takings-reconcile

---
name: takings-reconcile
description: Builds the daily reconciliation a hospitality business needs to prove what it sold, what it received and what reached the bank, separates tips and service charge out before anything is counted, sets a difference threshold with a name against it, and records the whole thing in the form HMRC requires. Use when the takings and the banking never quite agree, when a site is losing money nobody can point at, or before anyone looks at the till records from outside.
---

# The daily check that finds the money that went missing

You give this a week of end-of-day till reports, the card terminal batch totals, the acquirer settlements, the paying-in slips, the bank lines and whatever the team writes down at close. You get back one daily sheet that reconciles three different numbers that are not the same number, every difference named and sized, the items that leave the till without a sale listed and totalled, tips and service charge lifted out before the count, and a record built to the form HMRC asks for. It will not tell you who took the money, and it will not make a day balance by moving a figure.

## What it does

1. **Separate the three numbers people call takings, because a venue that conflates them can never find a difference.** What you sold is the daily gross takings. What you received is cash in the drawer plus card batched plus account sales plus vouchers redeemed. What reached the bank is a different figure again, later in time. HMRC's retail schemes manual is explicit that the first of these is not the third: daily gross takings are "a record of supplies made that day" rather than cash received or money on hand. Build three columns, not one, and reconcile each to the next. Most venues run one number, discover it does not match the bank, and blame the bank.

2. **Take the end-of-day till report as the primary record and write down what happens when the till does not work.** The Z read, or its modern equivalent, is the record. Record its number, its time and the operator, and keep them sequential, because a missing report number is the loudest signal in the whole exercise. HMRC's own guidance to its staff is to establish "what method the business uses to record takings/sales in the event of till breakdown", which tells you what a venue is asked when somebody looks. Write that method down before you need it: a numbered manual pad, kept, and entered the next day with a note.

3. **Count the cash blind, before anybody sees the till figure.** The person counting should not know what the till says. A count taken with the target in view is not a count, it is a confirmation, and it is how a small recurring difference stays invisible for a year. Count the float back to its fixed figure first and record it separately every day. Then count the takings, record the figure, and only then compare. Two people sign. If one person opens up, cashes up, counts and banks, the sheet says so, because that is a finding in itself.

4. **Reconcile cards in two hops, terminal to acquirer and acquirer to bank, never till to bank.** The till knows what was rung up as a card sale; the terminal knows what was authorised and batched; the acquirer knows what it settled and when, less its charges; the bank knows what arrived. Each hop has its own reasons to differ: a declined transaction re-run, a tip added at the terminal, a refund processed after batching, a chargeback, and the fees themselves. Do the hops in order and name the difference at each one. A single comparison from till to bank collapses five separate causes into one unexplained number, which is exactly what makes it unexplainable.

5. **Lift tips and service charge out before anything is counted, because they are not the venue's money.** The Code of Practice on fair and transparent distribution of tips came into effect on 1 October 2024, and requires employers to pass on all tips and service charges to workers without deductions, except in very limited scenarios such as deduction of income tax, and to distribute them "by the end of the month following the month in which the tips are paid by customers". The employer must keep a tipping record of all qualifying tips received and the amount allocated to each worker, and keep it for three years, with workers able to request it. So tips come out at the top of the sheet, into their own record, and never sit inside a takings figure that is later adjusted for anything. Service charge is a separate question again, and it turns on whether the customer had a real choice: HMRC's guidance is that "compulsory service charges that are additional to the standard price are part of the consideration for the supply of the meal", while tips "if freely given" are "outside the scope of VAT as they are not part of the consideration". Which one a venue's charge is depends on what its menu says, so put the menu wording in the file and ask the accountant rather than deciding it on the sheet.

6. **List everything that leaves the till without a sale, and total each category separately.** Refunds, voids and corrections, no-sale drawer opens, staff meals and drinks, comps and manager discounts, wastage rung off, petty cash paid out of the drawer, and cash taken for a supplier delivery at the door. Each gets its own daily total, its own running weekly total, and a name against every entry above a threshold the owner sets. This is the part of the sheet that finds things. A drift in one category is visible in a week; buried inside a single takings difference it is invisible for a quarter. HMRC's manual notes that where a charge is made for using a particular payment method, "the full consideration charged must be included in the DGT", so a card surcharge is not a deduction either.

