Rounding Cash Change
If you need to have your cash change rounded up or down to a particular coin denomination, the below is the method. In December 2025 the U.S. Mint ceased production of new pennies ($0.01) for general circulation. Consequently, U.S. banks have begun rationing or eliminating existing pennies for merchants.
As a result, the ability to round cash change to the nearest nickel ($0.05) has become a neccesity in some jurisdictions, like the United States.
- Exceptions: Rounding only applies to cash payments; debit, credit, and other electronic payments continue to be settled to the exact cent.
- Penny status: Pennies are still legal tender and can be used for payment indefinitely, but they are no longer distributed by the U.S. Mint.
- Keep in mind, if a customer does pay with cash and includes pennies that do not make the payment exact, you will likely just hand those same pennies back to the customer.
- Example: A customer's bill is $2.58. They hand you $3.03 in cash. The change is $0.43 cents, because the transaction is rounded up by $0.02 to equal $2.60 minus $3.03 paid = $0.43.
To use the change rounding function, you must be using StoreTender version 8.7.3 or higher (for our U.S. clients) and follow these steps:
Step 1: Modify Lowest Denomination
In the below example we will be setting up the lowest change denomination to be $0.05. All change will be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel.
Navigate to Setup > Store > Media. Press EDIT. In the "Lowest Demonination" section, type .05 and then press TAB on your keyboard. The box will now show $0.05. Click SAVE to conclude this step.
Note: For our multi-store clients using HQ, this setting can be changed at Setup > Stores > Media. You need to set this up for each store, one at a time. If you have 10 or more stores, please open a Support Ticket and we can assist you.
Step 2: Sync POS Station
To accept the change you've made in Step 1, SYNC your POS stations by clicking the green SYNC button at the bottom of the Main Menu.
Step 3: Performing a Sale (or Refund)
In the POS, ring up a transaction. The customer, if paying cash, can either pay using exact change or pay above the amount expecting change back. Depending on the total due, the change back will be rounded to the nearest $0.05.
In the below example, the customer's total amount due is $2.29. They pay using $5.00 cash. The amount of change back is $2.70, after the currency adjustment (rounding) of $0.01 is applied. The top portion showing Change $2.70 is displayed:
Keep in mind that the TOTAL shown at the bottom of the cashier and customer screen will display the amount due BEFORE change rounding. This is because the POS does not know if the customer is paying or being refunded with cash, card or another media. Only a cash change or refund is subject to the rounding. The Change amount at the top of the cashier screen is the amount of change that should be given out.
Step 4: Reconciliation (Shift End)
At the end of the shift the change rounded is displayed in two places in the shift report (or Sales Summary Report). First under "Shift Totals" as "Rounding Adjust". This number can either be positive or negative. Under Media the reverse amount will be shown under "Media Adjust". These two amounts will offset one another so that your totals match.
