The store closing procedure is as follows. Please keep in mind that these are general instructions, and your company may have policies and procedures not documented here. The steps to close the day are:
(1) Make sure that all loans, receipts and other transactions for the day have been entered. If you close the day and later find unentered loans or transactions, it is generally best to enter them the following day using the next day's date as the loan or transaction date. If you don't do this, you can lose "date integrity." For example, suppose that you are three days into the current month CM with activity A, B and C. Your current month total activity CM is equal to the totals of days A, B and C. If, however, on day D if you start entering loans and transactions dated back to day A, you cannot add up the previously printed and balanced reports for the first three days to the daily reports for the fourth day and get the correct monthly totals. If you want your daily reports for the month to "add up" to the correct monthly totals, you can't arbitrarily change the transaction detail for previously closed days. This means that all new loans and transactions should be entered using only the current date, and TLP new loan and transaction dates always default to the current system date, so it's best not to change them. Also, once a day has been closed, users should not log back into the program that day. Instead, after the day is balanced and closed, the user should wait until the following day to log in, and all new loans and transactions should be dated the following day.
(2) Go to Tools, then Cash Drawer, then View Cash Drawer. Check the computer's cash drawer adjusted balance and make sure it agrees with the actual cash drawer. If the computer's balance is incorrect, look for obvious things like funds that were received from clients and not entered into the computer, or loans that were made and not entered into the computer. Do not press the Close Drawer button at this time, even if the drawer seems to balance. If the drawer is not in balance, you may want to click the View Transaction button to view the Cash Drawer Reconciliation Report, which shows all transactions and adjustments for the current cash drawer.
(3) Next, go to Reports and print the daily detail reports your company uses at the end of each day. An example of daily reports used to close and balance might be the Daily Transaction Report (which details new loans, fees and interest), the Daily Receipt Log (which details monies received), and perhaps the Loan List (which shows the principle, interest and fee balances of each loan). Your company may elect to add to (or subtract from) the reports to be printed and balanced, in which case it would be advisable for each store employee to be given step-by-step instructions. AOCG recommends an end-of-day checklist, which some companies may elect to have initialed and filed for each day by the person doing the closing.
(4) Next, print one of the various Daily Summary reports. The example given here is for the Daily Summary (Single Date Version). Your company may elect to use another report for balancing and closing, in which case the process may be somewhat different. In this example, select the Daily Summary (Single Date Version). Be sure the date chosen is the day being closed. This date will normally default to the current system date. Click the Refresh button, which causes the form to be refreshed with up-to-date figures for the date in question. Next, click the Print button. Do not click the Post button until all the figures on the Daily Summary have been verified. Compare the Daily Summary cash section to the Cash Drawer Reconciliation Report and make sure the reports agree. If the previous day's cash drawer was not closed correctly, or if the beginning and ending dates and times on the cash drawer are incorrect, it is possible for the reports to be out of balance. It is also a good idea to compare the Daily Summary against the detailed reports such as the Daily Transaction Report and the Daily Receipt Log. If your company balances the A/R figures on a daily basis, it would also be a good idea to compare the Daily Summary A/R figures to the Loan List at this point. If there are any discrepancies, they should be resolved before the Post button is clicked.
(5) Once the reports above have been printed and balanced, Use the Post button to post and "lock in" the Daily Summary figures.
(6) Go back to the Cash Drawer, and make any adjustments for monies removed from the Cash Drawer or deposited to the Cash Drawer in preparation for the next day. For instance, if your company tallies checks and money orders in the cash drawer, and at the end of the day these checks and money orders are deposited to the bank, you could submit a cash drawer adjustment as follows. In this example, the checks and money orders add up to $2,750.00. And there is an additional transaction to move $1,250 in excess cash from the cash drawer to an in-store vault. Adjustments that decrease the cash drawer balance are entered as negative amounts, and adjustments that increase the cash drawer balance are entered as positive amounts: Amount: -2,750.00Description: Deposit checks and money orders to Bank One Amount: -1,250.00Description: Transfer excess cash to Vault After all such adjustments have been entered and submitted, be sure to check the cash drawer adjusted balance to make sure the transactions were entered correctly. Entering an adjustment with the wrong sign (positive for negative, or vice versa) is easy to do, so you should always re-check the drawer before closing the drawer. When, and only when, the cash drawer adjusted balance is correct, click the Close Drawer button, then close the cash drawer window.
