Restaurant daily cash book (India)
Daily petty cash register for Indian restaurants — track every cash receipt and payment with running balance. Set the opening cash balance for the month, then add each transaction: sales cash-in, supplier payments, staff advance, utility bills, petty expenses. Categories auto-summarise receipts vs payments. Running balance flags if you go below zero. Print the monthly A4 ledger with signature blocks or export CSV for your accountant. No signup.
Cash book vs petty cash voucher vs petty cash register
Three related but distinct records: the petty cash voucher is a paper slip issued for each individual payment — it records the amount, purpose, recipient and authorising signature for that single transaction. The petty cash register (this tool) is the running ledger that posts every voucher — receipts and payments — in chronological order with a running balance. The petty cash reconciliation is the periodic count of cash on hand vs the ledger balance to verify no cash has gone missing.
For a restaurant: issue a voucher for every payment, enter the voucher in this register, and do a weekly cash count. The voucher number appears in the "Voucher ref" column so you can match the physical slip to the ledger entry.
Imprest vs running cash book
Most restaurants run an imprest system: a fixed cash float (e.g. ₹5,000 or ₹10,000) is maintained for petty expenses. At the end of each week or fortnight, spent cash is replenished by withdrawing from the bank — so the float resets to the imprest amount. This makes reconciliation simple: float amount − current cash on hand = spent, which must match your voucher total.
A running cash book (this tool) is used when all cash flows — including daily sales receipts — pass through the same record. This gives a complete picture of total cash position, not just petty spend. For restaurants, the daily cash settlement from the POS (cash channel only) is entered as a "Sales / Cash receipts" entry, and all cash payments are entered as they occur.
Common cash leakage categories
Cash leakage in restaurants typically shows up in the cash book as: (1) unrecorded petty cash payments — staff-purchased items without a voucher; (2) supplier payments in excess of the invoice, with the difference pocketed; (3) cash sales not entered into the POS — the cash is present but the receipt is absent; (4) advance payments to staff that never appear as salary deductions. Reviewing the cash book weekly against the daily sales report is the fastest way to catch pattern anomalies.
Where this fits
- Petty cash voucher pad — print the individual payment vouchers that feed this cash book; each voucher number should be entered in the "Voucher ref" column here
- Vendor payment tracker — large supplier payments that clear through the bank belong in the vendor ledger; petty cash supplier payments (cash below ₹5,000) go in this cash book
- Daily sales report (DSR) — the cash channel total from the DSR is the "Sales / Cash receipts" entry in this cash book each day; the two records should reconcile
- Monthly P&L statement — the category totals from this cash book (food purchases, utilities, rent, wages) map directly to expense lines in the monthly P&L
- P2 — Petty cash pillar — all guides on petty cash control, imprest system, voucher management, and monthly reconciliation for Indian restaurant operators