Patent ID: 8185404

Claim:
A system for tracking cash payment elements for a self-checkout station, the system comprising: a computer server; and a self-checkout station in communication with the server, the station comprising: a currency acceptor adapted to collect cash payment elements and determine denominations for the collected cash payment elements; a denomination counter adapted to count units of denominations for the collected cash payment elements; a memory; a data storage; a processor in communication with the currency acceptor, the denomination counter, the memory and the data storage; and programmed instructions stored in the memory which, when executed by the processor, close an open accounting log and open a next accounting log based upon an accounting period signal received from the server where the accounting logs are stored on the data storage and comprise information about the cash payment elements accepted by the self-checkout station including the number for each denomination unit counted for the collected cash payment elements and where the accounting period signal marks the end of one financial accounting period and the beginning of another financial accounting period.