Accounting & Finance

Shifts, cash reconciliation, expenses, and reports

Shift Management

Shifts are the foundation of cash tracking in noqat. Every POS session is tied to a shift, and every cash transaction is recorded against it.

Opening a Shift

The employee logs into the POS with their PIN.
They select their branch and cash register (if applicable).
They enter the opening cash float — the amount of cash in the drawer at the start of the shift.
The shift is now open. All orders processed during this shift are linked to the employee and register.

Closing a Shift

The employee clicks Close Shift from the POS menu.
They physically count the cash in the drawer and enter the counted amount.
The system calculates the expected cash: opening float + cash received - cash refunds.
The variance is displayed: counted amount minus expected amount. A positive variance means excess cash, negative means a shortage.
The employee can add a note to explain any variance.
Confirm to close. The shift moves to "closed" status and cannot be reopened.

Shift Summary

Each closed shift generates a summary containing:

Opening and closing times.
Total orders processed and total revenue.
Revenue breakdown by payment method (cash, KNET, Visa, etc.).
Opening cash float, expected cash, counted cash, and variance.
The summary can be printed as a shift receipt.

Automatic Shift Closing Added on June 13, 2026

Cashiers often forget to close their shift at the end of the night. To keep shifts from piling up across days, any shift still open once its business day has fully ended is closed automatically:

The close runs in the background shortly after the business day rolls over (see Business day start time below).
It only ever closes shifts whose business day has already ended — a shift in the current business day is never touched, and taking orders is never blocked.
An auto-closed shift is recorded as uncounted: no cash was counted, so it carries no cash variance, but its sales totals are still captured for reporting.

Day Closing Process

Day closing is the daily reconciliation process that aggregates all shifts and financial activity for a branch.

A manager or admin initiates the day closing from the admin dashboard.
All shifts for the day must be closed before the day can be closed.
The system generates a day closing report showing:
- Total revenue across all shifts.
- Payment method totals for the entire day.
- Aggregate cash variance from all shifts.
- Expenses recorded during the day.
- Net cash position.
Review the report and confirm to lock the day. Once locked, orders and shifts for that day cannot be modified.

Day closing provides a clean financial cutoff and ensures that each day's numbers are finalized and auditable.

Business Day Start Time Added on June 13, 2026

Restaurants that trade past midnight need a day that doesn't end at 00:00. Under Settings → Business you set the hour your business day starts (e.g. 4 AM):

Orders taken before that hour count toward the previous day — so late-night sales stay on the same day as the shift that took them.
The Today / Yesterday / Last N days quick filters on order history (and the matching reports) follow this boundary, so they reconcile with day closing instead of calendar midnight.
Set it to 12:00 AM if you close before midnight — the business day then equals the calendar day, with no change in behavior. Custom date ranges you pick by hand always use the exact dates you enter.

Delivery Cash Collection Added on June 18, 2026

The Financial → Delivery Cash page totals the cash collected on delivery for a business day — from your own drivers and from delivery platforms — so you can collect it all in one place:

The Own drivers section shows the cash each driver owes — the total of their delivered cash orders for the day, minus any tips the driver keeps. Orders already paid online or by card aren't counted.
The Delivery platforms section lists every courier that delivered for you (e.g. Armada) with the cash they collected on your behalf. Prepaid platforms like Talabat Go appear with nothing to collect, since the customer already paid them.
Open any driver or platform to see the exact orders behind the total, then tap Mark collected to record that you received the cash. You can undo it if you marked it by mistake.
Delivery cash is never counted in the cashier's drawer — it's collected in the field, so it shows here instead. Totals follow your business-day start time and recompute live, so a late order simply shows a new amount outstanding.

Driver Cash Report (date range) Added on June 23, 2026

The daily Delivery Cash page answers "who owes me today?". The Financial → Driver Cash Report answers it over any stretch of time — a week, a month, a quarter:

Pick a range with the quick chips (Last 7 / 30 / 90 days) or the custom From/To pickers. You get one row per driver: deliveries, active days, expected cash, collected, and what's still outstanding — plus totals across all drivers.
Tips are included. Each driver's tips earned across the period are shown alongside the cash. Tips are the driver's own money (earned on every delivery, cash or online), kept separate from the cash owed to the restaurant.
Open any driver to see a per-day breakdown over the range, and jump straight to a single day's detail from there.
Export the whole range to CSV for payroll or your accountant. Cash figures are computed live from delivered orders, so uncollected days always surface as outstanding.

Cash at the pickup counter Added on June 24, 2026

Some branches deliver but have no cashier or till. When a customer pays cash for an online pickup or curbside order there, the cash needs an owner and a place to be reconciled — without faking a delivery. This is that place:

Turn it on per branch. Under Branch settings → Available Online, enable "Accept cash at pickup counter". It's off by default — pickup and curbside stay prepaid (online payment only) until you opt a branch in. Use it for branches that have no cashier till.
Once on, customers at that branch see a cash option at checkout for pickup and curbside orders. The order keeps its real type — it is not turned into a delivery, and no driver is assigned.
The cash owed appears on the Delivery cash page in a new Pickup counters section, one row per branch, alongside your own drivers and delivery platforms. Open a branch to see its cash orders for the day.
Mark it collected when the branch hands the cash to your accountant — exactly like driver or platform cash. Amounts are computed live, so a late order surfaces as new outstanding cash even after you've collected, and "undo" clears the mark without touching any order.

