Restaurants, cafes & cloud kitchens
Daily sales reconciliation: POS, card, cash and delivery apps
Ten minutes a day prevents the month-end mystery.
Why daily, not monthly
A restaurant can take hundreds of payments a day through four or five channels. When reconciliation waits until month-end, a missing card settlement or a cash shortage from three weeks ago is almost impossible to trace. Checked the next morning, the same difference takes minutes to explain.
The four numbers to match
- POS sales report by payment type: cash, card, delivery app, other
- Card terminal settlement for the same business day
- Cash counted and banked, against POS cash sales
- Delivery-app orders on the POS, against the platform's order report
Common differences and what they mean
- Card settlement lower than POS card sales: terminal fees, a batch not closed, or a refund
- Cash short: change errors, unrecorded payouts from the till, or theft
- App orders missing from the POS: orders accepted on the tablet but never punched in
- Voids and discounts higher than usual: worth a look at who authorised them
A one-page daily sheet
The routine needs nothing more than a one-page sheet or spreadsheet: date, POS total by payment type, settlement received, difference and a short note. The manager fills it in, the accountant reviews it weekly, and month-end becomes a formality instead of an investigation.
Recent result
AED 36,000
of AED 40,000 in penalties waived for an IFZA free-zone company. We prepared the waiver request; the investor paid AED 4,000.
Not sure where you stand?
Send us your last VAT return or your trade licence. A chartered accountant will tell you what is in order and what needs attention. No obligation.