Cashier Shifts

In most cases, properties use one or more cash drawers at the front desk and around the property to facilitate cash transactions with guests, whether paying for their room, incidentals Incidentals refer to any additional charges accrued during a guest's stay that are not a part of their normal room charges, such as pay-per-view billing or other premium on-demand services., or other miscellaneous services the hotel may offer (like gift shop purchases). Typically, front desk clerks (or whomever else is responsible for cash transactions) will trade off throughout the day as part of their shifts, and knowing the correct amounts in the drawer are key to not only making a smooth transition from one shift to the next, but making sure your hotel's finances are correct.

Chorum helps your property keep track of what cash revenue (both debits and credits) have been posted over the course of each shift, so you can make sure your physical numbers match the numbers posted in Chorum, through the use of the Cashier Shift function found in the Front Office module's main menu, Shift Change / Night Audit.

The function is controlled via one of two buttons, found in the shift section of this menu. As the button names might imply, you can either open a shift or close a shift. If there are no open shifts, you cannot close a shift, and vice-versa - if you have an open shift, you cannot open another one (this is not to be confused with a multi-drawer setup, explained below).

Tapping either button opens a dialogue specific to that control for you to fill out before the action can be completed. Follow hotel policy when determining when your shift should be closed and a new shift opened, keeping in mind that Chorum will prevent cash transactions until you have opened a shift.

Opening Shifts

For hotels using the Close by Shift Number format, Chorum will automatically prompt your auditor at the start of the new business date to open a new shift. If the auditor declines opening a new shift, the first individual to log in to Chorum for the day will be asked to open the new shift.

For hotels using the Close by Cashier format, Chorum will prompt you personally to open a shift the first time you log in for the day. If you decline to open a new shift, you will be prompted each time you log in that day and you will be unable to post transactions or adjustments to any folios.

Regardless of shift format, should you ever need to manually open a shift, you can always do so from the Shift Change / Night Audit menu detailed above. Whether the shift was opened manually or prompted automatically, the menu remains the same. See the below table for more information on a given field, then click OK when finished to open a shift. Clicking Cancel declines opening a new shift.

Field	Description
Shift to Open	The number of shifts opened today, counting the shift being opened. In the above figure, this indicates the shift is the 3^rd shift opened today.
Open Bank	Your property's "starting cash," also called "cash in drawer," at the beginning of a cashier's shift.
Reason for Change	While this field isn’t required, it is suggested that any time hotel staff change the Open Bank amount for a given shift a note be made, so that if the change comes into question later an explanation is already available.

Closing Shifts

Before attempting shift close, it is generally recommended you review all guest, group, and house account folio activity for the current shift and make sure that all credits that have been posted are not only accurate but accounted for in your hotel’s cash drawers. This way, any discrepancies between postings and collected payments can be addressed before attempting shift close, potentially resolving any kind of overages or shortages (explained below) in your accounts before they are reported in Chorum.

With the exception of forced shift closure during the daily audit, shift close is always done from the previously mentioned Shift Change / Night Audit menu. Before you close a shift, you should be certain what type of shift close your property uses to make sure you don't include someone else's counts in your drawer (in the event your property uses a close by cashier format). If you aren't sure of which close format your property uses, reach out to your immediate supervisor or manager for further assistance.

See the below table for more information on a given field in the shift close, then click OK when finished to close the shift. Clicking Cancel declines closing the shift. As an added note, clicking the OK - Open Dept. Audit Report button both closes the shift and opens your Department Audit report, a report that tracks and records your property's revenue throughout the day.

Field	Description
Shift to Close	The number of this specific shift (if closing by Shift Number). In the above example, this is the 3^rd shift of the day.
Opened At	Shows the time the shift was initially opened.
Open Bank	The starting cash reported when this shift was first opened.
Total In	This is the value Chorum believes should be in the physical drawer, based on the total of all credits A credit addresses any amount paid by a customer or reducing the overall debits billed to the customer (cash or credit card payment, coupons, etcetera) and debits A debit addresses any amount charged to the customer (room charges, housekeeping services, etc). posted during the shift using a cash department code.
Bank Close Amount	Use this field to report the physical count of cash in the drawer, including anything else your property has decided to report as cash (this should also include your starting cash in the final count). If you are unsure of what counts as cash and what doesn't, reach out to your immediate supervisor or manager for assistance.
Over/Short	If the Bank Close Amount does not match the combined Open Bank and Total In values, this will change from 0.00 to the amount you are "over" or "short" by. A positive amount is considered an Overage, meaning you have more cash in your total than has been reported in Chorum. A negative amount is considered a Shortage, meaning you have less cash in your total than has been reported in Chorum. Should either of these scenarios occur, it is generally recommended to cancel the shift close process and review your shift activity for the day, making sure that all postings in your folios and house accounts are accurate. Assuming all postings are correct, and you have confirmed your physical counts are correct, then the over/short is real. How to address this is determined by hotel policy, but typically hotels will leave the over/short in the system to indicate that too much or too little cash was collected on the business day.
Drop Amount	The amount being withdrawn from the drawer(s) at the end of the shift. Whatever amount is left will automatically display as the Open Bank amount for the next open shift on the same business day. For example, the hotel’s original Open Bank was $100. Over the course of the shift, the hotel collected $800 in cash payments from their guests, making a total of $900 in the drawer. At the time of shift close, the hotel only drops $400, removing the amount from the drawer to be sent to the bank. When the next shift is opened, the Open bank will display $500.