7. **Place deposits, vouchers and account sales by date, not by when the money moved.** A deposit taken in October for a December function is cash received in October and a supply made in December. A voucher sold is money received now and a supply later; a voucher redeemed is a supply now with no money at all. An account sale is a supply with no cash. Each of these breaks a naive reconciliation, and each is routine in hospitality. Put them in their own rows on both sides so the difference they create is labelled rather than mysterious.

8. **Record the difference every day, set a threshold, and never balance the sheet by adjusting a figure.** Write the difference in pounds and as a percentage of the day's takings. Set a monetary threshold and a percentage threshold with the owner, and require a written explanation and a name for anything above either. Zero differences every day is not a good sign, it is a sign that somebody is making it zero. HMRC's record keeping notice requires records to be complete, up to date and sufficient to "calculate correctly the amount of VAT" owed or claimable, and a figure changed to make a day close is none of those things. Carry unexplained differences forward on a running list rather than closing them, because the pattern across a month is the evidence, not any single day.

9. **Keep the record in the form that is actually required, and understand what the alternative looks like.** Generally, "you must keep all your business records for VAT purposes for at least 6 years", and the list expressly includes "records of daily takings such as till rolls" alongside bank statements, paying-in slips and cash books. Under Making Tax Digital, a business using a retail scheme "must keep a digital record of your daily gross takings (DGT)", and the transfer between the till, the spreadsheet and the return must be a digital link, which the notice defines as an electronic transfer or exchange of data between programs and which expressly excludes "cut and paste". Finally, the honest part: HMRC treats deliberate suppression of till sales as fraud, runs a disclosure route for businesses that have done it, and says plainly that where a business does not come forward it "may open an investigation". A reconciliation that is designed to produce a tidy number rather than a true one is not a control, it is evidence.

## Then it checks

1. Three separate columns exist for every day, sold, received and banked, and each is reconciled to the next rather than the first to the last.
2. End-of-day report numbers run in sequence across the period with no gaps, and any gap is listed with the till breakdown record covering it.
3. The cash count was taken before the till figure was seen, the float is recorded separately for every day at its fixed figure, and two names appear on every count or the sheet states that only one person handled the day.
4. Card figures reconcile terminal to acquirer and acquirer to bank as two separate hops, with fees and any chargeback shown as their own lines.
5. Tips and service charge are recorded in their own record before any takings figure is struck, with the amount allocated to each worker, and no tip figure appears inside a takings total.
6. Every day carries a difference in pounds and as a percentage, every difference above either threshold carries a written explanation and a name, and no figure on the sheet has been adjusted to make a day close.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is. A reconciliation signed off carries the name of whoever counted and whoever checked.
- Never adjust, round, smooth or reclassify a figure to make a day balance, and never write a difference off as rounding. An unexplained difference is recorded as unexplained and carried forward.
- Refuse to produce a takings figure that nets off refunds, staff meals, comps, wastage, tips, petty cash or a card surcharge. Each is its own line, and a netted takings figure is the shape of the problem this skill exists to find.
- Never name a person as responsible for a shortfall, never suggest who took money, and never recommend a deduction from anyone's pay. A pattern goes to the owner with the figures attached; what happens next is for the owner, their HR adviser and, where it comes to it, the police.
- Never delete or overwrite a daily sheet. Corrections are made as a new dated line with a reason and a name.
- Never advise on whether a service charge is voluntary for VAT purposes, or on which retail scheme a business should use. Both are questions for the owner's accountant, and both change the numbers on this sheet.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner and their bookkeeper or accountant to check, and to be produced to HMRC as a record if asked. It applies published HMRC record keeping requirements to the venue's own figures; it is not tax advice, it is not a VAT calculation, and it does not certify that the records are complete.

