Providing Guest Cash Advances: The Complete POS Guide 💵🎯

Got a guest at the bar who needs $20 in cash to play a game of darts or feed the pool table, but only has a credit card? With NX Restaurant, your staff can issue cash advances directly against an open guest check!

This guide explains how cash advances work, how to set them up in your back office, how floor staff ring them up, and how they report on your shift summaries. 🚀

💡 What is a Cash Advance?

A Cash Advance allows a server or bartender to hand physical cash out of the drawer to a guest by ringing it as an open-price item on their running tab.

Here is what you need to know about how the system handles it behind the scenes:

It Is NOT Revenue: Cash advances raise the total amount the guest owes at checkout, but they are recorded as a pass-through payout rather than menu sales.
Drawer Cash Math: Because physical cash leaves the till the moment you hand it to the guest, your expected cash drawer total drops immediately—even if the guest pays their final bill later using a credit card. 💳💵
Zero New Workflows: Your staff uses the exact same open-price menu item flow they already use every day!

⚙️ Back-Office Setup (Portal)

Before your team can issue cash advances on the floor, a manager must configure a dedicated Sales Category and Menu Item inside the NX Portal.

Step 1: Create the Sales Category

Log into your NX Portal back office.
Navigate to Configuration > Menus > Categories.
Create a new category named Cash Advance.
Check the box flagged Deduct from Cash (isDeductFromCash). This tells the system's financial reporting engine that money in this category represents cash leaving the drawer rather than food or drink sales.
Click Save.

Step 2: Create the Open-Price Menu Item

Go to Configuration > Menus > Items and click + New Item.
Name the item Cash Advance.
Assign it to your newly created Cash Advance category.
Set the item price to Open Price (so bartenders can enter the exact dollar amount the guest requests).
Important Rule Configuration: Ensure Taxes are set to None and uncheck Allow Discounts (guests should never be taxed or discounted on raw cash withdrawals!).
Click Save to push the item to your active terminals! 🖥️

🏪 How to Ring Up a Cash Advance on Shift

Ringing up a cash advance on the floor takes just a few quick taps:

Open the guest's running check on your NX POS terminal.
Tap the Cash Advance menu button.
Type in the exact cash amount requested by the guest (e.g., $20.00) and tap Enter.
The terminal drawer will pop open—hand the physical cash to the guest.
The $20.00 item now sits on their check. When the guest is ready to leave, they can settle their total bill (their food, drinks, plus the cash advance) using Cash, Credit Card, or Gift Card! 🎟️

📊 How Cash Advances Impact Shift Reports

Because cash advances involve physical money leaving the till before a check is settled, your financial reports calculate Net Sales and Net Cash to ensure your drawer balances perfectly every single shift.

📝 Example Shift Breakdown

Imagine a guest orders $40.00 in Food and requests a $20.00 Cash Advance:

Scenario	Net Sales	Net Cash Drawer Impact	Expected Variance
Check Settled on Credit Card	$40.00	−$20.00 (Cash left the drawer, zero cash came in)	$0.00
Check Settled in Cash ($60 Total)	$40.00	+$40.00 ($60 received − $20 handed out)	$0.00

Net Sales: Always stays at $40.00 because the $20.00 advance is non-revenue.
On-Device Shift Summaries: On terminals updated to the latest software release, cash advances appear as an itemized Cash Advances row under your Cash Reconciliation section (sitting alongside Paid Outs and Cash Refunds) so your drawer balances without confusion! 🧾

Need Help? 💡

Why does my terminal say expected cash is negative on a card-settled check?

Don't worry, that is completely correct! If a guest gets a $20 cash advance and settles their entire check on a Visa card, $20 in cash physically left your till while $0 in cash came in. The negative net cash expectation accounts for that $20 cash payout perfectly!

The terminal drawer didn't open when I added the cash advance.

If your terminal doesn't automatically kick the drawer when ringing open-price items, simply tap the No Sale / Open Drawer button on your POS utility panel after ringing the item to hand the guest their cash.

Can a guest earn loyalty points on a cash advance?

No. Because cash advances belong to a non-revenue category, loyalty points and promotional discounts are automatically skipped for these items.