Dealing with cash register Z-Reports

1

Background:

I have cash accounts:

  1. Cash at Bank
  2. Cash on hand

I use an EFTPOS provider who deposits the days EFTPOS takings into my account each night

Up until this week I was using Manager confidently in the following way:

  1. From the Z-report I would take cash sales and create a “receive money” to the cash account
  2. From the same Z-Report I would take EFTPOS sales and create a “receive money” to undeposited cash/COH.
  3. cash into each account was attributed with GST and GST liabilities were added to the “tax payable” field

This largely worked except where I had the odd (~2% of my sales) which are GST free. How I was dealing with these was that once every couple of days I would edit one of the deposits to have a GST free component as a second line item (even tough it was not possible to determine if it was a EFTPOS or Cash transaction that it happened on (I know it’s largely insignificant, but I like things to flow easily)*

*This is all in light of a new TENDER payment system coming online recently for online orders and the above model starts to get a bit messy.

What I have trialled this week (and it appears to be working well, I just want to make sure it’s inline with GAP and I’m not messing up any tax positions):

  1. At the end of the day I am creating a sales invoice to a customer “–DAILY TAKINGS–” which is broken down in the invoice to GST FREE, and GST 10% (at the invoice level)
  2. I then go thru receive money and receive the EFTPOS component to the cash bank account, and the cash component to the undeposited on hand. This has the added bonus of allowing me to add extra 3rd party payment platforms down the track. At the end of the receive monies, the daily takings are balanced. (side note: as with payment and receive monies on invoices, since GST has been allocated in the initial invoice, I attach no tax code to these payments)

This has seemed to work for this week quite well, I would just like to confirm that it’s not breaking something else down the track.

2

All looks good except with the last number (2).

I would have the EFTPOS component go to an “EFTPOS Unpaid” Asset Account. Then when the EFTPOS is deposited into the Bank account, process that deposit into that “EFTPOS Unpaid” account.

This provides you with an internal control mechanism with regards to how much EFTPOS is owing.
Also your Manager bank account hasn’t been inflated by deposits that haven’t been received.

3

Well, not for the EFTPOS as it’s processed that night, so usually by the time I’m entering it, it’s in the account (or it is in the next hour or two), and I have the settlement from the EFTPOS terminal, so I always know exactly how much it is.

BUT, your point resonates well with where that point was leading and that is in relation to third party payments.

We use menulog and eatnow and although we started to include it on the cash register, it turned into a right royal mess and so I have withdrawn it. At the moment, I just account for it coming in when it hits the bank account once a week.

I actually like it this way, but it isn’t entirely accurate. The “cash in” is obviously accurate, but it disregards their costs and taxes and artificially reduces the takings to account for this. (re-reading over this, I’m happy with this, it’s easy. As you’ll see, it gets difficult)

So I would like to do what you’ve said for those (menulog and eatnow pay separately) online accounts.

The only issue is the MENULOG takings are subject to separate fees and taxes, combined with that on the odd occasion we take the payment for them. ie, people pay us directly and then we technically reimburse the menulog (however, we don’t because they always owe us more than we owe them—I have broken this down more at the end of this post).

[quote=“Brucanna, post:2, topic:8716”]
I would have the MENULOG component go to an “MENULOG Unpaid” Asset Account. Then when the MENULOG is deposited into the Bank account, process that deposit into that “MENULOG Unpaid” account.[/quote] (my edits)

  1. Is the unpaid asset account a bank account under cash accounts and equiv or is it a separate asset account created under COA?
  2. If it’s not created under the cash accounts and equiv, what’s the workflow for adding it to my daily takings? OR
  3. should/could I just leave that sales invoice with an unpaid component and pay it when the monies received?

The problem with 3. is it doesn’t take into account the menulog/eatnow fees and taxes paid. I will have to create a separate way to track and cancel it out.

example:

  • I’ve created a sales invoice for the days takings which include menulog and eat now as separate line items.
  • if I leave them unpaid they are never fully acquitted because of the associated fees, so
  • I will have to create a purchase invoice for the services of menulog and eat now which have varying rates of commission.

