When counting your drawer after cashiering, what's the most your drawer should be over/under?

It depends on where you work. Where I work they don’t start looking into it unless your drawer is short $20 or long $10.

I have to do the same thing everyday. Today I was short $.85 but most days I’m over. I think it pretty much evens out in the long run.

When I was at McDonalds, +/- $2.00 resulted in a write-up. Two write-ups in a certain time period was a week’s suspension. Three was termination.

Talk to your manager. They’re the only one who can tell you their policies.

When I worked at a bank, it was =/- $1.00 on a daily basis. BTW, if the amount your drawer is out is evenly divisible by 9, you made a mathematical error in counting your drawer; you have transposed numbers somewhere.

They should let you know what their expectation are. I worked in retail for over 20 years and drawers usually balanced.

As others have said, it depends on where you work. When I worked as a pump jockey for Tennaco anything more than $1.00 came out of my paycheck (but I didn’t get extra for the times I might have been over).

OTOH, I worked as weekend cash manager for a museum for 18 years and was never over or under except once when one of the cashiers accepted a Mexican coin in lieu of an American one.

Oh wow, I totally can’t remember. I know we had a specific amount, and we could not leave until it was accounted for (if you were under) Usually, it was already dropped (because it was a large bill, or I had too many 10s or 5s)
I’m pretty sure ours was $1.00. I just know they didn’t allow you to be short ever, unless there was a reason. if I was over, I usually kept the money…bad, I know

When I worked at the theater (the only time I have worked a register) they didn’t say anything if you were +/- 5$. And normally we only had one till open in the concession stand during the day. And the person working it had to have a break so the usher or door person would cover for a half hour. That made it impossible to blame someone.

And on busy nights we would have multiple people working the same register. So 12 people were making transactions on six registers. In three years I can’t remember anyone getting in trouble for going over or under.

They would say something if you were over 5 off, but you didn’t get in trouble.

When I worked in hotel, eyebrows were raised over pennies. I mean, mostly if it was just pennies, we’d just slip in some pocket change, but if you just didn’t have it, then there was a whole line of questioning.

I would rather be over than under. But where I use to work, a dollar under was ok. And I was always over, except for once, and the company, came after me for it. Be over, or right on. Check with your company to see what is allowed.

Companies add and subtract money to drawers if they suspect someone of screwing around with the money. Unless you count the drawer yourself in the morning do not add or subtract money to balance at the end of the day. Well, I advise never add or subtract money no matter what. If your drawer is off days in a row something isn’t right. Either you are bad at giving change or someone is screwing around with your drawer. I would not try to hope it goes unnoticed I would tell my manager I am concerned about it and ask for their help in figuring out what is going on.

Where I worked, one always counted the drawer in the morning before actually going on shift. Then you also count it at the end of shift. Both times you do it in front of witnesses.

As long as things are done properly the entire time, 0/0 would make sense.

We come out even or find out why, and don’t go home till every penny is accounted for.

At my previous bank (employer) we could be over or short a cumulative total of $2 every month before there was any disciplinary action. Techinically, I could be short $10 one day, over $8 another, over 50 cents another, short 10 cents, over $6, etc. as long as the cumulative total was no more than $2 in that month. However, they also had the good sense to look at the number of times someone was over or short. More than twice in a month and you were likely to be audited by your head teller or manager once or twice a week for a month or more.

At this bank, there is no set policy, which makes me a little crazy. I think it opens us up to potential legal problems. (“You fired me for being short $10 but didn’t fire Suzie when she was over and short all the time but it’s all because she’s the manager’s pet!”)

On the occasions I go to a branch to help out, I count whatever drawer I am given to make sure that it matches the previous balance. Then, and only then, do I accept responsibility for it. At the end of that day, any mistakes are on me, not on whoever used the drawer previously.

One time I can see a problem that isn’t necesarily the cashier or teller’s fault is when opening a roll of coin. If it was rolled by a customer and not verified before accepting it, it may be over or short. And I could tell you some stories about that. But I won’t.

@Darwin We counted in the morning too, some people stole the extra $20 in the morning when they found it, people are so unbelievable. The stores I have worked in have the same drawer all day, so someone else might have counted the morning money, even though you are counting the evening money.

@JLeslie – That is why you always have to count your drawer with at least one witness. No one could ever go into the counting room alone at our place.

And we issued a separate cash drawer to each staff member, which they had to count when the got it and again when they turned it in at the end of shift, each time with witnesses.

@Darwin That would be impossible at a department store. No one is watched when they count a drawer until we are suspicious for some reason. Then they might be “tested” or set-up and have cameras on them. It is rare eployees steal, but the ones who do usually do it big and in more than one way.