If reporting discrepancies in Lightspeed Restaurant seem confusing at first, there’s usually a simple reason for these differences. This article explains common discrepancies you may notice in sales, payments, and tax reporting. You’ll get a closer look at how Lightspeed reports work, empowering you to navigate your data more confidently.

Sales and payments discrepancies

This section will help you identify and fix inconsistencies in your reporting related to sales and payments. If you find your reported and actual earnings aren't matching up, continue below for advice.

• Sales and takings amounts are often different due to fundamental differences in how each is defined. In Lightspeed reporting, sales refers to the total value of orders started on a previous day, and takings are the payments you accept at the POS for orders.

  When your sales and takings differ, it's usually due to having open, transitory, or lost orders. Click the tabs below to learn how to check your account for each type of order.

  • Open orders

    Open orders are orders that were started on the current day and still waiting to be closed. You can check for open orders directly from the POS or in the Back Office.

    Open orders visible in the POS app may differ from those in the Back Office. This can occur if the app hasn't yet synced with the Back Office, or you have lost some orders.

    • In the Restaurant POS app, access the Order management screen as a manager for a list of dine-in, pickup, and delivery orders that are currently open.     
      
    • In the Back Office, access the Open Accounts report for a list of all orders that have synced to the Back Office and are currently open. 
      

  • Transitory orders

    Transitory orders are those that were started on a previous day, left open, and carried over to the next day. To check for transitory orders, visit the Business Report in your Back Office.

    1. In the Back Office, access the Business Report.
    2. If viewing the report from Europe or Australia, select Condensed under Display view at the top.
    3. Look for transitory order totals in the E. Takings section.
       • Carried over: Unpaid orders from the previous reporting day that were moved over to the current day. This lowers the current day's takings since this revenue was already accounted for on the day of service.
       • Carried forward: Unpaid orders from the current reporting day that will be moved to the next business day. This adds to the current day's takings to account for the future order revenue on the day of service.
       • Total transitory: The sum of Carried over and Carried forward. This represents the net effect of transitory orders on your takings.
       

  • Lost orders

    Lost orders are transactions that were initiated at the POS but didn't successfully sync with the Back Office and now cannot be closed. If you suspect you have missing orders, 

    1. Follow the steps in the Open orders tab above to check for open orders.
    2. Note any orders that are missing from the POS Order management screen but present on the Back Office Open Accounts report. These orders are likely to be lost.
    3. Contact Support to request help clearing the lost orders.

• If Lightspeed's reporting on your takings differs from and the actual payments you receive, start by double-checking some numbers in the Back Office.

  1. In the Back Office, access the Business Report.
  2. If viewing the report from Europe or Australia, select Condensed under Display view at the top.
  3. Review the breakdown in the E. Takings section to ensure you are including all card payments in your calculations.  

     Depending on how your account is set up, card payments might be represented by multiple payment methods. For example, Lightspeed Payments and American Express. 

     

  If there still seems to be a discrepancy, it may be due to a mistake at the POS or a missing order. Click the tabs below to learn how to investigate and resolve each possible cause.

  • Resolving a POS mistake

    If an order was processed to the wrong payment method at the POS, that could explain why your card payments seem higher or lower than expected.  

    1. In the Back Office, access the Receipt Report. 
    2. Search for individual orders that may have been processed incorrectly. 

       For example, a credit sale that should've been tendered to Cash.

    For any order with an incorrect payment method, you can change the payment method used directly from this report.

    Editing receipts from the Back Office will invalidate reports already printed at the POS since those reports will no longer match the back-end data. Changing a receipt's payment method is for record keeping and doesn't support payment processing.
    
    This feature is not available to Lightspeed Restaurant accounts based in Germany.

    1. Click a sale row on the Receipt Report to view the relevant receipt. 
    2. Perform the Change payment type receipt action to select the correct payment method for the receipt. 
       

  • Recreating missing orders

    If you process standalone payments, either through Lightspeed Payments or a third-party processor, you must record those transactions in Lightspeed Restaurant for them to appear in reporting. To do this after the fact, add a new receipt in the Back Office.

    Adding receipts from the Back Office will invalidate reports already printed at the POS since those reports will no longer match the back-end data. Adding a transaction is for record-keeping and doesn't support payment processing.
    
    This feature is not available to Lightspeed Restaurant accounts based in Germany.

    1. In the Back Office, access the Receipt Report. 
    2. Create a new transaction with the Description, Amount, Payment method, and other details of the transaction. 
       

• About transitory orders

  Transitory orders, also called transitory accounts, are orders that stay open overnight on your POS and are carried into the next business day. Unprocessed payments, reopened orders, and technical issues can all lead to transitory orders. After learning about the effects of transitory orders, you'll be able to locate them in your account, close them out, and prevent future occurrences.

  How transitory orders affect you

  The following example illustrates how transitory orders impact your business and reporting.

