Restaurant Point of Sale App Business Dates

Since the business day of a restaurant may not follow a calendar day, our Restaurant Solution introduces the concept of business dates. A business date is a period of operation that generally corresponds to one day of open business. For example, a restaurant may open at 5 p.m. on Monday and close at 4 a.m. on Tuesday. This would equate to one business date in Restaurant Solution.

In some instances, a restaurant may remain open twenty-four hours. In these scenarios, the POS allows two business dates to overlap: the previous date and the current date. At the POS home screen, the system identifies the current business date and the logged in business date.

The end of day process, which closes a business date, cannot run until the closure of all orders and shifts. 

NOTE: Once you close a business date, no one can create or edit shifts or orders on that date.

Business date thresholds

Two thresholds determine when a business date ends:

• Business date threshold: At 3 a.m., your local time, the system attempts to end the current business date. If no open orders or shifts exist, the system automatically closes the business date. If open orders or shifts exist, the system keeps attempting to close the business date, while keeping the previous business date open, until the business date cutoff threshold at 8 a.m.

  Note: The system starts a new business date at 3 a.m. even if it cannot close the existing business date, allowing you to have two business dates open and active for the same time. Contact Customer Care directly to have them assist in changing your End of Day time.

• Business date cutoff threshold: At 8 a.m. your local time, if the previous business date remains open, the system restricts access to that business date, even though it may contain open guest checks or shifts. At this point, a manager must close any open orders or shifts for the previous business date.

The system considers employees who clocked in prior to 3 a.m. to be working under the previous business date. Upon each log in to the POS, the system prompts the employee to close their orders and shifts for the previous date; however, the employee can continue entering orders and receiving payments under the previous date.

A non-manager employee, who clocked into the POS prior to 3 a.m.:

• Can continue working under their existing labor and financial shift for the previous business date.
• Cannot start a new financial shift for the previous business date. At 8 a.m., the system restricts the employee from logging in to the previous business date, even if they have open shifts and orders.

For a manager, upon each log in the system prompts to choose the business date they want to access.

• If a manager chooses the previous business date, the system also prompts the manager to close any open orders or shifts.
• If a manager chooses the current business date, the system allows a manager to clock in and start a new financial shift; however, a manager cannot edit an order created in the previous business date.

An employee who clocks in after 3 a.m., but before 8 a.m. can start a labor and financial shift for the current business date.

Two open business dates

In some instances, it is possible to have two business dates open and active at the same time, from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m.

Working with offline mode orders after closing a business date

When a device in the offline mode returns to the online mode, the server attempts replication. The formerly offline mode device discovers a closed business date and logs out the user. It is necessary for a manager to close the open orders and shifts.

Archiving previous business dates

The system allows a previous business date to remain available for closing by a manager for seven days. After seven days, the system archives the previous business date and prevents a manager from accessing the business date to close orders or shifts.

Closing business dates manually

When open orders and shifts exist at 8 a.m., the system restricts access to the previous business date and cannot automatically close the business date. It is necessary for a manager to manually close the business date. The system provides the manager with two options for manually closing a business date.

• Initiate a Force Close, which automatically closes all shifts and orders
  OR
• Close each order and shift separately. 

When open orders and shifts from a previous business date exist, the system prompts the manager each time they log in to the POS. The manager can tap Ignore to continue to the POS home screen, or tap View Open Activity to access the Open Business Dates screen.

Force close a business day

Force Close enables you to close a business date by closing all open shifts and orders for a previous date at one time. When you initiate a force close, the system:

• Closes all open orders and the employee associated with the order is financially responsible. If you have open orders saved to a credit card, the system closes those orders to the saved card. The system closes all other orders to cash.
• Closes all open financial shifts.
• Closes all open labor shifts to the time at which you execute a Force Close. You may need to access the Back Office through a Web browser to edit the labor shift for the employee.

NOTE: You may have up to seven previous business dates which require you to close them. After seven days, the system archives the business date preventing anyone from editing open shifts or orders for that date.

Closing orders and shifts manually

Instead of using Force Close, you can close each open order and shift manually. This method provides you various options to close orders, to clock out or delete labor shifts, and to end financial shifts.