A daily opening and closing checklist for a Ghanaian car wash

Fifteen minutes. That is how long a proper opening routine takes at a one-bay wash, and it is the difference between a smooth day and one that starts with the pump coughing, the Poly tank at a quarter, no shampoo in the drum and the cashier sending a boy for change for a GH₵200 note.

Most owners already do some of this in their heads. The problem is that "in their heads" means it only happens when the owner is there, and is forgotten on the day a washer is sent ahead with the keys. A car wash daily checklist written on a laminated card and nailed to the wall is boring, which is exactly why it works.

What follows is the version that fits on one card: opening on the front, closing on the back. Adjust the numbers for your site and strike out anything you do not have.

Before the first car: water and pressure

Water comes first because without it nothing else matters. Check the tank level by sight or by tapping the side and write the level on the card: full, three-quarters, half, low. If you depend on a tanker, "half" on a Saturday morning means calling the driver now, not at eleven when the queue has formed. A rough guide is 100 to 200 litres per full wash with a pressure washer, more with an open hose, so count the cars you expect and compare.

Run the pump for thirty seconds and watch the gauge or the hose. A pump that runs but does not build pressure usually has an air leak or a blocked inlet filter, and it is far easier to fix at 7am than with four cars waiting. If you are on GWCL and the tap is dry, note the time, because repeated dry mornings are a reason to think about storage, which is covered in water supply for car washes in Ghana.

If you run on a borehole with an electric pump, check that the ECG prepaid meter has credit. A meter that cuts out at 10am stops the pump, the vacuum and the lights at once.

Chemicals, towels and the small things

Open each chemical drum and look rather than trust yesterday's memory. Shampoo, degreaser, tyre shine and glass cleaner. Dilute what needs diluting into the day's spray bottles now, following the ratio on the drum, so washers are not pouring neat degreaser onto an engine bay at noon because the bottle ran out.

Count the drying towels and microfibre cloths that came back from washing. If they were not washed last night, they are still damp and smell, and you will be drying a customer's black Camry with a cloth that leaves streaks.

Check the vacuum canister and that the foam cannon nozzle is clear. Then look at the bay floor and the waiting area with a customer's eyes: last night's mud, cigarette ends, a chair with a broken leg.

Float cash and the MoMo phone

The cashier needs a float before the first customer, not after. A useful float in 2026 is somewhere between GH₵100 and GH₵300 in small notes and coins, depending on your prices, so that a GH₵50 wash paid with a GH₵100 note does not send someone running to the provision shop. Count it, write it on the card, and have the manager initial it.

Switch on the MoMo phone, check it has airtime and data, and confirm the merchant number is displayed where customers can see it. A phone that dies at midday because nobody charged it is a surprisingly common way to lose cashless sales to the wash down the road.

Closing: count, match, clean, lock

The evening count only works if the day was written down: every car with plate, service, washer, price and how it was paid. The case for that record is in why you should record every car you wash.

Start the count while the last car is drying, not after everyone has gone. Count the cash in the box and subtract the float. Open the MoMo app and total the day's incoming payments. Count the cars in the record and the expected revenue from them. If cash plus MoMo equals the record, well done; if it does not, find out now while the washers are still there and memories are fresh.

Pay washers from the counted total if you pay daily, and have each one sign or thumb-print against their number of cars. Then bank or secure the cash. Leaving a full day's takings in a drawer overnight behind a wooden door is a risk you take once. The routine in cash handling at a car wash goes further on floats and banking.

Clean the bay: hose down the floor, empty the settling pit if you have one, rinse the buckets and hang the mitts. Put the day's towels into the wash. Tip out and rinse the vacuum. Switch off and unplug the pressure washer, then drain the hose so it is not sitting under pressure all night.

Finally, write down the closing water level, the closing cash handed over, and anything broken or running low. That last line is tomorrow's shopping list.

The car wash daily checklist on the way out

Check the tank tap is closed and the pump is isolated. Lock chemicals, the vacuum and the pressure washer in the store. In Harmattan, cover the machines against the dust that settles overnight. Check the generator, if you have one, has its fuel cap on and is chained.

Print the card this week, run it for a month, and then cut whatever nobody uses. A checklist nobody follows is worse than none at all.