sales summary - not at the day end...
Here's my two cents, but I hope someone else responds, too, since this is a good qestion, and tracking sales is very important. I want to be accurate when I open my shop this spring, and hope to improve on the following... My best advice may be to not do the counting at the end of the day.
This is what they did at the shop I worked at last year. First there were two cash drawers (One cash register.) At the day end, the cash register sales tape totals were ran. Also, the credit card tapes were ran. These tapes were pulled out and put away with the full cash drawer. The cash register drawer compartment was left open and empty at night. (In case of break-ins, you don't want anyone to break your register, just to find out it's empty.)
The next day, the opening staff got out the other cash drawer, which had been prepared with the correct amount of starting cash.
During the lull between breakfast and lunch, the owner would take last night's drawer and enter the totals into a cheap green accounting ledger notebook, and prepare the day's deposit. Also, any large bills or checks from the current morning were added in, and a note was made of how much.
In the accounting notebook, There were two pages for each month, meaning, if you open it up, you could see the whole month on those two right and left pages. There was about two years worth of info in there. At the way top was listed the month. Down the left side each line or row was one day of the month. That one line was filled in each day. Across the top there was listed everything that needed to be tracked for money and non-money coming and going out of the drawer. Non-money being gift certificates.
Here are the column categories that I remember. Try it, and add whatever else you need to track. Date, Cash from the drawer, Credit Sales, amt of checks and large cash taken out for previous day deposit, Gift Certs sold($ in, but no product out), Gift Certs used (no $ in, but product out,) Punch cards redeemed(just count them for info to estimate how much this perk sets you back,) Money out of the drawer (There should be a receipt in the drawer if an employee had to run buy something with cash,) Total sales for the day(Add the various income amts and types,) Amount of overage or shortage. These were most of the cash drawer numbers.
Also, there were columns to track the breakdown of register totals for coffee, pastries, gifts, Foods, Bean sales, and whatnot.
A few notes... The change never got counted. Somtimes there was a little more, sometimes less. The overages and shortages amounts seemed to stay about the same from day to day. Starting cash was just left in the drawer, and not counted and replaced each day. Last night's drawer becomes the starting drawer for the next morning. It just gets put away after the counting and totals are done. Some change rolls, 1's and 5's were kept in a bank bag. If an employee needs quarters, they take a roll and leave a $10, keeping the drawer balanced. The notebook of counts and totals was kept separate from other bill paying and check writing that the owner did at home. If your computer is at the shop, you could easily do the tracking in a spreadsheet.
I only did the totals a few times, but it seemed like a fairly simple stress free way to track it all. I suppose the owner took the notebook home at month end and entered it into the computer for the accountant. This owner has been in business for 11 years, and it works for them.
You'll want to get a good system figured out before it snowballs into a big mess. If you plan to do it yourself, you may want to start by paying someone to help set up your quickbooks accounts or whatever you're using. Then you can just do the entry and month end stuff.
Good Luck