(7) At this point, go to File, then to Logoff. As soon as you log off, the login dialog will appear. Do not log in! Instead, click the Cancel button and the program will close. Do not restart the program until the next day, and then be sure your computer system date and time are correct before restarting the program. Restarting the program incorrectly will cause a new cash drawer to be opened, and if there are two cash drawers with the same date, the cash beginning balance on the Daily Summary and other reports may be wrong. The computer cannot have two different beginning balances for the same day. After you have done step number 5 above, you should always do the remaining steps in order, log off, and close the program. If any additional loans or transactions need to be entered, they should be entered the following day using the next day's date.
(8) Once the program is closed, you should immediately back up the program and data. On most systems, this can be done by backing up the following folder on the computer that hosts the database (the server): C:\Program Files\Title Loan Professional Plus (however, some companies for internal reasons may elect to store the program and data elsewhere). To verify that you are backing up the correct data, you can check the last modification date on the main database file. The full name of this file is titleloan2k_be.mdb (the .mdb extension may not be displayed, depending on how Windows is configured). This file is normally contained in a database subfolder called C:\Program Files\Title Loan Professional Plus\database. Discussing full backup protocols and procedures is beyond the scope of this document, but suffice it to say that every company should back up on a daily basis, rotate backup media, and keep off-site backups. It is also very advisable to keep a backup log, to backup on multiple different types of media (CD, DVD, tape, etc.), and to verify that backup files can be read and restored. Failure to do any of the preceding may result in a situation where your company can lose part or all of its data at any time. When backing up, we strongly advise that you do not attempt to drag and drop the Title Loan Professional Plus folder, or any of the program or database files. Dragging and dropping can easily result in the files being moved, in which case the program will no longer function and data, in the worst of cases, might be lost. Instead, if you are backing up using Windows, right click on the Title Loan Professional Plus folder, and select either Copy or Send To. If you are backing up to a CD, the Send To method is easiest: simply send the folder to the CD drive (this of course requires you to have a CD-burner that supports burning CDs without special software). If you are backing up to a drive or device that is not available using Send To, you can select Copy, then use My Computer or Explorer to paste the copied folder to the desired destination. If you have any questions about how to back up, please consult with the person in your company who decides on such matters, as we do not know the policies of our customers. However you back up, it is important to make sure your backup files are accessible and can be restored when necessary. For more information, please refer to the Backup topic of this documentation, or search for "Backup" to see all related topics.
EXAMPLE:
End of Day Store Closing Checklist
Store: __________ Date: __________ Closed by: _____________________________________
__ (1) Make sure that all loans, receipts and other transactions for the day have been entered.
__ (2) Check the computer's cash drawer adjusted balance and make sure it agrees with the actual cash drawer. Do not close the cash drawer at this time!
__ (3) Print the daily detail reports used by your company for closing and balancing: Daily Transaction Report, Daily Receipt Log, Loan List, etc.
__ (4) Print one of the various Daily Summary reports. The example given here is for the Daily Summary (Single Date Version). Be sure the date chosen is the day being closed. This date will normally default to the current system date. Click the Refresh button, which causes the form to be refreshed with up-to-date figures for the date in question. Next, click the Print button. Do not click the Post button until all the figures on the Daily Summary have been verified. Compare the Daily Summary cash section to the Cash Drawer Reconciliation Report and make sure the reports agree. If the previous day's cash drawer was not closed correctly, or if the beginning and ending dates and times on the cash drawer are incorrect, it is possible for the reports to be out of balance. It is also a good idea to compare the Daily Summary against the detailed reports such as the Daily Transaction Report and the Daily Receipt Log. If your company balances the A/R figures on a daily basis, it would also be a good idea to compare the Daily Summary A/R figures to the Loan List at this point. If there are any discrepancies, they should be resolved before the Post button is clicked.
__ (5) Once the reports above have been printed and balanced, Use the Post button to post and "lock in" the Daily Summary figures.
__ (6) Go back to the Cash Drawer, and make any adjustments for monies removed from the Cash Drawer or deposited to the Cash Drawer in preparation for the next day. After all such adjustments have been entered and submitted, be sure to check the cash drawer adjusted balance to make sure the transactions were entered correctly. When, and only when, the cash drawer adjusted balance is correct, click the Close Drawer button, then close the cash drawer window.
__ (7) At this point, go to File, then to Logoff. As soon as you log off, the login dialog will appear. Do not log in! Instead, click the Cancel button and the program will close. Do not restart the program until the next day, and then be sure your computer system date and time are correct before restarting the program. Restarting the program incorrectly will cause a new cash drawer to be opened, and if there are two cash drawers with the same date, the cash beginning balance on the Daily Summary and other reports may be wrong. The computer cannot have two different beginning balances for the same day. After you have done step number 5 above, you should always do the remaining steps in order, log off, and close the program. If any additional loans or transactions need to be entered, they should be entered the following day using the next day's date.
__ (8) Once the program is closed, you should immediately back up the program and data.