## Built from
- HMRC, "Keeping VAT records (VAT Notice 700/21)", https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-70021-keeping-vat-records/vat-notice-70021-keeping-vat-records, published 26 September 2013, last updated 18 March 2024, read 16 September 2026: the list of business records including "records of daily takings such as till rolls", the six year retention rule and the completeness requirement, used in steps 8 and 9.
- HMRC, "Making Tax Digital for VAT (VAT Notice 700/22)", https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-70022-making-tax-digital-for-vat/vat-notice-70022-making-tax-digital-for-vat, published 1 April 2022, read 16 September 2026: the rule at 3.3 that a retail scheme user "must keep a digital record of your daily gross takings (DGT)", the definition of a digital link and the exclusion of cut and paste, all in step 9.
- HMRC, "VRS4050 - Mechanics of the standard retail schemes: Definition of daily gross takings (DGT)", VAT Retail Schemes manual, https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-retail-schemes/vrs4050, last updated 5 February 2026, read 16 September 2026: the statement that DGT is "a record of supplies made that day" rather than cash on hand, the inclusion of non-cash sales and adjustments, the requirement that each individual payment is recorded when received, and the treatment of payment method charges, used in steps 1 and 6.
- HMRC, "VRS10100 - Daily gross takings (DGT): How DGT is arrived at", VAT Retail Schemes manual, https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-retail-schemes/vrs10100, last updated 5 February 2026, read 16 September 2026: the instruction to establish "what method the business uses to record takings/sales in the event of till breakdown", which is step 2.
- Department for Business and Trade, "Code of practice on fair and transparent distribution of tips", https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/distributing-tips-fairly-statutory-code-of-practice/code-of-practice-on-fair-and-transparent-distribution-of-tips-html-version, published 29 July 2024, in force 1 October 2024, read 16 September 2026: the duty to pass on tips without deductions, the end of the following month deadline, the written policy and the three year tipping record, all in step 5.
- HMRC, "VATSC06130 - Consideration: Gratuities, tips and service charges", VAT Supply and Consideration manual, https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-supply-and-consideration/vatsc06130, last updated 7 March 2025, read 16 September 2026: the split between a compulsory service charge, which is consideration, and a freely given tip, which is outside the scope, used in step 5.
- HMRC, "Make a disclosure about misusing your till system", https://www.gov.uk/guidance/make-a-disclosure-about-misusing-your-till-system, published 6 January 2023, last updated 12 March 2024, read 16 September 2026: the disclosure route, the point that a business does not have to wait to be contacted, and the consequence that HMRC "may open an investigation", which is the closing warning in step 9.

# takings-reconcile

## You are given
One UK hospitality site, or several named separately. For each trading day in the period: the end-of-day till report with its sequential number, time and operator; the till's own breakdown of sales by department and VAT rate; the refunds, voids, no-sales, staff meals, comps, manager discounts, wastage and petty cash paid out, each as recorded by the till or on the cash-up sheet; the cash counted with the counter's name, the time it was counted and the second signature where there is one; the float figure the site is supposed to hold. The card terminal batch totals per terminal per day. The acquirer settlement report with its own dates, gross, fees and net. The paying-in slips with their dates. The bank statement lines. The tips and service charge taken, split by cash and card, with the tipping record if one exists. The deposits taken and the deposits redeemed with their booking dates, the vouchers sold and redeemed, and the account sales raised. The difference thresholds the owner has set, one in pounds and one as a percentage. And the till breakdown procedure the owner has written down.

