Tender Management and Workstation Cashiering

When you add a tender, you must identify its Tender Source. For example,

• A specific cash drawer ID is the source of tenders remitted to a cashier.
• The notional lockbox ID is the source of tenders interfaced from a lockbox.
• The remittance processor is the source of tenders interfaced from a remittance processor.

A tender source's tenders must be balanced against an expected total before they can be deposited at a bank. This periodic balancing requires all tenders to exist in respect of a Tender Control. Over time, a tender source may have many tender controls (one per balancing event).

An example of a cashier's cash drawer will help clarify the tender control concept:

• When a cashier starts in the morning, they start with a fresh cash drawer (i.e., one without tenders). Whenever a drawer starts afresh, a new Tender Control must be created because you balance the contents of a drawer.
• A cash drawer typically contains funds to make change. These funds are the tender control's Opening Balance.

• During the day, customers remit tenders to the cashier. Every tender put into the drawer is associated with the drawer's tender control created at the start of the day.
• A tender control's balance increases during the day as tenders are recorded. A cashier can view the balance at any time.
• The cashier can turn in funds to the head cashier during the day. Each turn in event can be recorded in the system. Note well, if the amount of funds in a tender control exceeds the maximum balance defined on the tender control's tender source, a warning is issued to the cashier to remind them to turn in funds.
• At some point, the contents of the drawer must be balanced against the total tenders linked to the tender control. When balancing starts, no additional tenders may be put into the tender control. If the cashier receives additional tenders after balancing starts, a new tender control must be created (and the above process starts afresh).
• During the balancing process, some modifications may be made to the tenders associated with the tender control, but no additional tenders may be added. When the tender control is balanced, neither it nor its tenders may be modified.

While the above explanation is true, it isn't complete. In addition to the requirement that a tender must reference a tender control, the tender control must refer to a Deposit Control. Deposit controls give you administrative control over all of the tender controls whose contents will be deposited en masse. The following concepts will help explain the power of deposit controls:

• As explained above, when a cash drawer is started afresh, a new tender control must be created. The tender control "holds" all new tenders received by the cashier.
• Similarly, when a tender control is created, it must reference a deposit control. During the day, a deposit control's tender controls are constantly changing. You can view the total impact of a deposit control's tender controls at any time.
• At some point, you will want to deposit the tenders received during the day. To do this, you must indicate how much will be deposited at the bank. This deposit amount must equal the sum of the tender controls linked to the cash drawer. When this deposit balancing starts, no additional tender controls may be associated with the deposit control.
• When the deposit total equals the sum of the tender controls, the deposit control becomes balanced and no changes may be made to it, its tender controls, or its tender controls' tenders.

The topics in this section elaborate on the tender management concepts described above.