---
id: "till-vs-takings"
lang: "en"
title: "Till vs takings: why the day close and the reports differ"
summary: "What the till expects at the close and what the reports count are the same money, sorted differently. Here is where they part: layaways, late changes and gift cards."
area: "Reports & dashboards"
kind: "concept"
url: "https://zeropos.shop/help/till-vs-takings"
alternate: "https://zeropos.shop/help/till-vs-takings?lang=es"
markdown: "https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/till-vs-takings.md"
screens: ["/reports/data/payment-recon","/reports/day-closes","/reports/data/payments","/reports/data/sales"]
where_to_find: ["INSIGHTS › Reports"]
related: ["close-the-day","review-day-closes","sales-report","layaway","simple-or-expert"]
updated: "2026-10-16"
---

# Till vs takings: why the day close and the reports differ

What the till expects at the close and what the reports count are the same money, sorted differently. Here is where they part: layaways, late changes and gift cards.

**Close day** checks a shop's drawer against what the till expects; **Sales** and **Payments** add up the invoices; **Day closes** keeps each close as it was recorded. On an ordinary day they agree. They part over layaways, changes made after the close, and gift cards.

When a close and a report disagree. To close the day: [Close the day](https://zeropos.shop/help/close-the-day); to read past closes: [Review the day closes: counted against expected](https://zeropos.shop/help/review-day-closes).

Where to find it: INSIGHTS › Reports.

## Before you start

- By default the owner, administrators and managers open Reports; **Payments** also needs the right to see Accounting.
- The **Till vs takings check** appears only in Expert accounting ([Simple or Expert accounting](https://zeropos.shop/help/simple-or-expert)).

## Steps

### Check one day

1. Open [/reports/day-closes](https://app.zeropos.shop/reports/day-closes), find the day and the shop, and note what each method expected.
2. Open [INSIGHTS › Reports](https://app.zeropos.shop/reports/data/payments), pick the same day at the top and the shop under **Locations**.
3. Leave **Group by** on **Payment method** and read each method's **Net**.
4. Where a method differs, look at invoices made after the close, and any cancelled or corrected since ([Find an invoice](https://zeropos.shop/help/find-an-invoice)).

## What happens next

- Nothing changes: reading a close or a report never moves money.
- A sale rung up wrong is corrected on its invoice ([Edit an invoice](https://zeropos.shop/help/edit-an-invoice)); the reports follow, and **Day closes** keeps what the close recorded.

## What the till expects at the close

For each payment method, the money that went through that shop's till that day: what its sales took, plus layaway deposits and instalments taken that day, less what its refunds gave back.

It never expects the **Opening float**: the takings are counted without it, so a day nobody opened is measured on the same figures ([Close the day](https://zeropos.shop/help/close-the-day)).

A sale paid with a gift card or store credit shows under **Gift Card** or **Store Credit** too, though the drawer holds no money for it. Those boxes start at that amount: leave them as they are, or the close reads **Short**.

**Net total** at the top is the day's sales less its refunds, leaving out layaways still open. With counting on, the count must match the payment methods, which do include that layaway money.

## What the reports count

**Sales** adds up validated sales and refunds by the day each invoice was made, at the shop it belongs to. A layaway counts on the day it is completed; a gift card when it is sold, not when it is spent, except grouped or filtered by **Payment method**, where spending one has its own row ([The Sales report: sales, refunds, VAT and margin](https://zeropos.shop/help/sales-report#what-counts)).

**Payments** splits the money by payment method on the day it was taken: a layaway's deposit and each instalment on the day it was paid, even while the layaway is still open.

**Day closes** keeps each close as it was recorded: what the till expected and what was counted at that moment. If the day is opened again with **Open day** and closed again, the new close replaces it ([Review the day closes: counted against expected](https://zeropos.shop/help/review-day-closes)).

## Where they part

Layaways: the close and **Payments** count each deposit and instalment on the day it is paid; **Sales** counts nothing while the layaway is open, then all of it on the day it is completed, so completing one never raises a past month ([Layaway: hold items while a customer pays over time](https://zeropos.shop/help/layaway)).

An instalment counts at the shop where the layaway was opened, and a refund at the shop where the sale was made, whichever counter takes or hands back the money. Paid at another shop, one drawer reads over and the other short by the same amount: tell a manager before either closes ([Close the day](https://zeropos.shop/help/close-the-day#faq-really-short)).

Refunds don't part them: the close and the reports both count a refund on the day it is made, never back on the sale's day. A card refund bigger than the day's card sales leaves the card method below 0 in the close.

After the close, a shop that doesn't ask for the day to be opened keeps selling, and those sales are in no close: a day closes once. Where it does, the till asks for **Open day** again before the next sale. An invoice can still be cancelled or corrected ([Edit an invoice](https://zeropos.shop/help/edit-an-invoice)), which changes **Sales** and **Payments** but not **Day closes**.

Gift cards: **Sales**, by day, leaves out what a gift card paid for, since the card counted when it was sold, while the close shows it under **Gift Card**. On a day gift cards are spent, the close's **Sales** reads higher than the report's.

## The Till vs takings check

In Expert accounting, [INSIGHTS › Reports](https://app.zeropos.shop/reports/data/payment-recon) compares, for each payment method, what the invoices say with what reached its account: **Gross sales** less **Refunds** less **Processor fees** is **Expected net**, and **Ledger net** is what the account received ([Cash and bank accounts (Expert)](https://zeropos.shop/help/cash-and-bank-accounts)).

**Variance** is the gap between the two, and some gaps are expected: gift card and store credit rows never reach an account, and a method with no account in [INSIGHTS › Accounting › Payment methods](https://app.zeropos.shop/backoffice/settings/payment-methods) posts nothing. A layaway's payments count on the day each was taken, the day it reached the account.

The accounts don't know which shop money came from, so narrow it with **Regions**, not **Locations**: with one shop picked, its invoices are set against the whole region's accounts.

A cancelled sale, refund or layaway leaves no gap when it was cancelled in the same period. Cancelled in a later month, it shows a gap in both months, in opposite directions: the money stayed where it was until the cancel moved it back.

## Common questions

### Which figure is right, the close or the report?

Both, for what each counts. The close is what each payment method should add up to that day, gift cards and store credit included; **Sales** is the business done; the Till vs takings check is what reached your accounts. Your accountant usually wants **Sales** and **Payments** ([Export your figures for your accountant](https://zeropos.shop/help/export-for-your-accountant)).

### Why did last month's sales change?

A sale from last month was cancelled or corrected since: the change shows in the month of the sale. A layaway never moves a past month: it counts on the day it is completed.

### I picked a past day in Close day and it shows other figures.

**Close day** works a past day out again from the invoices as they are now; its printed slip and the **Day closes** report keep what was counted at the close. A sale cancelled or corrected since explains the gap.

## If you see this

- “**Total variance: …. Highlighted rows below diverge from the invoice side — investigate manual adjustments, fee mis-configuration, or unposted refunds.**” — What to do: Before you look for a mistake, rule out the expected gaps: gift card and store credit rows, a method with no account, a shop picked under **Locations**, and a sale, refund or layaway cancelled in another month.

## Good to know

- Check a day the morning after, once every till is closed: on a day without sales or corrections after the close, **Payments** then matches each close method by method.

## Related guides

- [Close the day](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/close-the-day.md)
- [Review the day closes: counted against expected](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/review-day-closes.md)
- [The Sales report: sales, refunds, VAT and margin](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/sales-report.md)
- [Layaway: hold items while a customer pays over time](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/layaway.md)
- [Simple or Expert accounting](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/simple-or-expert.md)