  On the initial order day

  • What happens: The order is recorded as a sale in your reporting. If not paid or voided by the end of the business day (5:29 AM by default), the order automatically closes.
  • Effect on reporting: Takings from the order are added to the Carried forward line on the Business Report, increasing the day's total takings. This ensures order revenue is accounted for on the day of service.

    

  On the day after the order

  • What happens: A negative transitory transaction is automatically processed at the start of the next business day. The original order also gets re-created on your POS, saved, and left as an open order.
  • Effect on reporting: Negative takings from the first transaction are added to the Carried over line on the Business Report, reducing total takings for day two. Any further impact is based on how you handle the open order on your POS:
    • Accepting a payment for the order will add to the day's takings, balancing out the negative takings from Carried over.
    • Voiding or discounting the order to zero will result in no additional takings for this day. You will need to look at both days for a complete view of the transaction.

    

  On subsequent days

  • What happens: If the order remains open after the second day, it continues to roll over to future days until you close it.
  • Effect on reporting: Each day will show Carried forward (positive) and Carried over (negative) amounts for this transaction. These amounts balance each other out for zero in Total transitory payments.

  Locating transitory orders

  Identify suspected transitory orders using the resources below so you can distinguish them from normal orders on your POS. With this information, you can figure out the right plan for closing each one out.

  • Business Report: Provides a comprehensive overview of your daily sales activity, including transitory orders. It shows the Carried over, Carried forward, and Total transitory amounts described above.
  • Open Accounts report: Shows orders that have been opened, but not closed, over a time period. If an order is from a previous day and it appears on this report, it is a transitory order. The original transitory order has the label Sale on its account name, while each version that is carried forward is labeled as Fixes. 
  • Monthly turnover report: Breaks down the monthly revenue of each employee and POS device by day. The Net results tab shows information on transitory orders, including Carried over from previous day (unpaid orders moved to today) and Carried forward to next day (today's unpaid orders moved to tomorrow).

  Closing transitory orders

  Closing transitory orders ensures accurate financial reporting and prevents discrepancies. You need to first understand why an order was left unpaid, as this determines how you will address and resolve the issue.

  1. Research why the transitory order was left open and if you received payment for it.
     • Check the Open Accounts report to locate specific transitory orders.
     • If you believe the order was paid with Lightspeed Payments, review the Payments tab in your Lightspeed Payments reporting to see if there was a successful charge.
     • If you’re not sure what might’ve happened with the order, speak with the employee who handled it to see what they remember.
  2. Close out the transitory order at your POS based on whether you received a payment for it.
     • If you received cash, select the cash payment method at the POS to close the order.
     • If you received a credit card payment and it was processed on a standalone terminal, tender the order to a custom payment method at the POS to close it.
     • If you did not receive payment for the order, either process a void from the Actions menu or discount the order to zero.
  3. Need additional assistance? Contact us for help.

  Preventing transitory orders

  To prevent future occurrences of transitory orders, follow these best practices.

  • Establish a strong end-of-day routine: Train staff to close their orders before clocking out for the day, or enable the Users must settle open orders before clocking out configuration setting. Managers should double-check that all orders have been closed before ending a sales period.
  • Monitor network stability: Optimize your network for Lightspeed Restaurant to ensure stability and prevent payment disruptions. If a payment doesn't reach your processor, it can lead to discrepancies.
  • Avoid rushing into standalone mode: If you use standalone mode, ensure you’ve closed any orders on your POS that are associated with payments before moving on to other orders. 
  • Regularly check reporting: Make it a habit to review your reporting for transitory orders so that you can address them as soon as they occur.

Tax discrepancies

In this section, you'll learn how to resolve mismatches in your tax reporting. If historical and current tax rates aren't aligning, or if your tax calculations seem off, we can help.

• If you're looking at a wide range of historical reporting, consider that your tax settings may have changed at some point. In that case, you could expect tax on more recent transactions to be different.

  It's also possible that your tax settings may not be configured correctly. Items, accounting groups, and tax profiles all influence how tax gets calculated. You can verify and update any of these setting from within the Back Office.

  1. In the Back Office, access the Receipt Report. 
  2. Find and click on an order with a tax issue. 
  3. Make note of the items listed on the order receipt.
     
  4. Export your items from the Back Office.
  5. On the export spreadsheet, ensure that each item from step 2 is assigned to the correct accounting group. 

     If not, edit the items to select the correct accounting group for each.

     
  6. In the Back Office, go to Menu management > Accounting groups.
  7. Ensure that each accounting group from step 5 is assigned the correct tax profile.

     If not, edit the accounting groups to select the correct tax profile for each.

     
  8. If located in North America, also ensure the settings for your tax rates and tax profiles are correct.  

• Some reports, such as the Business report, display tax differently as compared with reports like the Fiscal report. Those differences are due to rounding, often necessary to present tax information in a certain context.

  For example, the Product mix report calculates and rounds tax for each item because it needs to show per-item sales information. This is different from how the Restaurant POS calculates tax at the order-level. 

  To view the total tax actually charged to customers at the POS, visit the Fiscal summary or Transactions report.