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An advance deposit is money in, not money earned. When a customer pays something up front on a service job, that money is sitting in your cash drawer, but you have not earned it yet. You earn it later, when the job is finished and turned into a sale.
That is why there are two reports rather than one.
INFO
Both reports only appear once your admin turns on the Service module. See Creating and Tracking a Service Job.
Which report answers which question
| Question | Report |
|---|---|
| Where is the money? How much cash and card did we actually take in? | Service Advances |
| What did we earn? Which jobs made us money? | Service Jobs |
Keeping them apart matters. A deposit taken last month for a job finished this month belongs in one month on one report and the next month on the other. Combining them would either hide that or count the same money twice.
The two reports will not agree with each other, and they are not meant to. One is cash flow. The other is earnings.
Balancing your cash drawer and your card terminal
At the end of the day, deposits are the piece people miss. They pass through your cash drawer and your card terminal, but they are not sales, so a sales figure alone will never balance.
Cash: the cash you counted in the drawer should equal your 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. Without the Service Advances report, your terminal reads higher than your sales and there is no way to find the difference.
What changes on reports you already use
Sales by Payment Method gains a Service advances section below the payment rows, showing cash and card advances and refunds for the period and a Total advance collected figure, plus a Cash & card reconciliation section showing your true total cash in and total card in.
It also gains a row called Advance realised for the period. That is a deposit being used up when a job becomes a sale. It is not new money, it came in earlier as cash or card. It is split out of the Store Credit row so the same money is never counted twice, which means Store Credit only ever shows genuine store credit from returns. See Sales by Payment Method for the detail.
The dashboard payment chart gains Cash advance and Card advance segments, so the money taken today matches what is in the drawer.
None of this appears if the Service module is off.
Who can see these reports
Managers and admins. Cashiers cannot open these reports, though the advances they take still appear on them.
Both reports have an Export button that produces an Excel file through the Exports page, the same as every other report.
FAQ
Q: What does "Advance realised for the period" mean?
A: When a job with a deposit turns into a sale, the deposit pays part of that sale. No money changed hands at that moment, it came in earlier as cash or card. It is labelled clearly so you do not count it as fresh takings.
Q: Why does "net" show up so often (Net Cash, Net Card, Net Total, Advances (net))?
A: "Net" always means "money in minus money back out" for that same bucket. Net Cash is cash advances minus cash refunds. Net Card is card advances minus card refunds. Net Total is Net Cash plus Net Card. Advances (net) on a single job is that job's advances minus any refund on it. None of these are profit figures, they are deposit balances still owed to the customer until the job is finished.
Q: What is an "Outstanding" advance?
A: Money you are holding for a job that is not finished yet. It is in your cash drawer, but it is not yours yet, if the customer walks away you owe it back. Do not treat the Net Total on the Service Advances report as profit.
Q: Can I see these reports if the Service module is off?
A: No. They are hidden entirely, and your existing reports and dashboard look exactly as they did before.
Q: Why does a job show zero advances on the Service Jobs report?
A: Plenty of jobs are paid in full at collection with no deposit. Those jobs appear there with zero advances, and never appear on the Service Advances report, because no advance was ever taken.