Correct a Recorded Payment Type Added on June 21, 2026

If an order was recorded under the wrong payment type — for example rung up as cash when the customer actually paid by KNET — a manager, admin, or accountant can correct it after the fact:

Open the order — from its details page, the shift screen's Orders in this shift list, or the POS My shift orders — tap Change payment type, pick the method the customer actually used, and save.
The correction updates the underlying payment record, not just the label — so the till count and the sales-by-payment-method breakdown both reflect the real method.
It works even after the shift is closed: the shift's totals and expected cash are recomputed, so a mismatch you catch while counting can be fixed and the cash variance corrects itself.
Every change is written to the audit log (who changed it, and from which method to which). If the order was actually paid with more than one method, use Split a Payment Across Methods below instead. Orders in a sealed (locked) business day can be corrected too — see Correcting Delivered & Sealed Orders below.

Split a Payment Across Methods Added on June 23, 2026

Sometimes a single order is paid with more than one method — for example the customer hands over part in cash and pays the rest by card or online link. You no longer have to record it as one method and lose the detail:

Open the order, tap Change payment type, then switch to the Split payment tab. Add a row per method the customer used, enter each amount, and save once the rows add up to the order total.
For example, on a 6 KD order you can record 1 KD as cash and 5 KD as KNET. The till count and the sales-by-payment-method breakdown both reflect the real split.
It works on any order — takeout, dine-in, or delivery — and even after the shift is closed: the shift and day totals are recomputed so everything reconciles.
The full breakdown is written to the audit log and shows on the order's activity trail, so the correction is always traceable.

Correcting Delivered & Sealed Orders Added on June 22, 2026

Some corrections only surface after an order is delivered — or even after its business day has been sealed (locked), when a payment is reconciled or a manual change happens days later. noqat lets you keep the records straight without leaving the system:

Move a delivered order to the right branch. Managers can correct the serving branch on an order that's already delivered or closed — open the order and tap Correct Branch, choose the branch, and give a reason. Both branches' day totals are recomputed so each branch's sales stay accurate.
Fix the payment type or branch after the day is sealed. Once a business day is locked, only an admin can make a correction, and a reason is required. The sealed day's totals are recomputed automatically, so the locked report still matches reality.
Edit the delivery area after delivery. Managers and admins can correct the delivery area on a finalized order; on a sealed day this is limited to admins.
Everything is on the record. Each correction is written to the audit log and shows on the order's activity trail — who changed what, when, and why — so nothing changes silently.

Cash Register Management

If your branch has multiple cash drawers, you can set up individual cash registers:

Go to Settings → Cash Registers and add registers for each physical drawer.
Give each register a name (e.g., "Register 1", "Drive-Through").
Assign registers to a branch.
When an employee opens a shift, they select which register they are using.
Only one shift can be open per register at a time, preventing conflicts.
Cash tracking is done per register, so you can identify exactly which drawer has a variance.

Expense Tracking

Record business expenses directly in the system to maintain an accurate financial picture.

Creating an Expense

Go to Expenses and click Add Expense.
Enter the amount, category (e.g., supplies, utilities, ingredients, maintenance), and a description.
Select the branch and date.
If the expense was paid from the cash register, link it to a shift. This reduces the expected cash for that shift accordingly.
Optionally attach a receipt photo for documentation.

Expense Categories

Organize expenses by category for better reporting:

Ingredients and supplies
Utilities (electricity, water, internet)
Maintenance and repairs
Marketing and advertising
Miscellaneous

You can create custom categories that fit your business needs.

Expense Approvals

Depending on your configuration, expenses above a certain amount may require manager approval. The manager reviews the expense and either approves or rejects it with a note.

Driver Shift Settlements

Drivers who collect cash on delivery need to settle at the end of their shift.

When a driver completes delivery orders with cash payment, the system tracks the cash they collected.
At the end of the driver's shift, the manager reviews the driver settlement: total cash collected from deliveries minus any expenses.
The driver hands over the cash and the settlement is recorded.
Any discrepancy between expected and actual cash is noted as a variance.

Payment Reconciliation

Reconcile card and digital payments with your bank and payment gateway statements.

The system records every card and digital payment with a unique reference ID.
View payment reports filtered by method (KNET, Visa, Apple Pay, etc.) and date range.
Compare noqat totals against your MyFatoorah dashboard or bank statement to ensure all payments are accounted for.
Online payments are automatically reconciled through the payment gateway. POS card payments (recorded manually) should be cross-checked with your physical terminal reports.

Petty Cash Management

Track small cash expenditures that come out of the register during a shift.

During a shift, record petty cash withdrawals through the POS or admin panel.
Each withdrawal is linked to the current shift and reduces the expected cash amount.
Common petty cash uses: emergency supplies, small repairs, tips, delivery change.
All petty cash entries are included in the shift summary and day closing report.

Financial Reports

noqat provides several financial reports for management and accounting:

Daily sales report — Total revenue, order count, and payment method breakdown for each day.
Shift reports — Detailed shift summaries including cash reconciliation for each employee and register.
Expense report — All expenses for a period, grouped by category and branch.
Payment method report — Revenue broken down by payment method across all branches.
Cash flow summary — Net cash position accounting for revenue, expenses, and petty cash.
Day closing reports — Finalized daily summaries with all financial data locked and auditable.

Reports can be filtered by date range and branch, and exported as CSV for use in external accounting software.

Audit Logs

noqat maintains audit logs for financial accountability:

All shift opens and closes are logged with timestamps and employee IDs.
Discount applications, especially manager overrides, are recorded.
Order modifications after payment (voids, refunds) are tracked.
Expense entries and approvals are logged.
Price edits on the POS are recorded with the original and modified amounts.

Audit logs help you maintain financial integrity and investigate any discrepancies. They cannot be modified or deleted.