Once your cash drawer is physically set up, you need to configure it in the Back Office. This allows Lightspeed Restaurant to track its balance based on the POS devices and users that you link it to. Our guide explains how to create and edit cash drawers, and it covers settings for popping the drawer open, counting the starting amount, and more.

Creating and editing cash drawers

In the Back Office, create a new cash drawer to set up a physical drawer you've added to your business. Edit an existing cash drawer if you need to change any of its settings.

1. From the navigation menu, select Hardware > Cash drawers.
2. Click Create new cash drawer, or select the name of an existing drawer to edit
3. Enter a name for the cash drawer.
4. Configure the cash drawer's other settings based on your business needs.
5. When finished, click Save to save changes.

Cash drawer settings

There are three categories of settings associated with cash drawers: Basic, Physical drawer, and Connections.

Basic settings

Basic cash drawer settings include its name, counting permissions, and the initial cash amount (also called a float).

Cash drawer name (required) | An identifier used to distinguish between different cash drawers. For example, Front cash drawer or Side POS cash drawer.

Counting | Controls how users enter the cash drawer's amount when opening and closing the cash drawer. There are three options:

• Disabled - The cash drawer will always be opened for the default amount entered in the Initial cash amount field below.
• Enabled - Users can count and enter a new cash drawer amount, or they can accept the default Initial cash amount without counting.
• Mandatory - Users are required to count and enter the actual amount of money contained within the cash drawer.

Initial cash amount | The default amount of cash that the drawer will be set to contain when opening the cash drawer. This is also known as a float. A user can override the initial amount by entering a different value while counting the drawer.

Use this drawer for non-cash payments | Includes any non-cash payments you process in the reporting for the cash drawer.

Physical drawer settings

Select the receipt printer your cash drawer is connected to, which allows the POS to open the drawer. You can also configure options for when, and how, the drawer will automatically open.

Printer | Select the printer that your physical cash drawer is plugged in to. Only printers that you've added to the Back Office can be selected. After making a selection, additional settings will appear:

• Cash drawer | If you have two cash drawers connected to the same printer using a splitter, select whether this drawer is plugged into the Primary or Secondary port on the splitter.
• Open the drawer when completing a cash payment | Automatically pops open the drawer when a cash payment is accepted.
• Open the drawer when completing a non-cash payment | Automatically pops open the drawer when a non-cash payment is accepted.
• Require user permission to open drawer during a transaction | The drawer will only pop open when the user logged in to the POS belongs to a user group with the User can open the cash drawer using the Open drawer button permission.

Connections

The Connections section lets you manage the POS devices and user groups that the cash drawer is used with.

Devices allowed to use this cash drawer | Define which POS devices will use this cash drawer.

User groups allowed to use this cash drawer | Define which user groups’ orders will contribute to the drawer amount.

User groups that can manage this cash drawer | Define which user groups can open the drawer.

What's next?