Financial Summary

What this report shows, the choices you make when running it, and how to read each section.

What this report is for

The Financial Summary is an all-in-one overview of your business’s money for a date range you choose. Instead of running many small reports, you run this one and pick which sections you want to see.

It pulls together sales, costs, discounts, refunds, payments, card batches, cash drawer (till) counts, and accounting balances — so you can review performance and reconcile the books from a single place.

Because it is so flexible, the report has more options than most. The good news: you can leave nearly all of them on their default settings and only change the few that matter to you.

The choices you make when running it

These are the main settings. Everything else can usually be left as-is.

1. The time period

Setting	What it does
Start Date / End Date	The first and last day you want to include.
Start Hour / Minute, End Hour / Minute	Optional. Narrows the period to a specific time of day. Leave at the defaults to cover full days.

2. Where and what to include

Setting	What it does
Location	Choose one or more locations. You can pick several at once.
Transaction Source Type / Source Category	Optional filters for where sales came from (for example, in-person vs. online). Leave as default to include everything.

3. Which sections to show

The “Section To Show” box lets you tick the parts of the report you want. You can choose one, a few, or many. (By default it shows Debit vs Credit, Trial Balance, and Close Cash Till Summary.) Each available section is explained later in this guide.

4. How the numbers are grouped

Setting	What it does
Group by	How sales are summarized — for example by Accounting Description, Accounting Code, Item Category, Product Name, Accounts Category, or Register.
Sub Group Lvl 1 / Lvl 2	Optional extra layers of grouping inside the main grouping, for a more detailed breakdown.
Product Group Level	Show figures by individual Item or rolled up by Group.
Expand All Groupings	Choose Yes to open every group automatically, or No to keep them collapsed so you can expand only what you need.

5. Display options

Setting	What it does
Sales Summary Display Option	Show all sales summaries, or only the one you selected.
Charge Card Summary by	Group card payments by settlement Batch or by Tender Name (card type).
Show Sessions On Deferred Basis	Yes or No. Controls how prepaid sessions/passes are recognized. Leave at No unless your finance team tells you otherwise. Optionally, you can report session revenue on an accrual basis

The sections, explained

These are the parts you can switch on with “Section To Show.” Pick the ones relevant to what you’re reviewing.

Section	What it shows
Debit vs Credit	An accounting view of money in versus money out, with the balancing entries side by side.
Trial Balance	A list of all accounts with their debit and credit totals, used to confirm the books balance (total debits should equal total credits).
Unbalance Transactions	Transactions where the debits and credits don’t match. These are exceptions worth investigating.
Pending Transactions	Transactions that haven’t fully completed or settled yet.
Close Cash Till Summary	Cash drawer reconciliation — expected cash vs. counted cash, with any Over/(Under) difference and cash set aside for deposit.
Charge Card Summary	Credit and debit card activity, grouped by settlement batch or by card type.
Goods Cost Summary	The cost of goods sold — what the items you sold cost the business.
Sales By	Sales broken down by whatever grouping you chose (category, product, register, and so on).
Sales Summary by Sales Tax Option	Sales grouped by their tax treatment (for example taxable vs. tax-exempt).
Labor Cost Analysis	A view of labor costs for the period.
Discount Summary	Discounts given — by code, name, amount, and quantity discounted.
Refunds	Money returned to guests during the period.
Events Booked	Event bookings within the period.
Payment Breakdown	Payments split out by method/tender, including split-payment detail where applicable.
Transaction Details	The line-by-line detail behind the summaries — the most granular view.

Common figures you’ll see

Across the sections, the same money terms appear. Here’s what each one means:

Figure	What it means
Gross Sales	Total sales before discounts and refunds are taken out.
Net Sales	Sales after discounts and refunds — the “real” sales figure.
Discounts	The total value of discounts given.
Refunds	The total value of money returned to guests.
Tax Amount / Sales Tax	Sales tax collected.
Line Total	The total for a line, including tax.
Quantity (Net)	Items sold, after subtracting anything refunded.
Cost / Net Unit Cost	What the sold items cost the business.
Gross Profit	Net Sales minus cost — what’s left after the cost of goods.
Debits / Credits	Accounting entries. In a balanced set of books, total debits equal total credits.
Over / (Under)	The difference between expected cash and counted cash in a till. A number in parentheses means the drawer came up short.
Net Payments	Payments received minus refunds paid.

Money is shown as currency, and negative numbers appear in parentheses, for example ($120.00).

How to use it, step by step

1. Set your Start Date and End Date (and Location if you only want certain sites).
2. In “Section To Show,” tick only the sections you need for this review.
3. Choose how you want sales grouped (“Group by” and, if useful, the Sub Group levels).
4. Run the report. Use the expand/collapse controls to drill into any group, or set “Expand All Groupings” to Yes to open everything at once.
5. For reconciling: compare Trial Balance (books balance), Close Cash Till Summary (cash drawers), and Charge Card Summary (card batches).
6. For performance: look at Sales By, Goods Cost Summary, and Gross Profit.

Good to know

• Showing many sections at once over a wide date range can make the report slow to load. If you only need one thing, tick only that section.
• “Unbalance Transactions” and “Pending Transactions” are your exception lists — if a total looks wrong, start there.
• The Transaction Details section is the most granular view and is the best place to trace a specific figure back to individual transactions.
• Most of the options have sensible defaults. If you’re unsure, change only the date range, location, and the sections you want, and leave the rest alone.

Reconciling the books? The three sections that work together are Trial Balance, Close Cash Till Summary, and Charge Card Summary — run those side by side.