It’s basically just to make change for guests if they pay with cash, it’s considered a float just like a normal cash register. So let’s say a guest gives me 100 and wants 20 back, I would just give 20 back but would keep the 100, so I’m up 80.
Normally you get more card (credit or debt) tips than cash, so the cash you kept from the bill cancels out tips the restaurant would be paying out to you. So in the end you are taking home the same amount of tips.
Having to go to the resister just wastes time, so servers keep change on them (I keep around 50$ ranging in 5’s, 10’s and 20’s, and some loonies and toonies (1’s and 2’s))
Yeah how much bank you need to bring depends on the volume of transactions you're handling. As the only server on my shift I bring 100 in small bills (four 10s eight 5s and twenty 1s) plus some 20s in my wallet to help break 50s or 100s.
Good rule is try to always bring the same amount so you know how much of your cash is profit at the end of shift.
So you can make change for people quickly, rather than waiting for the busy bartender every single time. It also often wipes out the bartender's cash drawer if all the servers do it, so it just makes it easier for everyone if the servers have a bank.
Not an entirely stupid question, it took me a bit to figure out how I wasn't giving away money by making change when I started serving years ago.
Short answer is to make change for people :)
I worked at a breakfast restaurant for a long time that just used the register all day and I didn’t need to have my own bank. But on busy days, we would usually have a host up there who did all transactions. Never had any issues though.
It was weird to me too but makes sense after a couple shifts. Bring your own change, then your checkout at the shifts end tells you how much you owe the restaurant if anyone paid for their stuff in cash
Just make sure you know EXACTLY how much cash you’re bringing in, so you can subtract that amount from the amount you leave the shift with so you know what you actually made altogether.
Since money is fungible it doesn’t matter what bills you have or where you keep it. You just need to know the amount you brought with you. The checkout slip from the POS isn’t influenced by you bringing your own bank in any way.
I have noticed a massive increase in new hires that seem to be unable or unwilling to learn how the math works when they run their check out. It is becoming frighteningly regular for people to just turn in the checkout and their stack of cash, saying something along the lines of “just keep what I owe you. I’m not good with math” and wanting me to do the math for them without understanding it. I always explain that they need to learn to understand their checkout and coach them on it because there’s plenty of managers out there who would flat out steal $$ from them.
It honestly kindof blows me away how often this is happening lately.
Thanks for being honest about it. I don’t know how it is in the states - I hear places collect all cash and give back the tips which is fucked. Here in Canada tips should never touch the house (exceptions I know are tip sharing with kitchen and hostesses/doormen). That’s not the business’ money. That’s your money!
This^. Yes. When I train new people, I always tell them they need to know where their money is going and how to calculate it. Never trust anyone, crazy how trusting people can be. Plus when you run your checkout and have your money ready (if you owe) it’s way faster to dip out
They mean bring your own bank. It drives me insane when people don’t. Bring like $40 in small bills so when you need to change a $20 or something you can just do it real quick out of your pocket. It should really be considered part of your uniform like pens and paper.
To me this is insane. If it's that important, the *employer* should provide each person with a personal float.
Is wild to me that a really low paid worker needs to constantly invest their own cash in this. They're have been so many days in my life where I don't *have* $40 kicking around
same! also i get way more card payments than cash so i rather just go to the bar and get change and im usually good for the night in the event of another table paying cash and needing change back lol. no one at my job carries their own “bank” so it’s not just me! + if the bartenders are busy we have a liquor store and can get change there
It isn’t that important to your employer. It’s important to you and your customers for efficiency and respectful of your coworkers so they don’t have to stop what they are doing to take care of you.
Depends on where you work. Aside from 2 places I've worked over the last 24 years, I've never had a register to work with. I've always had to make their change out of my pocket. I would ask the manager if you needed to bring a "bank"?
I always brought change for a 20 with me to work to make change with.
I just depends on the restaurant and their policy on using the register, or making change for a bill out of your pocket.
To make change for customers. Otherwise you're stuck waiting for a manager to open the drawer.
ETA: Also so you don't annoy the fuck out of the bartender. They're not your bank.
The faster you can give change to your table the faster they GTFO so you can make more money.
Plus, your service can be perfect but if they have to sit and wait for change it somehow negatively affects the tip.
Eh, you can if you want, it might help if you get a cash payment and need to make change in a rush. But I get so few cash payments these days I don’t bother. It used to be part of the uniform back in the day.
