Not all businesses provide invoicing facilities to their customers. Many shops, garages, restaurants, and retail businesses simply operate on a cash basis using a till and issuing customers with a sales receipt. How do we correctly account for these scenarios using QuickFile? Obviously it’s not feasible to enter every single invoice in QuickFile, therefore we would suggest you invoice on a daily basis to reflect the aggregate totals for that day. You can of course log your takings on a weekly or even monthly invoice depending on the level of reporting required.

QuickFile also has a Cash Register tool for logging cash register sales: go to Sales > Enter cash register takings. This guide explains the manual method, which remains useful for more complex scenarios, e.g. where you wish to differentiate product lines.

When logging your invoice we would recommend creating a client called ‘Till sales’ or ‘Daily takings’. You can also create separate clients to differentiate cash and card sales, or any other payment methods for that matter, again it all depends on the level of reporting required.

Before you start

• The day’s totals from your till, for example the Z report.
• A bank account for each way you are paid, if you want to log cash and card takings separately. The first section shows how to create them.

How do I set up a client and accounts for my takings?

Create one client to hold your daily takings invoices:

1. Go to Sales > Create new client.
2. Enter a Client Name, for example Daily takings.
3. Click Save Details.

If you want to log cash and card takings separately, create an account for each:

1. Go to Banking and click Create.
2. Choose Cash Account for your cash takings. The form is headed Petty Cash Account. Enter an Account Name, for example Till cash, and save the account.
3. Click Create again and choose Merchant or Payment Service Account for your card takings.
4. Choose your Provider Name (choose Other if your provider isn’t listed) and enter an Account Name, for example Card sales.
5. Complete any other fields you need and save the account.

See Accounting for income from a payment service provider and Handling payments from merchant accounts for more on card payments.

How do I create the daily takings invoice?

Let’s start with a simple scenario. Maurine’s Cozy Cafe took £440 in sales on Monday. The business is VAT registered and Maurine is charging VAT to her customers who are eating in the cafe, this equates to £240 of VAT inclusive sales, the remaining £200 relates to take-away sales.

1. Go to Sales > Create new invoice.
2. In Client Name, start typing the name of your takings client and choose it from the suggestions.
3. Set the Invoice Date to the day of the takings.
4. Enter the first line: a Description such as On premise sales, a Unit Cost of 200.00 and a Qty of 1.
5. Set the VAT for the line to 20%.
6. Click New Line and enter the second line: Take away sales, 200.00, Qty 1, with VAT set to 0%.
7. Use the till’s Z report to key in the daily totals.
8. Click Save Details. QuickFile confirms “Your invoice has been saved!”.
9. Click the link to view a preview of your invoice.

At the end of the day Maurine’s daily takings invoice will look something like this. The totals are Sub Total 400.00, VAT 40.00 and Invoice Total 440.00:

If the invoice is paid straight away, the due date isn’t important.

Which VAT options can I use?

Each line has a VAT drop-down with the options 20%, 12.5%, 5% and 0%. Under the totals, click Edit next to Additional VAT Options to show two tickboxes: VAT Exempt and Out of Scope for UK VAT.

See VAT options explained for what each option does.

How often should I raise an invoice?

In this example the totals are entered for the day based on the Z1 readings from the till. Each Z1 reading should be logged individually as a new invoice, therefore if you take the Z1 reading intermittently, then simply raise a new invoice for each Z1 as of the date taken.

How do I post sales to specific nominal accounts?

You can further categorise your daily invoices by posting subtotals to specific nominal accounts. You can create your nominal account first in the ‘Chart of Accounts’ screen (see Adding a new nominal account), then allocate a line total to that new account.

1. On the invoice line, click the grey cogwheel icon at the right of the Description to reveal the line options.
2. Choose the nominal account in the Category drop-down. It defaults to General Sales.

The cogwheel also lets you insert a page break or a sub-total after the line, and convert the line to a comment line. See Invoice and estimate line settings for details.

How do I log the cash payment?

If you are offering your customers different methods of payment you will need to account for these when marking the invoice as paid. In the example above £300 of the daily takings was received in cash. You can log a payment to reflect the cash into the business:

1. On the invoice preview, click Log Payment.
2. Enter the Amount, for example 300.00.
3. Check the Payment Date.
4. In Paid to, choose your cash account.
5. Add a note if you wish, for example Cash totals for Monday.
6. Click Save.

