KlaritiKlariti · Guide
Why your POS sales don’t match Xero
The sales figure you read from your POS and the trading income in Xero usually measure different things, so they rarely match exactly. An item or product sales report adds up what was rung up against menu items. Trading income in Xero is what the venue’s books record as income, which may include surcharges, vouchers and other amounts the item report leaves out, and may be net of delivery commissions the POS never sees. Most gaps have ordinary explanations. Listing them first is quicker than looking for an error.
Why it matters
When two sales figures disagree, someone has to decide which one to use. Budgets, wage percentages and cost percentages all divide by sales, so that choice flows into every other ratio on the page. A gap nobody can explain also makes people doubt the rest of the reports. Knowing the usual reasons turns the gap into a short reconciliation rather than a worry.
The usual, legitimate reasons
Surcharges
A Sunday or public-holiday surcharge is added to the bill. Item-level sales reports often leave surcharges out, because a surcharge is not a menu item. The POS day total and the money banked include it.
Sales that are neither food nor beverage
Corkage, cakeage and gift vouchers go through the POS but are not food or beverage. Gift voucher sales are usually money received in advance rather than sales until the voucher is redeemed. How they are posted in Xero is a question for the venue’s accountant. For this comparison, what matters is that they may appear in one figure and not the other.
Delivery platforms
Delivery orders are often rung through the POS at menu price. The platform then pays the venue net of its commission. If Xero records the net deposit as sales, Xero shows less than the POS. If Xero records the gross sale and the commission as a separate expense, the sales figures sit much closer. Find out which way the books do it before comparing.
Timing
Many venues trade past midnight. The POS may count a 1am sale in the previous trading day, while other records use the calendar date or the date the money settled. At month end the same effect can move a night’s trade from one month to the next.
Refunds, comps and discounts
Reports differ on whether they show sales before or after discounts, how complimentary items are recorded, and when refunds are taken off. The same night can produce several totals that are each correct on their own terms.
Tips
Tips added to card payments can appear in payment totals and in the money banked without being the venue’s sales. Check whether they are separated before comparing.
GST-inclusive and ex-GST figures
A POS report may show sales including GST, excluding GST, or both. Comparing a GST-inclusive figure with an ex-GST one creates a gap that is nothing but tax. Put both on the same basis first. This article uses ex GST throughout.
Illustrative example
Illustrative example. A venue adds a 10% surcharge on Sundays. On one Sunday it sells $10,000 of menu items. All figures are Australian dollars ex GST.
| Figure (AUD, ex GST) | One Sunday | Four such Sundays |
|---|---|---|
| Item report sales | $10,000 | $40,000 |
| Surcharge at 10% | $1,000 | $4,000 |
| POS day total | $11,000 | $44,000 |
| Item report below POS day total by | $1,000 | $4,000 |
The working:
- Surcharge: 10% × $10,000 = $1,000.
- POS day total: $10,000 + $1,000 = $11,000.
- Four such Sundays: 4 × $10,000 = $40,000 of item sales, and 4 × $1,000 = $4,000 of surcharges, so the POS day totals come to $44,000.
Over a month with four such Sundays, the item report reads $4,000 below the POS day totals from surcharges alone, before any other difference is considered. Neither figure is wrong. The item report tells you what sold. The day total tells you what was charged.
What to do about it
- Pick one basis for headline sales and label it. For example: "POS day totals, ex GST, surcharges included". Use the same basis wherever a percentage divides by sales.
- Reconcile a full month, not a week. Trading income in Xero is normally reviewed by month, and cut-off effects are smaller relative to a month’s sales than to a week’s.
- List the known differences before looking for an error. Start with surcharges, corkage, cakeage and vouchers, delivery commissions, tips, GST basis and cut-off. Whatever is left after those is the real question.
A reconciliation that holds up is a short list: the POS figure, each known difference added or taken away, the trading income in Xero, and anything left over marked as unexplained until someone has checked it.
A difference is a question. Not an accusation.
How Klariti handles it
- Headline sales come from the POS’s own daily totals, surcharges included, where a venue’s POS sends them.
- The item report is kept for the food and beverage mix: how sales split between kitchen and bar.
- Surcharges show as their own line, so they can be seen rather than inferred from the gap.
- Once the whole month is in, Klariti compares that month’s POS sales with the trading income in Xero.
To see how Klariti brings POS sales, supplier invoices, stocktakes, the Xero ledger and budgets into one view, read about Klariti.