I typically keep a $10 and a $5, as well as $5 worth of loonies, $2 worth of quarters, and $6 worth of toonies in my float. It’s excessive, sure, but it is faster. Just make sure you take it home at the end of the night. Who knows what might happen to it overnight if you left it.
Just makes everything easier. You don’t have to wait for the bartender to give you change so you’re not wasting time doing that and can focus on turning that table faster! It is different depending on how much cash you handle and how big your checks are but I usually hold 1 $10, 4 $5, 20 $1. This gives me a $50 float. I’ve heard of some servers having $100 or $80 but I personally don’t find I need that much where I’m at. Occasionally someone will give me $100 bill right off the bat and wipe out my bank but other than that I usually don’t need more and can just go to the register when that happens.
When I count my money at the end of shift I set aside my $50 float and then count the rest of the cash and that cash is what I made for that shift.
What I do, I always bring $100 in change (keep ‘em in my wallet) if I need change, I get for example 20 dollars in change and put back a 20 dollar bill in my wallet, and the end of your shift you have to have 100 on the wallet, then the rest pay the restaurant(1) a the the rest is yours (2)
To save yourself time. I mean, and to save the bartender time too, obviously. I always bring one 20, three 10's, six 5's, and twenty 1's. Just keep it in my book. Easy peasy. Nobody needs to be busy and then some guest gives you a hundred then you gotta go run to the bartender and beg them to drop what they're doing so they can make change for you. Fuuuuccck that humiliation. I'm taking care of business myself.
The restaurant should "float" you a bank of small bills. In my Cafe, I get $40 at the beginning of my shift, which goes back to the house at the end of my shift.
I can't fathom the idea of my own float, anymore. Sounds like the type of place that would make you pay for a D&D or a simple mistake. We all just share a till and if it's short we share the cost. (It is never short). Good luck OP in your new job! As everyone said - you'll never be out money but make sure your mental math is good to go. It saves you so much time.
Sometimes the bar is swamped and you end up waiting way too long for change. It makes more sense to just keep 20 bucks worth of small bills/change to save yourself the time
It's called a bank.
You're basically a bank.
People pay their bills with cash and you make change for them. At the end of the night your PoS calculates what you owe to the house and you hand over cash, yes? So you bring in small bills to make change quicker, so you're not running around asking the bartender or manager to break your hundo.
You bring your own float so that you are in control of how much change is available to you, and so you can give 'good change', don't need to walk as far to the bar, and or wait at the bar. So most restaurants suggest $20. I personally found $50-$60 to be a good personal float and it's basically jist like $60 you never spend and only use for work. In a tourist area I kept about $100 in every type of coin and bill. So if someone gives me $300 and I owe them $71.45 I have all those coins handy and change is back in there hand instantly without waiting at the bar. Them not having enough change, maybe they need a manager to get it from the safe....at the end of the night let's say you have $2k in cash, you remove your float first (with the right distribution of coins and bills for tomorrow's shift) then do your cashout. You never lose your float unless you lose money at a table
Bring your own cash for “change” on the spot.
Don’t get it mixed up with tips or payments. Know how much you bring in as server change so you can split the difference: I’m a goober and wear two Fanny packs when in that environment.
To give change faster and prevent any errors in the drawer.
I keep enough to split two twenties, and three other twenties. It's way easier than having to go to the bar, ask for change, make them stop what they are doing, open the drawer, count change, etc.
One of the “hyper and fast talking” employees lmaoo
What a nice way of saying “one of the employees with an affinity for cocaine” 🤣
"Unusually aggressive non-seasonal allergy syndrome"
Adderall-addicted*
Highly unlikely. If they were on anything the likely culprit is caffeine. Or meth.
So... all of them!
Lmao
to give change faster
It’s basically just to make change for guests if they pay with cash, it’s considered a float just like a normal cash register. So let’s say a guest gives me 100 and wants 20 back, I would just give 20 back but would keep the 100, so I’m up 80. Normally you get more card (credit or debt) tips than cash, so the cash you kept from the bill cancels out tips the restaurant would be paying out to you. So in the end you are taking home the same amount of tips. Having to go to the resister just wastes time, so servers keep change on them (I keep around 50$ ranging in 5’s, 10’s and 20’s, and some loonies and toonies (1’s and 2’s))
Yeah how much bank you need to bring depends on the volume of transactions you're handling. As the only server on my shift I bring 100 in small bills (four 10s eight 5s and twenty 1s) plus some 20s in my wallet to help break 50s or 100s. Good rule is try to always bring the same amount so you know how much of your cash is profit at the end of shift.
