Store routines usually live in a laminated sheet behind the counter and in the head of whichever manager trained the team. That works until a new supervisor closes for the first time, or until an area manager tries to work out why one branch is always £30 short. This free retail store opening and closing checklist is for store managers, shift supervisors, keyholders and the area or regional managers who look after several shops. It covers the entry and alarm procedure, floats and card terminals, the sales floor and a safety walk before the doors open, then cash-up and banking, floor recovery, lock-up and an end-of-day report. Each run is either an opening or a closing, and lone-working check-ins appear only when someone is on site alone.
Inside a single shop, an opening and closing checklist is a script. It makes sure the person with the keys does things in a safe order, and it means a Saturday supervisor closes the same way the store manager would. That alone is worth having.
Across ten or forty shops, the same checklist becomes a data source. An area manager cannot visit every branch at 8:30, but they can see which stores opened on time, which tills were out by more than the tolerance, how many incidents were logged this week and which faults have been open since Tuesday. That only works if every store runs an identical routine and records answers in the same fields. A note scribbled in a diary in one shop and a WhatsApp message in another cannot be compared.
Seven phases, chosen by the shift. Phases 2 and 3 appear only on an opening run and Phases 5 to 7 only on a closing run. Phase 4 appears only when someone opens or closes alone.
The shift answer decides which half of the checklist this run shows; the other two answers add lone-working and banking tasks.
Shown only on opening runs.
Shown only on opening runs.
Shown only when someone opens or closes the store alone.
Shown only on closing runs. The deposit task appears only when banking is due.
Shown only on closing runs.
Shown only on closing runs.
Few opening and closing tasks are written into legislation word for word, but several come straight from duties a store already has. The table maps them. Card terminal checks come from the card industry’s security standard, which merchants agree to through their payment provider, rather than from statute.
| Duty | United Kingdom | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Fire exits and escape routes | Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 14: routes to emergency exits and the exits themselves kept clear at all times; emergency doors not locked so they cannot be easily and immediately opened (England and Wales) | OSHA 29 CFR 1910.37(a)(3): exit routes free and unobstructed, with no materials or equipment placed in them, even temporarily |
| Exit doors while staff are inside | Covered by article 14 above | OSHA 1910.36(d)(1): employees must be able to open an exit route door from the inside at all times without keys, tools or special knowledge |
| Floors and slip hazards | Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, regulation 12(3): floors and traffic routes kept free, so far as reasonably practicable, of obstructions and anything that may cause a slip, trip or fall | OSHA 1910.22(a): walking-working surfaces kept clean, orderly and, to the extent feasible, dry, and free of hazards such as spills |
| Lone working | No specific lone-working regulation; employers must assess the risks, including working alone, under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 | No specific OSHA standard; OSHA’s late-night retail recommendations include limiting cash on hand, good lighting and avoiding solo working late at night |
| Accidents and incidents | RIDDOR: a member of the public taken from the scene to hospital for treatment after a work-related accident is reportable, as are specified injuries to staff | Many retail industries are partially exempt from keeping OSHA injury logs, but every employer must report a work-related fatality, in-patient hospitalisation, amputation or loss of an eye to OSHA |
| Card terminals (PCI DSS) | PCI DSS v4 requirement 9.5.1.2: card-reading devices periodically inspected for tampering or substitution; 9.5.1.3: staff trained to spot tampering and to verify anyone claiming to be a repair technician | |
Two-person opening is policy, not law. Neither country requires two keyholders, but many retailers make it their rule because the risk at opening and closing is concentrated: the alarm is off, the safe is about to be opened and the street may be empty. If your staffing makes it impractical, the lone-working risk assessment should say what replaces it, and the check-ins in Phase 4 put that into practice. The same assessment should cover whether a lone closer handles cash at all.
Abuse of staff now has its own offence in England and Wales. The Crime and Policing Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, creates a specific offence of assaulting a retail worker. Its commencement depends on regulations, so check whether it is in force. Either way, the incident log in Phase 7 is what the police will ask for, so record the time, what happened and who saw it while it is fresh.
The shift question in Phase 1 shows the opening phases or the closing phases, never both. A daily schedule starts the opening run before the first keyholder arrives, and the closer starts the closing run from the same template.
Every branch records opening time, variances and incidents in the same fields. Dashboards and reports let an area manager see which stores ran late, which tills were out and which faults are still open, without phoning round.
Photos of a broken shutter, an incident description and the cash-up counts sit on the tasks that produced them, with a record of who completed each and when. Nothing reaches the area report until the store manager approves it.
Clear fire exits at opening and closing are one part of a wider duty. The Fire Risk Assessment Checklist covers the assessment behind them, the Fire Drill & Evacuation Checklist tests that staff can actually clear the store, and the Facility Inspection Checklist handles the periodic building walk-round.
Card terminal checks are a small piece of the PCI DSS 4.0 Compliance Checklist. Area managers auditing branches against brand standards can use the Franchise Brand Standards Audit Checklist, and food-led sites should use the Restaurant Opening & Closing Checklist instead, which adds temperatures and allergens.
It is the fixed sequence a keyholder follows to get a shop ready to trade and to secure it afterwards: entry and alarm, floats and card terminals, price changes and replenishment, a safety walk, then cash-up, banking, floor recovery, lock-up and an end-of-day report. Writing it down means every supervisor does it in the same safe order.
It is good practice rather than a legal requirement in the UK or the US. If one person does open or close, UK employers must have assessed that lone-working risk, and OSHA’s recommendations for late-night retail suggest avoiding solo working late at night. A check-in contact, a personal alarm and minimal cash on site are the usual substitutes.
While anyone is inside, no. Under the Fire Safety Order emergency doors must open easily and immediately, and under OSHA staff must be able to open exit doors from inside without a key. Securing them once the building is empty is a matter for your fire risk assessment and your insurer, and the opener must release them before the store trades.
Set a tolerance, count every till with two people, and record the variance per till and per cashier every night. Anything over the tolerance gets an explanation before the store closes: check voids, refunds and no-sales first. One bad night is noise. The same cashier or till out week after week is a pattern worth investigating.
Sales against target, cash and card totals with any variance, shrink and incidents, accidents, maintenance faults and a handover note for the next opener. Keep the fields identical across branches so an area manager can compare them without retyping anything.
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