## Produce
Write into a `./takings-reconcile-output/` folder:

1. `daily-sheet.csv` with these columns in this order: `date`, `site`, `z_number`, `z_time`, `operator`, `sold_dgt_gbp`, `received_cash_gbp`, `received_card_gbp`, `received_account_gbp`, `received_voucher_gbp`, `received_total_gbp`, `banked_gbp`, `banked_on_date`, `difference_sold_to_received_gbp`, `difference_received_to_banked_gbp`, `difference_percent_of_sold`, `over_pound_threshold`, `over_percent_threshold`, `explanation_verbatim`, `explained_by_name`. One row per trading day per site. The two threshold columns are `yes` or `no`.
2. `non-sale-items.csv` with columns: `date`, `site`, `category`, `count`, `value_gbp`, `authorised_by_name`, `above_owner_threshold`. `category` is exactly one of `refund`, `void or correction`, `no sale`, `staff meal or drink`, `comp or manager discount`, `wastage`, `petty cash out`, `supplier paid at the door`, `card surcharge`. One row per category per day, written even where the value is zero.
3. `card-hops.csv` with columns: `date`, `site`, `terminal_id`, `till_card_total_gbp`, `terminal_batch_total_gbp`, `hop1_difference_gbp`, `acquirer_gross_gbp`, `acquirer_fees_gbp`, `acquirer_net_gbp`, `settled_on_date`, `bank_credit_gbp`, `hop2_difference_gbp`, `chargebacks_gbp`, `settlement_lag_days`. Never compare the till directly to the bank in this file.
4. `tips-record.csv` with columns: `date`, `site`, `tips_cash_gbp`, `service_charge_gbp`, `tips_card_gbp`, `total_qualifying_tips_gbp`, `worker_name`, `amount_allocated_gbp`, `month_tip_received`, `distribute_by_date`, `distributed_on_date`. `distribute_by_date` is the last day of the month following `month_tip_received`. Tip figures appear in this file and in no takings total anywhere else.
5. `timing-items.csv` with columns: `date`, `site`, `item_type`, `reference`, `money_moved_on`, `supply_made_on`, `value_gbp`, `side_of_reconciliation`. `item_type` is exactly one of `deposit taken`, `deposit redeemed`, `voucher sold`, `voucher redeemed`, `account sale raised`, `account sale paid`. `side_of_reconciliation` is `received not sold`, `sold not received` or `both`.
6. `sequence-check.csv` with columns: `site`, `expected_z_number`, `found`, `date`, `breakdown_record_exists`. One row per number in the range, so a gap shows as a row with `found` set to `no`.
7. `unexplained-carry-forward.csv` with columns: `first_seen_date`, `site`, `difference_gbp`, `direction`, `days_open`, `category_suspected_by_owner_verbatim`, `still_open`. Appended to, never overwritten. `direction` is `short` or `over`.
8. `gaps.md` - a numbered list of: any day with no end-of-day report; any gap in the report number sequence with no breakdown record; any day whose cash count has one name only; any day where the count time is not before the till figure was available; any float not at its fixed figure; any day whose difference exceeds either threshold with no explanation or no name; any day with a difference of exactly zero across a run of five or more days; any tip figure found inside a takings total; any card hop that could not be completed for want of a settlement report; and any figure that could not be traced to a supplied document.

## Rules
- Codex reconciles, counts, compares, sequences and records. It never adjusts a figure, never balances a day, never categorises an unexplained difference and never names a person as responsible for one.
- Never write a takings figure that has had refunds, voids, staff meals, comps, wastage, petty cash, a card surcharge or tips netted out of it. Each is its own row in `non-sale-items.csv` or `tips-record.csv`.
- Never place a tip or a service charge figure in any column of `daily-sheet.csv`.
- Never compare a till total to a bank credit. Card reconciliation is two hops, and a file containing a direct till to bank comparison is wrong even if the number happens to match.
- Never treat a difference as rounding, and never close one. Unexplained differences go to `unexplained-carry-forward.csv` and stay `still_open` until an explanation with a name arrives.
- A run of five or more days at exactly zero difference is reported as a finding, not as a clean result.
- Deposits, vouchers and account sales are placed by both dates, the date money moved and the date the supply was made. Never collapse them to one date.
- Never overwrite or delete a daily row. A correction is a new dated row with a reason and a name, and the original stays.
- Use British English, GBP with the pound sign, and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes in any file you write, and any supplied text containing one is recorded verbatim and flagged in `gaps.md`.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner and their bookkeeper or accountant to check, and to be produced as a record if asked. It is not tax advice and it does not certify that the records are complete.

## Return
The absolute path of every file written and the row count of each, the number of trading days covered per site, the total sold, received and banked with the two differences in pounds and as a percentage of sold, the number of days over each threshold and how many of those carry an explanation and a name, every gap in the end-of-day number sequence, the totals by non-sale category with the week on week movement, the settlement lag in days for each acquirer, total qualifying tips with the distribute-by dates and anything already past its date, every timing item still open at the end of the period, the count of days with a single name on the cash count, any run of five or more zero-difference days, the number of rows still open in the carry-forward file with their total, and the `gaps.md` item count.