It’s far easier the way I have been doing it and I’m wondering if it’s worth the extra effort (as it’s rather confusing right at the moment).

For the uninitiated:

  • menulog/eatnow are an online portal for taking orders and collecting monies on my behalf
  • generally their fees are set at 12% commission and 2% processing fees and each of those are subject to GST, ie PLUS GST
  • one of the commissions is reduced to 7% when certain conditions are met, but I don’t know about that until payment is received (AFAICT there’s no way for me to know in advance)
  • sometimes I receive payment direct from the customer and that can be cash or EFTPOS. Thereby I take the full amount and then have to reimburse menulog/eatnow the commission (which I won’t know if it’s 7% or 12% until I see the invoice), the processing fee of 2% (yes, that’s unreasonable but not negotiable), plus GST on those percentages. As mentioned, this doesn’t usually happen, because they owe me more than I owe them.

I had a clear workflow when I started this post, but now I’m utterly confused :frowning:

4

Your bullet points:

  1. a separate asset account created under COA - Yes , because its not cash.
  2. what’s the workflow for adding it to my daily takings - See example demonstrated below.
  3. just leave that sales invoice with an unpaid component - feasible but more messy, if they pay once a week and that payment covers several DAILY TAKINGS invoices, then the deposit has to be spread to each, but if the week’s transactions are contain/transferred to a single account then the deposit is a simpler transaction.

On any given day your sales from the cash register report could consist of : cash - 300, eftpos - 500, menulog - 200 and eatnow - 100 and these sales are enter onto the DAILY TAKINGS invoice based on their GST & GST free status. In addition on that invoice you deduct the menulog and eatnow components to their respective asset unpaid account leaving the total of the invoice equalling the cash & eftpos components.

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Now when you process the Receive Money for the cash and eftpos components that invoice becomes fully paid.

Assuming that when the third parties pay you, you get some form of summary between the gross and the net.
Therefore when doing their Receive Money you put the gross to the unpaid account and deduct the charges.

For menulog : gross - 200, commission (12%) 24 + GST = 26.40, processing (2%) 4 + GST = 4.40, nett 169.20

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5

I’m a little confused about the negative entry in the first sales invoice, since that brings down the total of the days takings.

I realise they are returned when I receive money from menulog, but that would only bring it to even.

Ahhh… (I’ve been on this post for a while… I think I’ve got it):

You have included the menulog takings in the line items above it? Then removed them because they’re unpaid?

Actually, I like that, but for one exception:

At the moment I am NOT putting the menulog and eatnow orders through the til. I am instead only accounting for it in manager when it’s received in the bank. I’m just leaving the cash register for monies received directly over the counter and not via menulog.

So, using the above example, I could still do it as you’ve done, just not have lines 3 and 4 in the first example, and leave the second example as is?

I’ve been struggling with how to account for their fees and exactly how to enter it, and I think you’ve just nailed it for me.

If ever you’re down the lower central coast, you’ll have to get in touch. I’ll def shout you a beer!

Thanks very much for your help @Brucanna

6

If you are going to leave menulog and eatnow totally out of the first example then line 1 in the second example needs to change to “Sales” account, as their sales haven’t been taken up as yet

7

Yes, and I understand why.

So given the fact that I don’t enter it in the til, and I am using the Z-Report from the cash register to generate the sales entry for the day. How else could I enter the menulog and eatnow sales as unpaid and proceed as you’ve described above?

I’m thinking that even though the Z-Report says Sales = $300, I just manually add the menulog value to it?? But I’d like the manager view of the takings to reflect the days activities.

Therefore, could I include line items such that:

  • include Z-Report Total taxable sales
  • include Z-Report Total untaxed sales
  • include a manual entry of total menlog sales (to the sales account)
  • include a negative manual entry to the menulog (unpaid) account

and then proceed on the second example?

8

Yes, that would be an excellent approach as it provides complete transparency.

1 Like
9

Thanks very much!