Matching the till figures with the count result

A count result is neither "right" nor "wrong" in itself: it gains meaning only when compared with other figures. A shop keeps information about its goods in three places: at the till (what was sold), in the accounting program (how much is left) and on the shelf (what is actually there). When they do not agree, a difference appears, but where it comes from is visible not in the count but in the balance of the period. Building that balance is not complicated: all you need is four or five columns.

The balance of the period

For the period between the previous and the present count, this equation should hold for every position:

opening balance + receipts − till sales + customer returns − returns to supplier − documented write-offs = expected balance

The opening balance is the result of the previous count, and the end of the period is the moment the till was stopped. The expected balance is compared with the counted one, and the gap is the real difference.

An example for a charging cable: opening balance 120, receipts 300, sold at the till 340, returned by customers 6, returned to the supplier 10, documented faulty units 3. Expected balance: 120 + 300 − 340 + 6 − 10 − 3 = 73. Counted: 70, so 3 are missing. At a cost of 22,000 so'm the difference is 66,000 so'm.

Do the till and the program agree

Before the balance, reconcile the till and the accounting program with each other. The first check is by quantity: if 340 cables were sold at the till, the program should show 340 issued. The second is by money. Suppose the till report shows sales for the period of 184,600,000 so'm: 71,200,000 in cash and 113,400,000 by terminal and electronic payments. The program shows 184,060,000 so'm. A gap of 540,000 so'm most often comes from receipts written by hand during an internet outage and never entered in the program. Skip this step and a muddle in sales will pass into the count result as a shortage.

Where differences come from

The till knows goods by name, not by place, so these situations produce differences:

• another variant (size, colour) was scanned: a shortage on one row, a surplus on another;
• goods were sold with an "other" or "open price" button and left without an issue;
• a bundle was sold but the goods inside it were not written off;
• a receipt was cancelled or refunded but the goods did not return to the shelf or were not received back into stock;
• a gift or promotional item was handed out with no document;
• a Telegram or Uzum order was packed and sent but the issue was not entered.

The shape of the difference also hints at the cause. A pair (minus in one place, plus in another) usually means a variant was mixed up. A lone minus points to a sale without an issue or a write-off without a document.

Example: a phone case in "black" shows −5 and in "blue" +5. The cashier scanned the same barcode several times, because both colours come in identical packaging and were set up under one code. The fix: give each variant its own code.

The reconciliation routine

1. Fix the period boundaries: the date of the previous count and the time the till was stopped now.
2. Export each column from the program as a separate report: receipts, sales, returns, write-offs.
3. Calculate the balance in Excel for about twenty of the highest-value positions.
4. On a row with a difference, check the columns one by one: was the receipt document entered, was the sale recorded against the right variant, was the return noted?
5. When you find the cause, enter the correction by document and write the cause on the row.

How to read the result

If the difference on the balance is close to zero, both the count and the books can be trusted. If the difference is large but the columns are clean, the goods may really have gone missing, and then internal control is next in line. If the discrepancy turns up in the documents of one column, fix that process first and correct the balance afterwards. Do a shortened reconciliation every month, so that by the next recount all the columns are ready.

Conclusion

A recount result answers the question "where does this difference come from?" only when it is linked to till sales and goods received. The Pereuchet team ties the count result to the moment the till was stopped and hands it over with a list of discrepancies and a file from which an accountant can easily build the balance of the period.