Cash Outs

Overview

A Cash Out is the end-of-shift settlement for a server or staff member (or for certain Order Modes). It rolls up everything that person handled during their shift—sales, payments, tips, pay-ins/pay-outs—and calculates how much cash they owe the house at the end of the night.

Cash Outs are how the restaurant:

• Closes the loop on each employee's checks for a shift
• Tracks declared tips and tip-outs
• Feeds Cash Management / Reconciliation reports
• Produces a printable Employee Cash Out receipt

When is a Cash Out needed?

A Cash Out is typically run when an employee is finishing a shift and needs to turn in cash and settle tips. In practice, someone needs a Cash Out when they have:

• Closed checks from their shift that have not yet been cashed out
• Pay Ins / Pay Outs recorded on the POS that are not yet tied to a Cash Out
• Tip Ins / Tip Outs between employees that are still open

Managers can see who is ready from the cash-out list in the POS: staff with open activity, staff already mid–cash out, and order modes with uncashed checks.

Requirement: The employee must be clocked in (active work hour). You cannot start a Cash Out for someone who is not on the clock.

Types of Cash Outs

Cash Out status

Only one open (Started) Cash Out per employee (or per order mode) at a time for a given shift.

What's included in a Cash Out

When a Cash Out is created or refreshed, the system pulls in all eligible closed checks and related activity. The report is organized into sections similar to the printed receipt.

Sales & guest metrics

• Covers — guest count from qualifying checks
• Checks — number of checks included
• PPA (per-person average) — sales divided by covers
• Sales by category — breakdown by sales category (Food, Beverage, etc.)
• Gross sales — sales before adjustments
• Employee sales (net) — gross sales minus comps, promotions, taxes, and other adjustments

Adjustments

• Comps & voids — discounts and comps, with quantities where applicable
• Promotions
• Taxes — by tax category (also used for bar/bus tip-out calculations when configured)
• Surcharges
• Reporting tags — optional tag-based sales breakdown

Payments

• By payment type — cash, card brands, gift card, loyalty, custom/manual payments
• Card payment details — per card type, with last-4 and transaction-level amounts and tips
• Credit card sales — amount charged on cards
• Cash sales — amount paid in cash

Tips

• Credit card tips
• Cash tips (can be adjusted on the Cash Out)
• Gift card / loyalty / manual tips
• Other tips (declared separately if needed)
• Total tips — combined tip total
• Bar tip out / Bus tip out — calculated from restaurant tip-out settings (percent of relevant sales categories)
• Net tips — tips after bar/bus tip-outs
• Declared tips — on current POS versions, typically aligned with credit card tips

Cash drawer activity (from POS)

• Pay Ins — money put into the drawer
• Pay Outs — money taken out of the drawer
• Employee tip outs — tips paid to other staff
• Employee tip ins — tips received from other staff

Key bottom-line figures

• Employee cash owed — the amount the employee should turn in to the house (see formula below)
• Ending cash balance / Total deposit due — optional fields staff or managers can enter during the process

Employee Cash Owed — how it's calculated

Your restaurant may use one of two formulas (configured in settings):

Standard formula

Cash sales, minus credit card tips, minus other non-cash tips, minus employee tip-outs and pay-outs, plus pay-ins.

Simplified "cash minus" formula (when enabled)

Cash sales, minus pay-outs, plus tip-ins and pay-ins. Credit card tips are not subtracted from cash owed in this mode.

Optional sections

• Service areas — sales and tips broken down by dining area
• Comments / topics — if your location uses cash-out comments, staff may be prompted for notes tied to their job class

How to create and run a Cash Out (POS)

For the employee (regular Cash Out)

1. Clock in and complete your shift. Close all checks you own (or let the system auto-close them if that setting is on).
2. Open Cash Out on the POS.
3. Choose the business date and shift (breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc.) if prompted. Shifts with open checks appear in the list.
4. Start the Cash Out. The system calculates totals from your closed checks and open pay/tip activity.
5. Review each section: sales, payments, tips, pay-ins/outs.
6. Enter or confirm:
   • Cash tips and other tips if needed
   • Comments (if enabled)
7. Approve the Cash Out:
   • If you have approval permission, you can approve your own.
   • Otherwise, a manager enters their PIN to approve.
8. If printing is enabled, an Employee Cash Out receipt prints (sales, taxes, comps, payments, tips, Employee Cash Owed, signature lines).
9. Turn in the cash amount shown as Employee Cash Owed (and any house procedures for tip reporting).

