What is a cash pay-out?
A cash pay-out is money taken from the till for something other than a sale, such as paying a supplier or a staff tip-out.
Sometimes cash has to leave the drawer mid-shift: the produce driver wants $40 on delivery, someone runs out for ice, or a server takes their tip-out at the end of the night. That is a pay-out (also called a paid-out). It is not a refund, because no sale is being reversed, and it is not a cash drop, because the money is leaving the business.
The reason to record every pay-out is the cash count. If $40 leaves the drawer and nobody records it, the shift will be $40 short at close and someone will spend twenty minutes looking for an error that is not there. Recorded pay-outs are subtracted from the expected cash, so the count balances.
Good practice is to require a note and a receipt for every pay-out, keep the receipts with the closing paperwork, and limit who can make one. Over a month, pay-outs also show up as real expenses, so they should reach the books, not just the drawer.
In the SeroPOS app a pay-out is 'Cash Pay Out', reached from Quick Actions on the Home screen, the floating dial (Pay Out) or the phone speed dial. The Cash Out dialog asks for the Amount and a Note, warns that it cannot be reversed, and prints a slip. The day's total appears as Payouts on the DSR. Larger or recurring costs belong in Expenses in the back office.
The till opens with a $200 float and takes $900 in cash sales. At 2 pm the manager pays the bakery $45 for an extra bread order and records a pay-out with the note 'Baker - extra sourdough'. Expected cash at close is $200 + $900 - $45 = $1,055. The drawer counts $1,055, so it balances.