How do you track or account for paid outs?

[ABaker]

I processed two $50.00 paid outs from my register. They reflect in the reciept printed when I end the drawer for the day but I see no tracking for this when I look at the sales summary. Based on the money in front of me and the Square report I am exactly $100 short. It says I took in X amount in cash today....but that number is exactly $100 less than what I have. It has not been stolen (before anyone suggests). How do you track or account for paid outs (other than the end o day slip pinted from the register)?

[#2]

Hi! Thanks for reaching out! You can view this information on the Square Dashboard under Reporting > Cash Drawers. You may need to scroll to the far right and click the "+" button to add paid in/out or even adjust the date in which you view the report. Here is what that will look like below:

Let me know if you have any other questions. 🙂

[Spenser · Accepted solution]

Your Sales Summary will still reflect the total amount of cash taken in, so any pay-outs in Cash Drawer Management will not be reflected there. However, if you review your cash drawer reports in your Dashboard, you'll be able to reconcile the difference. Hope that helps clarify!

[melissaeisner]

Specifically, I frequently will donate cash from the register to nonprofits that come by raising money. Apparently, there isn't a way for me to go back and find those transactions, and I have no other record of them (I had assumed I would be able to find them on Square). These nonprofits give me a letter, but I put the details of the payment amount in the Square paid-out notes.

[AshleyK]

@melissaeisner thanks for sharing your thoughts and adding your vote to this feature request thread, we really appreciate it. 🙂

Adding the explanation as to what parts of this feature would best benefit you also really helps our Development Team focus on these specific features to make sure they will benefit our sellers as much as possible. 

Thanks again, and please have a great day!

[Nukebrewer]

Add me to the list of feature requests to add paid in/paid out as a standalone report feature that can be used to make customized reports NOT on the iPad device but able to be generated via web dashboard. We pay musicians out of the register and now have to go through every transaction in the dashboard to find payouts? It distorts the income reports for tax purposes as some of the "income" was paid out for expenses, donations, etc. but one has to work very hard to pull these out for the accounts.

[AshleyK]

@Nukebrewer Thanks for adding your vote to the list! This goes a long way in helping us keep track of what is important to our sellers. I love the explanation on why this is important for your business as well.

Again, thanks for sharing and I have shared your thoughts with our Development Team!

[TJ2]

Is there a way to do a payout?

For example customer is selling me old gold, I give them cash or an e-transfer.  My old POS allowed me to do negative invoices, but I can't seem to find this on Squareup?? It only allows invoices of $1 or more.

[Kassi_]

Hey there, @TJ2 - 

I moved your post to a thread with helpful tips and tricks for using payouts! 

Check out the Best Answer by our amazing @AshleyK for steps on how to do so. 

Thank you!

[ACLaundry]

I am chiming in late on this conversation because I think something needs clarification. I am currently going through this process in my store as well. We make pay-outs/pay-ins from the drawer to cover small cash business purchases and to extract or infuse the cash drawers when they have too much or too little cash in them.

It is important to remember that the pay-out feature simply tracks the removal/insertion of cash from the drawer and you "technically" still need to document the expense/revenue/transfer.

If I pay a vendor $20 from the drawer, I make a pay-out, document it in my expense book and put that expense receipt in my drawer. It will get dropped when the drawer is closed and finally documented in the accounting system.

If I just make a cash drop in the middle of the day, I use pay-out, take the money from the drawer, put it in a filled out drop envelope, and place in the the slot in the safe. This is just a cash transfer in the accounting world and you are moving money from one arbitrary cash location another. Square keeps your drawer correct, but you have to document the drop in order to be able to reconcile where all the money in your drop safe came from. You don't want them just dropping $100 bills in there without some documentation that matches the record in Square.

In summary, your cash drawer, your bank, your safe ... these are all the same money in the accounting world. The pay-out system appears to be designed for this type of activity. Giving money to vendors or employees requires an additional step on your part. The documentation of the expense itself. Remember ... Square is not an accounting system. Hope this adds some clarity and feel free to comment if I have something wrong! 🙂

[VBGController]

I completely disagree!  The entire purpose of POS development is to better organize, categorize, and identify the very essence of each sale, which benefits those in sales departments from an analysis standpoint, but more importantly makes life much easier for the accounting dept.  In many ways a POS has eliminated the need for accounting clerks, who were the ones that broke down each sale and ultimately reported, recorded and posted the results in a detailed and summarized format.

A POS (Square) is the the very heartbeat of an accounting system whether integrated (ERP) or not (ad-hoc) and should never ever stray away from the basics of sales and revenue recognition, as well as cash and receivable management associated with each sale. All of which must follow basic accounting principles as well as FASB standards,

To simply say "in summary" Square is not an accounting system is completely irrelevant and totally incorrect.  Square is the "Sales Journal" & "Cash Receipts Journal" of an accounting system and as such is completely relevant in providing adequate detailed, as well as summarized reporting.

From this thread, I think many are looking for a daily reconciliation report that is one report as to not force the business owners, accountants, controllers, CFO's, CPA's, etc running in several directions to balance out the  a singles day's business with sales, cash, credit cards, discounts, comps, fees, gift certificates, AR invoices, paid ins/outs, tips, as well as undeposited and pending credit card monies.  Many POS systems have a daily management reconciliation report that does just that. And, it is just that, that Square users desire. However, there are ways of utilizing current Square reports posted to your accounting software and keeping sales separate from tenders, paid ins/outs, and invoices. But, ultimately, I believe most are looking for the ONE report that tells the entire story for the day in a summarized and detailed fashion without going from report to report and back again... all in an effort to balance out one day!

Granted, sometimes with Square (and honestly with ANY software or app) you must figure out the work-arounds that work best for your company processes.  It took us a few months, but we've figured out without integration how to post summarized daily sales figures with one process and tender, accounts receivable, and paid-ins/outs in another process.  Both work quickly, swiftly and balance very easily.  That being said, it would still be nice to have a report with some customization that would tell the entire story, eliminating the need to go from report to report to report.

[Petalino]

This is an old thread, but add me to the list of bookkeepers/accountants who don't understand why there isn't a report for cash paid in/out. I don't have any reason to go through each cash drawer report, so this is costing my client hours in bookkeeping fees for something that should be on a monthly report.

[Kimk1]

Paid outs no reporting is a huge problem for 3 of my restaurant clients that use square.  They are planning on switching this year because of this issue.  They are having to pay me a lot of money to go back and look at every single day and multiple drawer reports to find their expenses that occurred from payouts.  Square you really need to step up your game or you will lose clients.  

[Kimk1]

Looks like it has been a problem for over 6 years.  WOW You need a new design team