How to track sales by payment type: cash, card, transfer and wallet

In many Caribbean shops a single day's takings arrive in several ways: cash in the drawer, card through a machine, bank transfers to the shop account, and mobile wallets or similar payment apps. Each one ends up in a different place, and each is checked in a different way.

If you only write down "sales: $1,840", you cannot tell whether $1,840 should be in your drawer or spread across a card batch, a bank account and a phone. That makes it easy for a shortage to hide and hard to find it. Recording the payment type for every sale fixes that.

• Cash-up accuracy. Your drawer should hold the opening float plus cash sales, minus cash paid out and cash refunds. Without a cash-only total, you are comparing the drawer to the wrong number. See how to cash up at the end of the day.
• Bank and statement checks. Card and transfer sales should show up in your bank or card statement. A sale recorded as card with no matching payment is worth a look.
• Fee awareness. Card and some wallet payments can carry fees. Knowing how much you take by each type shows what they cost you. Check the fees with your own provider.
• Cash handling risk. A shop that is 90 percent cash needs different safe habits from one that is 50 percent transfers. See shop cash security.
• Spotting mistakes. A cashier who records a cash sale as a transfer, or the reverse, shows up when totals do not match their source.

On paper, use one column per payment type, or put a letter beside each sale: C for cash, K for card, T for transfer, W for wallet. At closing, add each column. You now have four totals instead of one.

1. Record the type on every sale

   At the moment of payment, not later. Memory fades quickly in a busy shop.

2. Total each type at close

   Cash, card, transfer, wallet, and anything else.

3. Check each against its source

   Count the drawer. Compare card to the machine's end of day total. Check the bank app and wallet app for transfers and wallet payments.

4. Write down differences

   Even small ones. A repeating small gap is a clue.

A shop opens with a $200 float. By close it has recorded these sales:

The drawer holds $1,110. That is $40 short of the $1,150 expected. Because cash is counted separately, you know the gap is in cash, not in the card batch or the bank. Without a cash-only total, the $40 shortfall could be hidden by $40 more in transfers than you remembered. Now it points to the right place: a wrong change, an unrecorded refund or a cash sale not rung up.

• Choosing the wrong type to save time. If "cash" is the default and a cashier does not change it for a transfer, cash totals look too high.
• Mixing partial payments. If a customer pays part cash, part transfer, record it as two amounts rather than guessing one.
• Not checking the transfer arrived. Confirm on the bank or wallet app before handing over goods.
• Refunding in a different type. Refund the way the customer paid. See refunds and returns.

Once you have a few weeks of data, the split by payment type becomes useful in its own right. If transfers grow from 10 percent to 30 percent of sales over a few months, your cash handling risk is falling, your trips to the bank are changing, and you may want to check how quickly transfers arrive. If card use is rising, check what the machine costs you per sale and whether it is worth displaying a small minimum.

The mix can also show weekly patterns. Many shops take more cash at the start of the week and more transfers around payday. Knowing this helps you set a sensible float, and how much change to keep ready on different days. A float that is right for Monday may be too large or too small for Friday.

Whatever the pattern, keep the habit simple. One tap per sale, one set of totals per day, and one comparison per source at close.

At the Shopkeepa till, you choose the payment type for each sale: cash, card, bank transfer, a local wallet, or other. It takes one tap. Shopkeepa records the type; it does not process the payment. You still take card payments on your own machine and receive transfers and wallet payments through your own accounts.

Because every sale carries its payment type, your sales history can be searched and your daily totals can be split by cash, card, transfer and wallet. At close, you compare the cash total to the drawer, and the rest to your card statement, bank and wallet. Refunds and voids stay on record, so they do not quietly disappear from the totals. Learn more about the point of sale. Shopkeepa is in development, and early access shops will help shape it.