Close your day in 15 minutes
If closing the shop means the owner staying an extra hour, you do not have a process. You have a bottleneck. Here is a 15-minute close anyone on shift can run.
Print this. Tape it near the till. The point is not software. The point is the same four moves, every night.
Minute 0–4 — Count the till
Cash in the drawer. UPI total. Card total. Write all three, even if they already show on a screen.
If cash is off by more than a small float, stop. Do not “adjust it in the morning.” Morning-you will not remember which bill was a guess.
Minute 4–8 — Match bills to the board
Every sale on the day list should have a bill. Every bill should be on the day list.
Typical leaks:
- a favour for a regular, never billed
- a walk-in paid in cash, never entered
- a cancelled slot that still shows as done
You are not hunting fraud. You are stopping silent holes before they become the month's mystery.
Minute 8–12 — Note the leaks
One line each, in a notebook or a closing note:
- comps and voids
- petty cash taken out
- anything promised for tomorrow (“we ordered the colour, arriving 11am”)
This is the page your future self will thank you for when a customer says “but you said.”
Minute 12–15 — Lock tomorrow
Three checks:
- Who opens, and at what time
- What is short in stock for the first jobs
- First booked slot — is the person actually rostered?
Then lock the drawer, send a photo of the close slip to the owner if they are not there, and leave.
Why this works
Fifteen minutes is short enough that staff will do it. It is long enough to catch the errors that steal weekends. If close takes an hour, the checklist is too rich — cut it until it fits the clock.
DIY does not mean “build an app.” It means a ritual the shop can repeat without you.