Cash management at an open till
With a little practice and the right know-how, the individual tasks that are important in the course of a till management of the open till can often be quickly integrated into everyday life.
The following points are particularly important:
- Observe recording and retention obligations!
This basic rule is the basis for a tax auditor to be able to quickly find his way into the respective checkout transactions. Anyone who is not exempt from the individual record requirement must meticulously record all of their trading transactions (including cash transactions, for example). This also means that the content of the process and the name of the business partner must be evident from the individual records.
- Cash reports with open till
Cash reports are used to find out the sum of a day’s income. The basis for this is the cash balance at the end of the day. What is determined here is “retrograde”, that is, backwards. Incidentally, you also need a cash report in order to keep the cash book .
Cash reports with open till
The checkout reports that you create in the course of an open checkout also help you our other to better estimate the success of the day. But what are the advantages and disadvantages of an open till?
Advantages and disadvantages of open checkouts
Once internalized, running an open till is comparatively uncomplicated. In addition, you do not have to buy programs or an electronic cash register, but can easily make your recordings manually. But running an open till also has its disadvantages. While electronic programs automatically query important data, for example for accounting, and are accordingly secure, you are largely on your own when managing the open till. In addition, the daily reports take up a lot of time. The effort in connection with an open cash register is sometimes significantly higher than it would be the case with the work that has to be done with regard to the electronic cash register.
Open till – what to do?
Depending on the industry in which you work, you are obliged to make individual records when running an open till. In addition, at the end of each day you have to determine how much has been implemented or spent. You then enter the respective results in the cash report.
The change – open cash register to digital cash register software
Have you decided to switch from an open cash register to digital cash register software? This step is usually not a problem. Of course, it is important to ensure a smooth transition. If you have any questions, you should always speak to your responsible tax advisor.
Guide the cash register properly
So that you can fully enjoy the flexibility of an open till, it is of course important to know the answers to important questions on the subject. The FAQs include the following considerations:
- Is a counting protocol necessary when the till is open?
According to a decision by the Federal Fiscal Court in 2016, as a user of an open till, you are not obliged to keep a counting log. It is sufficient to create a cash report every day to be on the safe side.
- Is there an obligation to issue receipts when the till is open?
No. But the obligation to issue receipts for electronic cash register systems applies from 01/01/2020. This says that you have to provide your customer with a receipt. You can find out more about this in our article on mandatory receipts for 2020 .
- Procedural documentation
The process documentation covers a broad field of the GoBD. With their help it is recorded, among other things, which cash register is used. However, this area also includes other sources of information relating, for example, to the user himself and any data changes.
Cash reports and cash book
Users of an open cash register are obliged to keep both cash reports and a cash book. Since there are sometimes different sources of error, you should always be particularly meticulous in order to avoid subsequent estimates by the tax office, for example.
Auditors pay attention to:
- Withdrawals that are only documented once at the end of the month
- comparatively high cash on hand
- missing data
Properly kept cash reports, on the other hand, form the basis for a clean cash book.
Tip!
With a cash book software you can keep an electronic cash book anytime and anywhere. This means that you have a daily overview of all bookings. You can create daily and monthly financial statements with just a few clicks of the mouse and manage a GoBD-compliant and legally secure cash accounting.
Daily reports for tax audits
According to the GoBD, when running an open till, an entrepreneur is obliged to record his expenses and income every day after business hours and to calculate them on the basis of the above-mentioned formula. If the calculations for a certain day are missing, this is usually the first thing that will be noticed during a tax audit. Under certain circumstances, a loophole of this type will (very rarely) be forgiven. This is an absolute exception for which there must be a special reason. Otherwise, this is probably one of the most classic sources of error in connection with the open checkout, which the responsible employee can avoid through consistency and awareness.
