End-of-day: reconciling LS Central statements with Business Central
The end-of-day close is where retail meets accounting. Do it in the same order every day and discrepancies stop being mysteries.
The routine, in order
- Close the POS shift/batch. Every terminal's shift must be closed before its transactions can be included. An open shift is the #1 reason "sales are missing."
- Verify all transactions arrived. In LS Central, check the transaction list for the store and date. Compare the transaction count against what the POS reports. If a terminal was offline, its transactions may still be queued (see offline mode).
- Calculate the statement. Run statement calculation for the store/date. This groups transactions into statement lines by tender type, totals, taxes, and discounts.
- Count and enter tenders. Enter the physical count: cash in drawer, card totals from the payment terminal reports, gift cards, etc.
- Investigate differences before posting. The statement shows calculated vs. counted per tender. Small rounding differences are normal; anything else gets investigated now, not after posting.
- Post the statement. Posting creates the sales documents, payments, and G/L entries in Business Central. Only post when the statement balances or differences are documented and approved.
Where differences usually come from
| Symptom | Usual cause | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Cash short/over | Paid-in/paid-out not recorded, or a no-sale drawer open | Transaction list, filtered by transaction type |
| Card total mismatch | Tips, pre-auths, or refunds settled on a different date | Payment terminal settlement report vs. statement lines |
| Totals don't match POS report | A shift left open, or offline transactions not yet synced | Open shifts; replication/transaction queue |
| Tax difference | Tax setup changed mid-day, or mixed tax groups on one receipt | Statement tax lines vs. posting setup |
Rules that save you
- Never post a statement you haven't reviewed. Reversing a posted retail statement is painful. Ten minutes of review beats two hours of corrections.
- Close every day, every store. Skipped days compound — a Friday problem discovered on Monday is three times harder to trace.
- Document differences. A one-line note on the statement ("cash -$4.20, under investigation") is worth more than a perfect-looking close with hidden gaps.