Plain-English summary#
An unclosed session is a register session left open across days — usually because a cashier ended their shift without running Close Register. When Foodops spots one, it shows a yellow warning on the Counter (POS) screen: "Register '' has an unclosed session from <dd/MM/yyyy>". The session still works — you can take orders on it — but it should be reconciled and closed promptly so the day's cash is tied to a clean end of shift.
When you'd use this#
Whenever a manager or cashier opens the Counter app and sees a yellow warning with an old date, or notices on the Sales Sessions list that yesterday's session never moved to Closed. It also matters when investigating a variance the next morning — the longer a session stays open, the more cash events pile up against the wrong shift, and the harder it is to tie drawer movements to a specific cashier or day.
It's also a common training topic: new cashiers often leave sessions open by mistake, and supervisors need a clear way to clean up the next day without losing yesterday's history.
Key concepts#
- Unclosed session — a session that's still open when it should have been closed. If the register has a close time set, the session is flagged once that close time has passed. If it doesn't, the session is flagged when it was opened on a previous day or has been open more than 12 hours. So a long-running session on the same day can be flagged too.
- Yellow warning — stays at the top of the Counter (POS) screen while an unclosed session is found. Dismiss hides that session's warning for good on this device. View Details opens Session Details. Neither closes the session.
- Session boundary — the open and close times that tie a session to daily reports. An unclosed session has no end point until it's closed.
- Cold close — closing a session with no recent activity, just to draw the line. The variance reflects whatever is in the drawer when you count.
- No auto-close — Foodops never closes sessions by itself. A cashier or manager must always run Close Register.
Common questions#
Q: Does Foodops close my session for me overnight? A: No. Foodops never closes sessions automatically. The yellow warning is a prompt for someone to act, not a notice that it's been handled. Until someone runs Close Register, the session stays open and keeps accepting orders.
Q: I dismissed the yellow warning — did that close the session? A: No. Dismiss only hides the warning; the session is still open. The dismissal sticks: that session's warning won't come back on the same browser or device. To actually close the session, click View Details to open Session Details and run Close Register.
Q: Can I take orders on a session left open from yesterday? A: Yes — the session works normally, and any orders you take count towards its totals. Best practice, though, is to close it first, open a fresh session with today's float, and start the new shift cleanly.
Q: Which date does a session that runs past midnight count against in the Day Summary report? A: The Day Summary lists sessions by the date they opened, so a session opened on 3 May and closed on 4 May is listed under 3 May. Within that, each invoice and sales order counts on its own date within your business day (there's a small overlap so sales just after midnight still fall on the previous service day). Payment-method totals follow the session. So the session doesn't "move" to its close date — it stays with the day it opened.
Q: What if I don't know how much cash should be in the drawer? A: Count what's physically there, enter the denominations honestly, and use the Comments field to explain that the session was left unsupervised. Managers review variances based on the Comments — a clear "left open overnight, drawer untouched, counted as found" is far better than an unexplained variance.