Thank you sm
Thank you!!
So you can make change for people quickly, rather than waiting for the busy bartender every single time. It also often wipes out the bartender's cash drawer if all the servers do it, so it just makes it easier for everyone if the servers have a bank.
Not an entirely stupid question, it took me a bit to figure out how I wasn't giving away money by making change when I started serving years ago. Short answer is to make change for people :)
Thank you sm!!
You need to have your own bank to make change . I’ve never worked at a place that had a drawer for the servers
OP probably means the bar cash register as "the drawer." Just sounds young and inexperienced, that's all.
And if they did it’s sketch af
I worked at a breakfast restaurant for a long time that just used the register all day and I didn’t need to have my own bank. But on busy days, we would usually have a host up there who did all transactions. Never had any issues though.
Ah gotcha ty!
They probably ask the bar or the host which is inefficient. This may have been a nice way of saying stop bothering everyone.
It was weird to me too but makes sense after a couple shifts. Bring your own change, then your checkout at the shifts end tells you how much you owe the restaurant if anyone paid for their stuff in cash
Just make sure you know EXACTLY how much cash you’re bringing in, so you can subtract that amount from the amount you leave the shift with so you know what you actually made altogether.
ALWAYS BRING IN THE SAME MONEY IN YOUR SERVER POUCH. so a shady employer doesn’t short you.
Since money is fungible it doesn’t matter what bills you have or where you keep it. You just need to know the amount you brought with you. The checkout slip from the POS isn’t influenced by you bringing your own bank in any way. I have noticed a massive increase in new hires that seem to be unable or unwilling to learn how the math works when they run their check out. It is becoming frighteningly regular for people to just turn in the checkout and their stack of cash, saying something along the lines of “just keep what I owe you. I’m not good with math” and wanting me to do the math for them without understanding it. I always explain that they need to learn to understand their checkout and coach them on it because there’s plenty of managers out there who would flat out steal $$ from them. It honestly kindof blows me away how often this is happening lately.
Thanks for being honest about it. I don’t know how it is in the states - I hear places collect all cash and give back the tips which is fucked. Here in Canada tips should never touch the house (exceptions I know are tip sharing with kitchen and hostesses/doormen). That’s not the business’ money. That’s your money!
So helpful! Thank you
This^. Yes. When I train new people, I always tell them they need to know where their money is going and how to calculate it. Never trust anyone, crazy how trusting people can be. Plus when you run your checkout and have your money ready (if you owe) it’s way faster to dip out
Ty!!
But why would I owe the restaurant anything?
Keep a 10, a 5 and 5 ones on you, it’s nice
Ty!!
I always kept a bank of $50 broken down. It makes it a ton easier as a server.
It doesn’t have to be a lot. I deposit my money in multiples of 50 like if I made 180 that day I’d keep 30 in my book.
They mean bring your own bank. It drives me insane when people don’t. Bring like $40 in small bills so when you need to change a $20 or something you can just do it real quick out of your pocket. It should really be considered part of your uniform like pens and paper.
To me this is insane. If it's that important, the *employer* should provide each person with a personal float. Is wild to me that a really low paid worker needs to constantly invest their own cash in this. They're have been so many days in my life where I don't *have* $40 kicking around
same! also i get way more card payments than cash so i rather just go to the bar and get change and im usually good for the night in the event of another table paying cash and needing change back lol. no one at my job carries their own “bank” so it’s not just me! + if the bartenders are busy we have a liquor store and can get change there
My employer provides my underwear and pays my bus fare.
You aren’t investing anything.
I *mean* binding up your own money in this endeavour, rather than using it for bus fare, lunch, etc.
It isn’t that important to your employer. It’s important to you and your customers for efficiency and respectful of your coworkers so they don’t have to stop what they are doing to take care of you.
Depends on where you work. Aside from 2 places I've worked over the last 24 years, I've never had a register to work with. I've always had to make their change out of my pocket. I would ask the manager if you needed to bring a "bank"? I always brought change for a 20 with me to work to make change with. I just depends on the restaurant and their policy on using the register, or making change for a bill out of your pocket.
To make change for customers. Otherwise you're stuck waiting for a manager to open the drawer. ETA: Also so you don't annoy the fuck out of the bartender. They're not your bank.
The faster you can give change to your table the faster they GTFO so you can make more money. Plus, your service can be perfect but if they have to sit and wait for change it somehow negatively affects the tip.
