Is there a database that supports a daily cash up in retail?

[AndyC]

I have been trying to create a database that allows me to complete a daily
cash up of x number of tills in retail and a daily safe balance record. Does
anyone have any advice?

 

[Vincent Johns]

One way to start might be to define Tables that contain the same kinds
of records that you collect right now (on paper, I assume). You'd
probably want to add fields identifying such information as the date,
who counted the money, and the location. Is the daily balance the only
result you want to see?

-- Vincent Johns <[email protected]>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.

 

[Tim Ferguson]

I have been trying to create a database that allows me to complete a
daily cash up of x number of tills in retail and a daily safe balance
record. Does anyone have any advice?

There is not nearly enough detail here to do any kind of systems
analysis, but it seems on first look that you need tables like this:

Tills (Location, OperatedBy, DateOfLastService, etc)

DailyTillSlips (BelongsToWhichTill, DateOfSlip,
CashTaken, InitialFloat, etc)

SafeSlips (DateOfEntry, SumEntered, AmountBanked, SignedForBy, etc)

But you really need to be asking questions like:

- What is the database for?

- Exactly what for?

- What extraneous, legal, etc constraints e.g. audit trail? Also
who carries the risk/ responsibility for errors?

- Outputs - to whom, in what format

- Inputs - who fills in what, with what responsibility

- Time factors - do data have to be immediately up to date, or is
there a lag?

- etc etc etc.

More to the point, however, is whether this is a real business you are
looking at, with real employees and real tax commitments and so on. If
so, are you being excessively brave trusting someone's livelihood to a
database written by someone who is just learning? I am all for
encouraging people to experiment in and learn about R theory and db
design, but sometimes I do feel that the stakes are too high for a bit of
trial-and-error. You might actually be richer at the end of the story if
you pay someone else to get this bit right for you.

Just a thought
Best wishes


Tim F

 

[AndyC]

Fair points. However, the idea was to develop a basic database to support
what is already done. It is a project I thought would help me learn a bit
more and is not really that necessary.

I wanted to record cash movement in and out of the safe, and floats, with a
seperate account for revenue that is collected throughout the day. Floats
and the safe should then balance to the agreed amount, with the revenue
balancing to the till z reads. I have adopted the ledger template on MS
Office to serve the purpose, but poorly. I was just wondering if there were
any tips or if anyone had better advice to a starting point. More so, this
is for my benefit than for the benefit of the business.

Thanks for your input though; food for thought.

Andy C

 

[Tim Ferguson]

I wanted to record cash movement in and out of the safe, and floats,
with a seperate account for revenue that is collected throughout the
day. Floats and the safe should then balance to the agreed amount,
with the revenue balancing to the till z reads.

This is a good start for your analysis. You need to define _exactly_ what
the outputs are, what calculations you need to get them, and then make
sure you have the data (i.e. in your db desing) to feed into the sums.
Then you do the reverse with the inputs: who will be entering what and in
what format; and how will you manipulate those inputs to get the data you
need to store.

After that it's plain sailing - normalisation is just a routine process
of applying rules!

All the best

Tim F