Shared Drawers vs. Per-Seller Cash Drawers

Choosing a session's Cash Drawer Mode changes how opening cash, cash sales, and closing reconciliation are tracked for the whole team, not just who can ring up a sale.

1. Choosing a Mode

When opening a session, the Open Session form's Cash Drawer Mode control offers two options:

  • Shared Drawer — the whole team works out of one cash box. You enter a single Opening Cash ($) amount directly on the Open Session form.
  • Per Seller — each team member counts and tracks their own separate float. The Opening Cash field is replaced with a note: "Each seller will set their own opening cash when they start selling."

2. How Each Mode Runs Through the Session

Shared Drawer

One opening cash figure and one running cash total apply to the whole session. Any team member's cash sale, cash pull, or cash drop affects the same shared balance shown in the session menu (···).

Per Seller

  • Opening: whoever opens the session is immediately taken to a second step, Your Opening Cash, to count their own float in (or tap Skip to start at $0.00).
  • Joining mid-session: a teammate who opens the POS screen on a per-seller session they haven't checked into yet is automatically prompted with Open My Drawer — "This session uses per-seller cash drawers. Enter the starting cash in your drawer before you begin selling" — before they can take cash payments.
  • Selling: the session menu shows both Session Total (everyone combined) and a separate My Sales block for just your own drawer's card/cash totals and order count.
  • Cash pulls/drops: recorded against your individual drawer, not the whole session's cash pool.
  • Closing: each seller can Close My Drawer independently from the ··· menu — counting their own Actual Cash Count, seeing their own reconciliation (opening cash, cash sales, pulls, drops, expected, variance) — without ending the session for the rest of the team. A seller who closes their drawer can no longer accept cash payments for the rest of the session. The session itself is only fully closed via Close Session, which still works even if some individual drawers were never explicitly closed.

3. Choosing Between Them

  • Shared Drawer is simpler to reconcile and fits a single seller, or a team that's comfortable sharing one cash box.
  • Per Seller adds accountability — each person's cash is separately reconciled — which matters most with multiple sellers handling cash at once, at the cost of everyone needing to count their own float in and out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I switch modes mid-session? No — Cash Drawer Mode is set when the session is opened and applies for its whole lifetime.

Does Per Seller mode affect card payments? No, card sales aren't tied to a physical drawer either way; Per Seller mode only changes how cash is floated, counted, and reconciled.