Manager — first week
This assumes you can already work a till. If not, do New server — day 1 first — a manager who cannot ring in an order cannot help during a rush.
Day 1 — approvals
You are the person the floor comes to. Know what you are approving.
When the till asks for a manager PIN, it is recording who approved this and then doing it. It is the approval, not a confirmation dialog.
The one to internalise: a partial refund is the wrong tool for fixing a tip. Refunds apply to the bill before the tip, so refunding an over-tip records the whole meal as refunded and leaves the tip paid. Adjust the tip if the payment is still open; refund in full and re-take it if it is not.
Day 2 — cash
Remember that "cash drawer" means two things: the physical box wired to a printer, and the financial session that ties to your books. A drawer that will not open is a hardware problem. A drawer that will not balance is not.
Day 3 — close-out
Do a full close with someone who has done it before, then do one alone.
Day 4 — reading the numbers
The one to internalise: reports bucket by the restaurant's time zone and your configured business-day boundary, not by midnight and not by your laptop. Most "these numbers are wrong" turns out to be this.
Day 5 — when things break
The one to internalise: one printer down is a printer; everything down at once is the gateway or the network. And when the gateway has been down, print jobs queue — check whether the original is about to arrive before you re-send, or the kitchen cooks it twice.
By the end of the week
- I have approved a void, a refund and a reopen
- I have closed the day out alone
- I can read the sales and labor reports and say what they mean
- I know the difference between a printer problem and a gateway problem
- I know which tip corrections are still possible and which are not
Print this: Manager close-out checklist