Why do Analytics and the Z report show different tips?
You compare the Z report with Analytics and get two different figures for the same week. It is not an error, and you do not need to pick which one is true. They answer two different questions.
Two figures, two questions
| Question | Where you see it | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| What passed through the POS? | The Z report | Gross — all tips that were rung up |
| What should the staff receive? | Analytics ▸ Staff, and the Tips tab | Net — what is actually to be paid out |
The Z report is a fiscal document. It reports what went through the POS that day, and it must not be changed afterwards. Analytics and the Tips tab answer the practical question: how much do I hand out to the staff?
What the difference consists of
The difference is tips on bills that have been fully refunded.
When a bill is refunded the entire amount goes back to the guest — including the tip. On a card purchase that happens as a reversal on the card, so the guest gets back exactly what was charged. The money is therefore no longer in the house and should not be handed out.
But the Z report for the original day is already closed, and it must not be changed. A refund therefore never reduces an already closed Z report — instead it is booked as its own entry on the tip liability account.
The arithmetic is simple:
net + refunded tips = the Z report gross
A real example: a restaurant had 40,303.09 SEK in its Z reports and 38,022.09 SEK in Analytics for the same period. The difference of 2,281.00 SEK was tips on four refunded bills. Analytics was right about what should be paid out, the Z report was right about what passed through the POS.
How to reconcile
Analytics shows you the difference when there is one. Under Analytics ▸ Staff it states in plain language that Total Tips shows payable tips, how much sits on refunded bills, and what the sum becomes if you add it back.
The same happens in Staff ▸ Tips: when you click Fetch from POS the deduction stays on screen — how much refunded tip was deducted and across how many refunded bills. The pot you distribute is therefore net from the start.
If you want to check against the bookkeeping: the tip liability account should show the net as a credit and the refunded amounts as a separate debit.
If there is no difference, no explanatory line is shown — neither in Analytics nor after Fetch from POS. So if nothing is stated there, it means no bills carrying tips were refunded during the period, and the figures should agree. Also always compare the same date range: a tip period starting mid-month cannot be held against a month of Z reports without the figures differing for purely calendar reasons.
The day boundary can also differ
There is a second, smaller reason two figures can drift apart: they count days differently.
- Analytics counts business days. The restaurant sets when the day begins — the default is 04:00 — so a night shift running past midnight lands on the evening it belonged to.
- The Tips tab counts calendar days: 00:00 to 23:59.
For most restaurants it makes no difference, since tips are rarely rung up between midnight and four in the morning. But if you are open late, the same week can give slightly different figures in the two views, and then it is the boundary that differs — not the refunds.
Which figure should I pay out?
The net. That is what the Tips tab fetches when you click Fetch from POS, it is what Analytics shows as Total Tips, and it is what matches the tip liability in the bookkeeping.
Money that went back to a guest in a refund is not there to hand out. If you pay out the gross, you are paying tips the restaurant never got to keep.
If you get three different answers from three places and become unsure — go by the Tips tab. It is the source for the payout, and it is the same figure Analytics shows.
This feature is part of Vendion Staff.
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