QuickFile confirms “A Payment of GBP 300.00 has been attributed to this invoice. This invoice is now partially Paid up.” The invoice is stamped PAID * IN PART *, and the Balance Due is 140.00.

How do I log the card payment?

The remaining £140 was received through card payments. This can be posted to the card sales account you set up earlier.

1. Click Log Payment again.
2. Tick Pay in full to fill the Amount with the balance (140.00).
3. In Paid to, choose your card sales account.
4. Add a note if you wish, for example Card totals for Monday.
5. Click Save.

QuickFile confirms “A Payment of GBP 140.00 has been attributed to this invoice. This invoice is now fully paid up.” The invoice is stamped PAID * IN FULL *.

Can I attach the Z report to the invoice?

We would recommend that you attach the Z1 scanned copy to each invoice. Below the invoice preview, open the File Attachments panel, then click Browse or drag your file onto the panel.

How do I match the takings to a bank transaction?

If the takings are paid into a bank account, you can tag the bank transaction to the daily takings invoice instead of using Log Payment.

1. Go to Banking, find your account and click View.
2. Click Tag Me on the bank transaction.
3. Choose Payment from a customer.
4. QuickFile looks for unpaid invoices of the same value within the Search Range (1 Month by default). Widen the range if your invoice is older.
5. When your invoice appears under Matched Invoice Records, click Click to Pay.
6. Click OK to confirm. QuickFile shows “Invoice Linked” and the transaction is tagged.

Tick Send payment confirmation by email only if you want the client to be emailed.

Alternatively, if you want to put a receipt against several invoices or hold it as a credit, click Pay down multiple invoices or assign to a client account, choose the client and complete the Client Payment screen. If the client has no unpaid invoices, you can save the amount as a credit to the client account.

Which Tag Me options are there for money in?

When you click Tag Me on a money-in transaction, QuickFile asks “What type of transaction is this?” and offers:

• Payment from a customer
• Refund from a supplier
• Bank transfer between accounts
• Tax refund from HMRC (e.g. VAT, PAYE or Corporation Tax)
• Something else not on this list

Where do the sales, VAT and payments appear?

All the relevant nominal ledgers will track the sales, VAT, and payments relating to your daily sales.

You can also set up a custom report: go to Reports > Custom reports to create your own graphs based on one or more nominal accounts, such as your sales accounts. See Build a custom report for the steps.

Troubleshooting

Which client should I use for daily takings?

Any generic client, such as ‘Daily takings’ or ‘Till sales’. You can create separate clients for cash and card sales if you want to report on them separately.

Do I have to enter every sale?

No. Enter the totals for each day or week, and keep the Z report or other source records as evidence.

My takings include more than one VAT rate.

Add a line for each VAT rate on the invoice. Alternatively, the Cash Register tool lets you enter flat figures for cash, card and VAT.

My invoice isn’t offered when I tag a bank transaction.

The invoice may still be a draft. Flag it as sent (Sales > Show all sales > status arrow > Send invoice > Flag invoice as sent) and try again.

How do I deal with card fees from my payment provider?

Treat the provider as a holding account and record the fees separately. See Accounting for income from a payment service provider.

Related topics

New to bookkeeping in QuickFile? Start with Sole Trader Bookkeeping - The Basics (or Limited Company Bookkeeping - The Basics) for an overview.

• Cash Register Tool: Log your daily cash register sales in one step instead of raising an invoice.
• Sole Trader Bookkeeping - The Basics: A beginner’s overview of bookkeeping in QuickFile.
• Limited Company Bookkeeping - The Basics: The same overview for limited companies.
• Create your first invoice: Every field on the Create Invoice screen.
• Invoice and estimate line settings: What the cogwheel on an invoice line does.
• VAT options explained: What VAT Exempt and Out of Scope for UK VAT mean on an invoice.
• Build a custom report: Create graphs of your sales nominal accounts.
• Accounting for income from a payment service provider: Record card income and fees from a payment provider.
• Accounting for non-invoiced items: Tag bank transactions that have no invoice.