USA Cash drawer balance

[Edna]

Hi, there. I'm new here. One of the dilemmas I am facing is cash flows. A client owns a local take out fast food. Since a client has not tracked or balance the cash drawer at the end of the day, he only has Z-tape and guest checks. For example the total amount on the Z tape reads $217.00 and the total amount of guest checks is $197.70
Which amount should be reported? There is a $19.30 difference. Since opening he has been using a cash register that only shows how much cashier rang up. He finally switched to Clover, but will not arrive until next week.

 

[Fidget]

I would go with the Z reading as that should be the total that's been rang up in the cash register, and therefore represents the total/net sales. The discrepancy between the Z and actual cash, could be on account of a few things - over ringing and not correcting, undercharging accidental/deliberate, pilfering from the till, incorrect change being given, owner dipping into it for whatever reason.

But the Z from the till reading is everything that has gone through the till. So it's that reading that you take, and then have to try and somehow reconcile any discrepancies back to that reading, because the Z reading is the audit trail.