Key takeaways
What this article covers, in order:
- Where the money goes missing
- The daily takings sheet
- Recording the day in your books
- Card settlements: the timing headache
- Cash: weekends and Mondays
- Delivery apps
For a café or restaurant, good bookkeeping comes down to one daily habit: record what the till says you sold, split by how you were paid, and then prove each part arrived in the bank. Card sales show up as settlements, cash shows up as deposits, and delivery apps show up net of commission. That's the heart of restaurant bookkeeping: if you record the day's takings properly, the bank reconciliation almost does itself.
Where the money goes missing
Sofia runs a 40-seat café in Fremantle (she's illustrative, not a real customer). Busy weekday, $2,846.50 through the point-of-sale. By the end of the month her bank account doesn't quite agree with her sales reports, and she has no idea which day caused it.
Hospitality is hard on bookkeeping for a few reasons:
- Takings come in three or four ways: card, cash, delivery apps, sometimes gift vouchers.
- Card money arrives a day or more later, and sometimes several days are batched together.
- Cash gets used before it's banked: milk runs, a tradesperson paid on the spot, change for the float.
- Weekend takings are often banked on Monday in one deposit.
- Tips muddy everything.
None of this is complicated on its own. It just needs a routine.
The daily takings sheet
At close, print or save the end-of-day (Z) report from your point-of-sale and fill in a takings sheet. Here's Sofia's Wednesday 14 Oct 2026:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Total sales per POS | $2,846.50 |
| Paid by card | $2,311.20 |
| Paid by cash | $535.30 |
| Cash paid out of till (milk, receipt kept) | −$42.80 |
| Cash to bank | $492.50 |
And the cash count:
| Cash count | Amount |
|---|---|
| Opening float | $300.00 |
| Add: cash sales | +$535.30 |
| Less: milk paid from till | −$42.80 |
| Expected cash in drawer | $792.50 |
| Actual count | $792.50 |
| Over/(short) | $0.00 |
She keeps $300.00 back as tomorrow's float and puts $492.50 in the banking bag. The float isn't income. It's the same $300 going round and round, so it sits in a "cash float" asset account and never touches sales.
If the count had come up $8.00 short, she'd record $8.00 to a "cash over/short" account. Small amounts happen. Regular shortfalls are a conversation with the team.
Recording the day in your books
Each day (or each week, if that's realistic) you record:
- Sales of $2,846.50, split by payment method into clearing accounts: "Card clearing" $2,311.20 and "Cash clearing" $535.30.
- The till payout of $42.80 as an expense (cost of goods, in this case), paid from cash clearing.
- The bank deposits out of each clearing account when they land.
Why clearing accounts again? Because the sale happens on Wednesday but the money lands on Thursday (card) or Monday (cash). The clearing account holds the gap. When the deposit shows up in the bank, you match it against the clearing account, not against sales. If a clearing account isn't back to zero at the end of the week, a deposit is missing or a day's takings were entered wrong.
Card settlements: the timing headache
Card settlements usually arrive the next business day, but a Friday, Saturday and Sunday can turn up as one Monday deposit, or as three separate deposits on Monday. It depends on your provider.
Merchant fees vary too. Some providers take fees out of each settlement (so the deposit is less than your card sales). Others charge them in one monthly debit. Look at a month of statements and figure out which you've got.
- Fees deducted from settlements: record card sales at the full amount, then record the fee as an expense out of card clearing, so the deposit matches.
- Fees charged monthly: card settlements match card sales exactly, and the monthly fee debit gets coded to merchant fees on its own.
Cash: weekends and Mondays
Sofia banks weekend cash on Monday. Saturday's cash to bank was $612.40 and Sunday's was $488.10, so Monday's deposit should be $1,100.50. If the bank shows $1,100.50, both days clear in one match. If it shows $1,050.50, she's got a $50.00 problem in one of those two bags, and the daily takings sheets tell her which one to recount.
A few cash habits that save hours:
- One banking bag per day, labelled with the date, even if two bags go in together.
- Write the deposit reference as the trading date.
- Keep every till payout receipt in the bag or photographed against that day.
Delivery apps
Delivery platforms pay you net of commission and other charges, usually weekly. Treat them like any other platform: record gross sales through a "Delivery clearing" account, record commission and any refunds as separate lines from the weekly statement, and match the payout against clearing.
Don't code the net payout as sales. You'll understate your sales and lose sight of what each order is costing you in commission.
Tips
Tips received on card belong to your staff, not the business. They come into your bank inside card settlements, so record them to a "tips payable" liability, then clear that account when you pay them out. How tips are paid and treated for your staff is a payroll matter, so check with your accountant or payroll provider. From a bookkeeping view, the rule is simple: tips aren't your sales.
Gift vouchers
When you sell a gift voucher, you haven't made a sale yet. You've taken money for a coffee or a meal you'll serve later. Record voucher sales to a liability ("gift vouchers outstanding") and move them to sales when they're redeemed. Many POS systems report vouchers sold and redeemed separately, which makes this easy.
The weekly check
- [ ] Every day has a takings sheet with the Z report attached
- [ ] Card clearing back to zero (or explained by a settlement still in transit)
- [ ] Cash clearing back to zero once the weekend cash is banked
- [ ] Delivery app payouts recorded gross with commission split out
- [ ] Till payouts entered with receipts
- [ ] Tips payable balance matches what you owe staff
- [ ] Bank account reconciled to the weekly statement or feed
Keep GST coded correctly on sales and purchases as you go; your BAS agent or accountant handles lodgement.
How HelloBooks helps
You can connect your business bank account (most Australian banks and cards work) or import a CSV statement. Card settlements, cash deposits and delivery payouts land in a review list, where you confirm or change the category, so a settlement can be matched to card clearing instead of being coded straight to sales.
The reconcile screen puts your statement next to your ledger with an AI match suggestion on each line, a confidence score and the reason for the match. You only deal with what's left. Unmatch in one click if a suggestion is wrong, and lock the month once it's reconciled and signed off. The cash flow tools and the Cash Flow report show you whether this week's takings will cover next week's suppliers.
Free (A$0, no card, no expiry) includes 1 live bank feed and up to 200 transactions a year, which most cafés will outgrow quickly because of daily settlements. Pro is A$30 a month with unlimited bank connections and AI auto-categorisation. Compare plans on the pricing page.
FAQs
Should I record takings daily or weekly?
Record the daily takings sheet every day, because that's when you can still count the till. Entering them into your books can be weekly if that's more realistic, as long as each day stays separate.
Is the till float income?
No. The float is your own cash that stays in the business. Record it once as a cash float asset and leave it out of sales.
Why is my card settlement less than my card sales?
Usually because merchant fees were deducted before the money reached you, or because a refund was processed on card. Record card sales gross and the fee as an expense.
How do I handle a cash shortage?
Record it to a cash over/short account so your books match reality. If shortages are regular, look at how cash is handled during the shift.
Are delivery app payouts my sales figure?
No. The payout is after commission. Record the gross sales from the weekly statement, then the commission as an expense.
Get the daily takings sheet right and the rest of the month gets a lot quieter.
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