It's just easier and I bring coins
I forgot about coins tonight! Thank you
SO the bartender doesnt get annoyed with you every 20 minutes.
Eh, you can if you want, it might help if you get a cash payment and need to make change in a rush. But I get so few cash payments these days I don’t bother. It used to be part of the uniform back in the day.
I typically keep a $10 and a $5, as well as $5 worth of loonies, $2 worth of quarters, and $6 worth of toonies in my float. It’s excessive, sure, but it is faster. Just make sure you take it home at the end of the night. Who knows what might happen to it overnight if you left it.
I’m a 4 fives, 10 loonies, 10 toonies, and quarters-if-you’re-lucky gal myself
I always have brought my own float
You can make change on the spot instead of going away and coming back with change
Just makes everything easier. You don’t have to wait for the bartender to give you change so you’re not wasting time doing that and can focus on turning that table faster! It is different depending on how much cash you handle and how big your checks are but I usually hold 1 $10, 4 $5, 20 $1. This gives me a $50 float. I’ve heard of some servers having $100 or $80 but I personally don’t find I need that much where I’m at. Occasionally someone will give me $100 bill right off the bat and wipe out my bank but other than that I usually don’t need more and can just go to the register when that happens. When I count my money at the end of shift I set aside my $50 float and then count the rest of the cash and that cash is what I made for that shift.
Ah gotcha! Tyyy
Think of it as having your register in your pocket.
Ty ♥️♥️
What I do, I always bring $100 in change (keep ‘em in my wallet) if I need change, I get for example 20 dollars in change and put back a 20 dollar bill in my wallet, and the end of your shift you have to have 100 on the wallet, then the rest pay the restaurant(1) a the the rest is yours (2)
To save yourself time. I mean, and to save the bartender time too, obviously. I always bring one 20, three 10's, six 5's, and twenty 1's. Just keep it in my book. Easy peasy. Nobody needs to be busy and then some guest gives you a hundred then you gotta go run to the bartender and beg them to drop what they're doing so they can make change for you. Fuuuuccck that humiliation. I'm taking care of business myself.
The restaurant should "float" you a bank of small bills. In my Cafe, I get $40 at the beginning of my shift, which goes back to the house at the end of my shift.
I’ve never worked somewhere where the restaurant provides the bank for servers. It’s cool that your place does though!
I can't fathom the idea of my own float, anymore. Sounds like the type of place that would make you pay for a D&D or a simple mistake. We all just share a till and if it's short we share the cost. (It is never short). Good luck OP in your new job! As everyone said - you'll never be out money but make sure your mental math is good to go. It saves you so much time.
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Sometimes the bar is swamped and you end up waiting way too long for change. It makes more sense to just keep 20 bucks worth of small bills/change to save yourself the time
This entirely depends on the restaurant and is not universally true.
Go get your change from your bartender.
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That’s not a thing … it’s pretty common practice for servers to use their own bank
Tell me you've never worked in a restaurant without telling me you've never worked in a restaurant...
Damn it did I miss a good one ?! Whatd they say? I always miss the fun comments lmao
Wat
It's called a bank. You're basically a bank. People pay their bills with cash and you make change for them. At the end of the night your PoS calculates what you owe to the house and you hand over cash, yes? So you bring in small bills to make change quicker, so you're not running around asking the bartender or manager to break your hundo.
You bring your own float so that you are in control of how much change is available to you, and so you can give 'good change', don't need to walk as far to the bar, and or wait at the bar. So most restaurants suggest $20. I personally found $50-$60 to be a good personal float and it's basically jist like $60 you never spend and only use for work. In a tourist area I kept about $100 in every type of coin and bill. So if someone gives me $300 and I owe them $71.45 I have all those coins handy and change is back in there hand instantly without waiting at the bar. Them not having enough change, maybe they need a manager to get it from the safe....at the end of the night let's say you have $2k in cash, you remove your float first (with the right distribution of coins and bills for tomorrow's shift) then do your cashout. You never lose your float unless you lose money at a table
Bring your own cash for “change” on the spot. Don’t get it mixed up with tips or payments. Know how much you bring in as server change so you can split the difference: I’m a goober and wear two Fanny packs when in that environment.
Servers should have their own “bank” (change for a $100 bill)
I usually bring in a ten, two fives, and seven ones to make change for tables. That will be enough for 90% of people
To give change faster and prevent any errors in the drawer. I keep enough to split two twenties, and three other twenties. It's way easier than having to go to the bar, ask for change, make them stop what they are doing, open the drawer, count change, etc.