How to reconcile daily sales with the fiscal Z report

Practical guide for multi-site operators.

Why the Z report is the reference

The fiscal Z report closes the day on each fiscal register. It is the number that goes to accounting and to the tax authority, so every other sales figure in your business should agree with it. When the POS report, the delivery platform statements and the Z report tell different stories, nobody knows which number is real.

Reconciliation simply means putting these numbers side by side every day and explaining any difference while people still remember what happened.

What you need before you start

• The Z report of every register, for the same business day.
• The sales report from the POS, split by channel: dine-in, pickup, delivery and online.
• The daily list of Glovo and Bolt orders and of your own online orders, with cancellations.
• Card terminal totals and the counted cash for the day.
• A clear definition of the business day, especially if you close after midnight.

The daily routine

Do it at the same moment every day, ideally the next morning, by the same person or role.

• Collect the Z report total for each register and add them up per location.
• Take the POS sales total for the same day and location, including every channel that should be fiscalised.
• Compare the two. If they agree, record the day as reconciled and move on.
• If they differ, split the difference by channel and look for the cause using the checklist below.
• Write down the cause and the fix, so the same problem is easier to spot next time.

What to check when the numbers differ

Most differences come from a short list of causes. Go through them in order.

• Orders paid but not fiscalised, for example online or delivery orders that never reached the register.
• Delivery fees or extras charged to the customer but missing from the receipt.
• Discounts applied differently in the POS and on the receipt, including rounding on several identical items.
• Cancellations and refunds recorded in one system but not in the other.
• Orders placed just before midnight and counted on different days.
• A register that was not closed, or a Z report that was missed.

Card, cash and platform payouts

Once sales match the Z report, check the money side. Card terminal totals should match card sales, counted cash should match cash sales, and the payouts from Glovo and Bolt should match the orders you delivered, minus their commissions. These checks often run on a different rhythm, weekly or per payout, but they should use the same daily figures.

Keep a simple record

For each day and location, keep the Z total, the POS total, the difference, the cause and who closed it. After a few weeks this record shows which causes repeat, which settings to fix and which locations need more training. It is also what your accountant will ask for when a month does not add up.

Make it automatic where you can

Done by hand in a spreadsheet, this routine works for one site but becomes heavy across several. In SiteQuilt, Z reports are captured every day and matched to sales per location and channel, so the team only looks at days and channels that do not match. The difference and its cause stay attached to the day, ready for accounting.