Restaurant POS bookkeeping in Cyprus: close a day's tills, cards and delivery sales

A restaurant's daily sales total can be right while the cash drawer is wrong. The drawer contains a float, customer payments and perhaps tips; it may also have funded an emergency purchase. Meanwhile card payments and delivery orders reach the bank through different settlement records.

A useful close proves each payment channel before combining the numbers for the month. It gives the owner a way to investigate a shortage while the shift details are still available. Waiting until the accountant receives a monthly bank statement makes that investigation harder.

The steps here are recommended controls. They are not a statement that a particular POS system or accounting product performs them automatically.

Decide what the closing report includes

Identify the business entity, outlet, trading day and till. Record how the system distinguishes completed sales, cancelled orders, refunds, discounts and different payment methods.

Then determine whether the report includes tax in its sales figures. Keep the sales breakdown and applicable tax records intact rather than reconstructing them from a single gross total. Cyprus VAT classifications must be established under the VAT law, not inferred from the restaurant's overall description.

Record the trading-day boundary where the restaurant closes after midnight. Compare like periods: a shift report ending at 02:00 and a card settlement using calendar days may contain different transactions.

Retain void and refund explanations with the close. A cancellation before payment and money returned after a completed sale are different events. Their distinction matters for both the cash calculation and the sales audit trail.

Count the drawer independently

Count notes and coins and record who performed the count. Compare the physical cash with the expected cash movement, excluding amounts that are not sales.

Use a separately agreed float figure. Keep tips and petty-cash movements identifiable. If staff take money from the drawer to buy supplies, retain the supplier document and record the withdrawal rather than reducing the day's sales.

Count before transferring cash to a safe or making a bank deposit. Otherwise the same collection can become part of two locations' expected balance, or disappear from both.

These records support the wider obligation to keep business books and evidence under Cyprus tax recordkeeping law. A signed close sheet is our recommended control, not a substitute for receipts and transaction records.

Worked example: a dinner shift

This example uses invented amounts and leaves VAT calculations aside. The drawer starts with a €150 float. Customers pay €600 in cash and receive €40 in completed cash refunds. Staff pay €25 from the drawer for a documented emergency purchase. Cash tips of €30 are held separately from sales.

Expected cash before the tips are separated is €715: float €150 plus sales receipts €600, less refunds €40 and the €25 purchase, plus tips €30. If the physical count is €710, there is a €5 difference to investigate.

Do not reduce sales by €5 to make the count agree. Review payment-method errors, the purchase withdrawal, refund records and the count. If the cause remains unresolved, document the shortage and the approved accounting treatment.

The shift also records €900 of card collections and €300 of delivery-platform customer charges. A later card settlement sends €882 after an illustrative €18 evidenced fee. A delivery settlement sends €240 after €60 of separately supported deductions.

The three net money amounts do not redefine the restaurant's sales. Cash, card and delivery records each need their own gross-to-net bridge. The bank receipts of €882 and €240 clear the appropriate settlement balances.

The €25 purchase needs its supplier evidence and classification. Keep the €30 tips separately identifiable under the documented handling policy, and assess the relevant payroll or other obligations before paying them out.

Compare card receipts with processor settlements

For card payments, reconcile the POS payment total to the processor's transaction record. Then reconcile that record to settlement deductions and the bank deposit.

A batch may settle on a different day. Keep that timing difference as a supported balance rather than moving sales to the deposit date. Record the settlement reference so the next day's close does not count it again.

Look for failed transactions, reversals, duplicates and payment-method mistakes. If a customer paid cash but the order was marked card, the till can show a shortage or surplus even though the total sale is correct.

Do not book every settlement deduction as a card fee. A deduction can relate to a refund or another adjustment. Read the document and establish its nature before choosing an account.

Keep delivery channels out of double counting

Determine whether the POS already includes delivery-platform orders. If it does, importing the platform's gross sales as additional revenue duplicates those orders.

Use the delivery statement to prove settlement and deductions for the orders already represented. If the POS omits that channel, the sales ledger needs another supported source.

A platform-funded promotion and a restaurant-funded discount may affect the commercial amounts differently. Use the agreement and statement rather than a remembered commission percentage. The same applies to delivery charges and cancellations.

Keep a link from each settled order group to the bank deposit. The bank reconciliation guide explains the final comparison, while the invoice requirements guide covers the supporting documentation framework.

Make unusual shift events visible

Use a short close log for refunds after cash was deposited, staff meals, waste, complimentary orders and till corrections. These events need review; they should not vanish through unlabelled deletions.

Where an invoice or receipt is required, assess it under the VAT General Regulations. A manager's explanation of a complimentary meal does not by itself settle its accounting or VAT treatment.

Assign recurring differences to a cause. Several small card/cash classification errors can reveal a training problem. A persistent undocumented withdrawal is a different control concern. The investigation should respond to the pattern, not simply its net monthly amount.

Hand over a close pack the bookkeeper can use

For each day, retain the close report, payment-channel summaries, cash count, withdrawals, refund evidence and exception log. For the month, add settlement statements and bank matches.

A useful handover separates completed days from those awaiting documents. The reviewer can then focus on the exceptions instead of asking the same questions about every shift.

The existing monthly bookkeeping checklist provides the broader close routine. Separate service information is available on the Cyprus bookkeeping page.