Plain-English summary#
A sales session moves through a predictable set of stages, from the moment a cashier counts in the opening float to the moment the session is closed and reconciled: open → active → (handover or break, repeating) → closing → pending close → closed. Closed is the end. Knowing where a session is tells you what you can do with it (take orders, hand over, count cash, close, approve/adjust/cancel a pending close), what it shows on the Counter screen, and what its figures mean in reports.
When you'd use this#
Whenever you want the big picture rather than a screen-by-screen walkthrough — training new cashiers, understanding why a "Paid" order can sit inside an "Open" session (see Close Paid Order), or working out why a session seems stuck. It also ties together unclosed sessions, session handover, till reconciliation and the Z-report.
Key concepts#
- Open — the working status. All order-taking happens here.
- Pending Close — the status a session enters as soon as a close is submitted. The drawer count is in, but a supervisor hasn't approved it yet. It can still be approved (→ Closed), adjusted (recount), or cancelled (→ Open).
- Closed — the final status, reached only by approving a Pending Close. Read-only; the session's record is final.
- Active — informal shorthand for "Open and being worked." Not a separate status.
- Handover — changes the cashier on record without changing the session's status. Logged in the Handover tab.
- Closing — the time a cashier spends on the Close Register form before submitting. The status is still Open. Once submitted, the session moves to Pending Close, not straight to Closed.
- Audit log — the permanent record of what happened to a session: open, handover/join, close. Visible in the Handover tab and the session details.
Common questions#
Q: How many statuses does a session actually have? A: Three — Open, Pending Close and Closed. Submitting a close moves a session from Open to Pending Close; a supervisor's approval moves it from Pending Close to Closed. "Active", "handover" and "closing" are just ways of describing what's happening inside those three.
Q: Can a session be reopened after close? A: No. Once Closed, a session can't be changed — approve, adjust and cancel only work on a Pending Close session, and there's no reopen. To record more activity for the same shift, open a new session, with its own opening float and its own reconciliation.
Q: What if I closed the wrong session by mistake? A: It depends how far the close got. A submitted close goes to Pending Close, not straight to Closed. While it's still Pending Close, a supervisor can Cancel the close — the session goes back to Open, the close cash counts are cleared and the variance is reset, so it's fully usable again. Once it's been approved to Closed, it stays closed: cash or orders for the next shift go on a newly opened session, and the closed session keeps the count that was submitted. Note "closed early in error" in the Comments field so the manager review picks it up.
Q: Does a session pause overnight when the restaurant is shut? A: No — there's no overnight pause. A session left open across days stays Open and shows the unclosed-session warning on the Counter screen the next morning. Best practice is to close at the end of trading.
Q: When does the Z-report get generated? A: It's not created automatically at close. You print it on demand from the back office: the register session's detail page in the admin app has a "Print Z-report" action for a closed session. Separately, the Day Summary report lists each register session for the day. See Z-report.