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Service Advances
The Service Advances report is how you balance your cash drawer and your card terminal when you take deposits on service jobs. It shows every advance you took and every refund you gave back over a date range, with the cash and card totals you need at the end of the day.
INFO
This report only appears once your admin turns on the Service module. Managers and admins can open it.
An advance is money in, not money earned. It is sitting in your cash drawer, but you have not earned it until the job is finished and turned into a sale. This report answers "where is the money". To answer "what did we earn", use the Service Jobs report. For how the two fit together, see Service Reports.
How to run the report
- Click Reports in the left menu.
- Click the Service Advances card. The report does not load on its own, so nothing appears until you run it.
- Set the date range using the From and To fields. They start on the last 30 days.
- Optionally narrow the results using Methods (Cash or Card), Types (Advance or Refund), and Cashiers. All three let you tick more than one, and all three start on everything.
- Click Run Report.
Instead of steps 3 and 5 you can click a date preset: Today, Yesterday, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, This month, Last month, Last 3 months, or This year. A preset sets the dates and runs the report straight away.
Summary cards
Three cards sit above the table with the figures you need for balancing:
- Net Cash: cash advances minus cash refunds.
- Net Card: card advances minus card refunds.
- Net Total: Net Cash plus Net Card.
Net means money in minus money back out for that same bucket. None of these are profit figures. They are deposits you are holding until the job is finished.
What the table shows
Each row is one advance or one refund. The columns are:
- Date: the date and time the money came in or went back out.
- Receipt #: the receipt given to the customer for that payment.
- Job #: the service job the payment belongs to.
- Customer: the customer the job belongs to. Shows a dash if the job was taken in without one.
- Type: Advance (money in) or Refund (money back out).
- Method: Cash or Card.
- Amount: the value of that payment.
- Cashier: who took the payment. A No shift badge appears under the name if no shift was open at the time.
- State: Outstanding, Applied, or Refunded (see below).
- Applied To: the sale number the deposit went into. Shows a dash until the job becomes a sale.
Click a column header to sort the table.
What each state means
- Outstanding: you are still holding this money, the job is not finished. It is in your cash drawer, but it is not yours yet. If the customer walks away, you owe it back.
- Applied: the job became a sale and this deposit was used up paying for it.
- Refunded: the job was cancelled and the money was given back.
Reconciliation
Use this report at the end of the day to balance both your cash drawer and your card terminal.
Cash: the cash you counted in the drawer should equal:
starting cash in the drawer, plus cash sales, plus cash advances, minus cash refunds, minus change given.
Card: your card terminal's settlement total should equal:
card sales, plus card advances, minus card refunds.
Card advances do not appear anywhere else, so without this report your terminal will read higher than your sales figures and you will never find the difference.
Exporting
When the report has results, an Export button appears. Clicking it prepares an Excel file in the background and downloads it automatically once it is ready.
The file has two sheets:
- Service Advances: the full table.
- Summary: the period, currency, the filters you chose, and the balancing figures. It breaks Cash Advances, Card Advances, Cash Refunds, and Card Refunds out separately, so you get the four figures behind Net Cash and Net Card rather than just the nets.
If you navigate away before the export finishes, go to Exports in the left menu to find and download the file there.
FAQ
Q: My card terminal total is higher than my card sales. Why?
A: Because card advances are on your terminal but are not sales. A deposit paid by card goes through the terminal on the day you take it, but the job does not become a sale until later. Add the Net Card figure from this report to your card sales and the terminal should agree.
Q: The cash I counted in the drawer does not balance. What do I check?
A: Work through the full formula: starting cash in the drawer, plus cash sales, plus cash advances, minus cash refunds, minus change given. Cash advances and cash refunds are the two people most often forget, and both are on this report.
Q: Is the Net Total figure my profit?
A: No. It is money you are holding for jobs that mostly are not finished yet. Some of it you will owe back if a job is cancelled. For what you actually earned, use the Service Jobs report.
Q: What is an Outstanding advance?
A: Money you are holding for a job that is not finished. It is in your cash drawer, but it is not yours yet.
Q: Why does a row show a "No shift" badge under the cashier's name?
A: The advance was taken when no shift was open. This is only possible when "Require shift to sell" is turned off in Settings. The money still counts, but it will not appear in any shift close, so include it manually when balancing.
Q: A job I know about is not on this report. Why?
A: Because no advance was ever taken on it. Jobs paid in full at collection never appear here. They are on the Service Jobs report with zero advances.
Q: Can cashiers open this report?
A: No. Managers and admins only. The advances cashiers take still appear on it.