For a manager (another employee's Cash Out)

1. Open the manager Cash Out view (requires View All Checks / Cash-out permission).
2. Use the cash-out list to see who has:
   • Checks ready to cash out
   • A Cash Out already Started
   • Order modes needing a Cash Out
3. Select the employee, date, and shift.
4. Start or resume their Cash Out, review totals, and Approve (requires Cash-out Approval permission, or manager PIN).

Order Mode Cash Out

Used when checks belong to a shared Order Mode rather than a single server.

1. Select the order mode from the cash-out list.
2. Start the Cash Out; included checks are those closed under that mode.
3. Review and approve like a regular Cash Out.

Approval, permissions, and printing

Restaurant settings that change behavior

These are configured in back office / restaurant settings (wording may vary in your admin UI):

Relationship to Cash Management (Reconciliation)

Approved Cash Outs roll up into Cash Management / Reconciliation:

• Cash owed from all approved employee Cash Outs
• Credit card tips declared through Cash Outs
• Cash sales by employee

Reconciliation also shows:

• Cash Outs not yet approved (still Started)
• Uncashouted checks — closed checks with no Cash Out yet

Until checks are cashed out and Cash Outs are approved, day-end reconciliation will not fully match POS activity.

Troubleshooting common issues

"Selected user was not clocked-in"

The employee is not on an active work hour. Clock them in (or verify the correct person is selected), then start the Cash Out again.

"You have unapproved cashout"

There is already a Started Cash Out for that person/shift/order mode. Either:

• Open and approve the existing Cash Out, or
• Have a manager review and complete it from the cash-out list

Cash Out shows $0 or no checks

Possible causes:

• No closed checks for that shift/date
• Checks were closed before clock-in and fall outside the work-hour window
• Checks are excluded from cashing out
• Checks already belong to another Cash Out

What to do: Confirm checks are closed, assigned to the right owner/order mode, and appear under the correct shift. Check the shift list on the Cash Out screen to see which shifts have open checks.

Employee Cash Owed looks wrong

Check:

• All checks for the shift are closed and included
• Pay outs / pay ins / tip outs / tip ins on the POS are recorded
• Whether "remove cash minus" is on (changes the formula)
• Cash tips were manually overridden vs. calculated from payments

Cannot approve — PIN required

The user lacks Cash-out Approval. A manager with permission—or a valid manager PIN—must approve (unless the location disabled PIN for cash out).

"Tips Declared cannot be less than CC Tips"

On supported POS versions, declared tips cannot be below credit card tips. Increase declared tips to at least match CC tips.

Open checks blocking end of day

If force close checks on cashout is enabled, starting a Cash Out may auto-close open checks. If not, staff must close or transfer checks before cashing out.

Checks missing from reconciliation / "uncashouted checks"

Closed checks still have no Cash Out assigned. Staff need to complete and approve Cash Outs for that business date. Review the uncashouted checks list in Cash Management.

Cash Out stuck in Started with wrong totals

If creation was interrupted, reopening the same Started Cash Out should recalculate its totals. If totals still look wrong, a manager can review it from the cash-out list and make sure all checks are closed. If the problem persists, contact Katalyst support.

Order Mode Cash Out — staff not listed

Staff must have an active work hour and be linked to the order mode. Users only assigned to the mode without clocking in may not appear.

Auto clock-out approved Cash Out unexpectedly

Auto cashout on auto clockout creates and approves Cash Outs during scheduled clock-out. Turn this off in settings if the location wants manual Cash Outs only.

Receipt did not print

Confirm print server is enabled and a default printer is assigned to the device or restaurant. Reprint may be available from print job history in back office.

Active check transfer when starting Cash Out

If the employee had a pending check transfer, the system may auto-decline the transfer so the Cash Out can proceed. Verify check ownership after cashing out.

End-of-shift checklist (for staff)

• All checks closed (or force-close setting understood)
• Pay outs, pay ins, and tip outs recorded on POS
• Cash Out started for correct date and shift
• Totals reviewed; cash tips / comments entered
• Cash Out approved (self or manager)
• Receipt printed; Employee Cash Owed cash turned in
• Clock out

End-of-day checklist (for managers)

• All staff Cash Outs approved
• Order mode Cash Outs completed if used
• No (or acceptable) uncashouted checks in reconciliation
• Cash Management / Reconciliation run for the business date
• Cash Owed export reviewed if required

Glossary

This guide reflects product behavior in the Katalyst POS platform. Exact menu labels and permission names in your deployment may vary slightly. Contact your account team for location-specific settings.