs to one device. Two volunteers on the same scanner link each have their own till.

Step 1: Open the till

1. Open the scanner and go to the Sell tab.
2. Count the change in the drawer and enter it under Change in the till (€).
3. Tap Open till.

You can now sell; see Cash sales at the door.

Step 2: Taking money out along the way

If you take money out of the drawer, for example to the safe or for a purchase, record it straight away:

1. Open Money out of the till.
2. Choose Deposit or Expense, enter the Amount (€) and optionally a description.
3. Tap Save.

The Till block always shows Change, Sales, Deposited, Expenses and Expected in the till.

Step 3: Close the till

1. Count the money in the drawer.
2. Open Close the till and fill in Counted amount in the till (€) and Counted by. You can add a Second counter (optional) and a Note (optional).
3. Tap Close till and confirm. After that you can no longer undo sales.

You see Till closed with expected, counted and the difference, plus "The till balances.", "There is more in the till than expected." or "There is less in the till than expected."

Handing over to the next shift? Close the till and tap Open a new till. The counted amount is then already filled in as change.

The cash statement

When the till is closed, the cash statement is recorded: who, when, the change, every sale (undone ones marked as such), every deposit and expense, revenue per VAT rate, expected, counted and the difference. It doesn't change after that.

A system administrator finds all tills on Financial overview, in the Cash at the door block, and downloads the PDF there with Cash statement. Cash isn't included in the payouts on that page: it never went through 4planning.

Explaining a difference

Expected in the till = change + sales − deposits − expenses. If the count is off, look at:

• sales written down on paper during an outage that aren't in the till;
• money that left the drawer without a deposit or expense being recorded;
• a sale reversed at the door but not with Undo;
• change that was counted differently when the till was opened.

Write the explanation in the note when closing, so the treasurer sees it on the cash statement.

What if the connection drops during a sale?

If no answer comes after Cash received, the till does not know whether the sale went through. It then locks the basket (plus and minus, the email field and clear) until the till has refreshed. If the sale turns out to have been processed, it appears under Latest sales, the basket is emptied and you briefly see "Sold". If it was not processed, you can try again. That way one buyer cannot pay twice. An error from the wifi network, such as a login page, does not log the volunteer out.

Deleting the event

A till in which nothing happened (opened, but no sale, deposit or expense) does not stop you from deleting the event, provided it is still open or was closed without a cash difference (counted amount equal to the float); it is then cleaned up together with its cash statement. If there has been a sale or a booking, including a sale that was undone, or the till was closed with a cash difference, you can no longer delete the event: cash statements must be kept for seven years. Archive it instead.

A till that was left open

If the phone is gone or the volunteer has already gone home, a system administrator closes the till on Financial overview › Cash at the door with Close till: same fields, same cash statement. If it says "Device no longer active — only you can still close this cash register", it can no longer be done from the scanner.

Frequently asked questions

Can I reopen a closed till? No. Open a new till.

Are there service fees on cash sales? No.

Do I need a separate scanner for each volunteer? No, one scanner link is enough: each device gets its own till.

Can I delete an event whose till I opened but where nothing was sold? Yes. Only a till with a sale or a booking blocks deleting, or a closed till with a cash difference.