Cash Rounding Without Pennies: How Should Retailers Handle It?

As pennies disappear from circulation, retailers are left with a practical question: What actually happens at the register when a customer pays with cash? 

The end of penny production has created confusion around rounding — what’s required, what’s allowed, and what might quietly impact pricing, margins, or reporting. 

Below, we answer the most common retailer questions about penny production changes, followed by how FieldStack handles cash transactions without altering the sale. 

1. Do I Need to Change Prices Now That Pennies Are Gone?

Short answer: No. 

With FieldStack, shelf prices, line items, discounts, and taxes remain unchanged. Every transaction total is calculated exactly as it always has been — down to the cent. 

There’s no repricing, no tax adjustment, and no rounding baked into the sale itself. 

2. So Where Does Rounding Actually Happen?

Rounding only happens at the final step of a cash transaction — when determining how much change to give back. 

The sale total stays exact. The rounding applies only to the physical cash exchanged. 

This approach is commonly referred to as change rounding or cash rounding. 

3. How Does Cash Rounding Work in Practice?

Here’s what that looks like at the register: 

• If a customer is owed $0.98, they receive $1.00 

• If a customer is owed $1.02, they receive $1.00 

• If the amount is already exact, nothing changes 

The transaction total is never altered — only the change returned. 

4. Does This Affect Mixed Payments (Card + Cash)?

Not at all. 

If a customer pays part of the transaction with a card and the remainder with cash, FieldStack simply rounds the remaining change. 

There are no weird edge cases, no special rules, and no reconciliation headaches. 

5. Will This Break My Reporting or Accounting?

Nope — and this is where design matters! 

Because rounding occurs after the transaction total is calculated, reporting, accounting, and analytics remain consistent. 

Unified commerce ensures that the rounding event is reflected cleanly everywhere, without manual adjustments or downstream patchwork. 

Our Recommendation on the Penny Problem and Cash Rounding 

Our opinion on the penny problem? It’s absolutely manageable. Retailers just need to start thinking now about how they’ll handle it. Because there’s more to it than just rounding correctly. Of course, we recommend using a modern retail system to help with the transactions themselves, but it’s also about your approach. Here’s what we suggest.. 

Why We Recommend Rounding Change in the Customer’s Favor 

Based on early FieldStack data across multiple retail verticals, rounding change in the customer’s favor shows consistently positive outcomes: 

• Customers appreciate the simplicity 

• Complaints are minimal from customers 

• In some cases, visit frequency even increases among cash payers 

Importantly, this approach does not impact item margins or violate cash/credit pricing rules, because the sale itself is unchanged. 

“For most verticals, we recommend rounding the change in the customer’s favor because it preserves pricing integrity and improves the cash experience. You’re not altering the sale — you’re just removing friction at the very end of the transaction. In our early data, that small gesture correlates with higher customer comfort and repeat visits.” 
— Brett Wickard, FieldStack CEO 

Can Rounding Policies Vary by Location? 

Yes. 

FieldStack supports location-level control over rounding behavior, recognizing that state regulations, customer expectations, and competitive environments differ (and are subject to change in the future!). 

Because everything runs on a unified transaction model, this flexibility doesn’t fragment reporting or analytics. 

The Bottom Line 

Penny rounding isn’t about squeezing extra cents out of transactions. 

It’s about handling cash gracefully — without breaking trust, compliance, or data integrity. 

By rounding change rather than the sale, FieldStack gives retailers a simple, customer-friendly way to adapt to a penny-less world while keeping pricing, reporting, and operations exactly as they should be. 

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