Before you can ring up your first sale of the day, you need to open a shift. This tells Amari who's working the counter, captures your starting cash amount, and starts tracking everything that happens until you close the shift at the end of the day.
Before you start
- You're signed in as an Owner or Staff account
- You know how much cash is in the drawer before you start selling
- Your branch is selected in the top-left branch switcher
How to open a shift
Go to the POS page
Tap POS in the left sidebar. If a shift is already open, you'll see the product grid right away — you can skip this article. If no shift is open, you'll see a big Open Shift button in the center of the screen.
Enter your starting cash
Type the amount of cash that's in the drawer right now, before any sales. This is your opening balance. It's used later at shift close to reconcile how much cash should be in the drawer.
Count the drawer twice before entering. Getting this wrong by even ₱100 will make your end-of-day count look off.
Add staff on duty (optional)
If anyone else is working this shift (a second cashier, a kitchen crew), tap Add Staff and select them from the list. Each person gets a role:
- Cashier — can ring up sales. One cashier is the "active cashier" whose name prints on receipts.
- Kitchen — clocked in for time tracking but doesn't ring up sales.
You can add, remove, or switch the active cashier at any time during the shift.
Tap Open Shift
That's it. The product grid loads and you can start taking orders. The system also takes a snapshot of your current inventory so you can reconcile it when you close the shift.
What happens automatically
When you open a shift, Amari:
- Captures a starting inventory snapshot for reconciliation later
- Sends a shift-started email to the owner (if enabled in settings)
- Starts tracking every sale, expense, and staff clock-in/out
- Assigns the next receipt number based on today's date
One shift at a time
A branch can only have one shift open at a time. If your coworker forgot to close yesterday's shift, you'll see their shift still open — close it first (with their actual ending cash), then open a new one.
Related articles
- Taking a sale
- Closing a shift
- Clocking in/out additional staff mid-shift