With Adyen, there’s no need to manually close the day on your payment terminal. Unlike traditional systems, Adyen automates this process and uses reporting tools to manage your daily sales and reconciliation.
When using Adyen with your Point-of-Sale (POS) or Property Management System (PMS), you might notice that there isn't a manual "end-of-day" closing procedure on the terminal itself. Unlike traditional payment systems that require a definitive daily close to batch transactions, Adyen's process is more automated and report-driven. This guide explains how Adyen handles your sales day, the reporting mechanisms, and how to reconcile your daily "cash/PIN" takings.
Adyen's "Sales Day" Explained
Adyen operates on a concept of a "sales day," which is a defined 24-hour period for processing your payments. By default, Adyen sets the sales day from midnight (00:00) to midnight (23:59) in your balance account's local timezone.
Key points about Adyen's sales day:
- Configurable Closing Time: You can configure your sales day to end at a time that aligns with your business operations. For example, if your business closes after midnight (e.g., a restaurant operating until 3:00 AM), you can set your sales day closing time to 3:00 AM. This ensures that all sales within a single business day are grouped together for reporting and settlement, regardless of the calendar day change. Adyen generally allows sales day closing times up to 7:00 AM.
- No Manual "Close Day" Required: Payments are continuously processed and assigned to the relevant sales day based on the configured closing time. There is no automatic "day close" on the terminal, nor is a manual one required to continue processing transactions.
- Dynamic Sales Day Closing (Advanced): For businesses with highly variable closing times, Adyen also offers the option to dynamically close the sales day via an API request. This allows for more flexibility in aligning your Adyen sales day with your operational reality.
Reporting and Reconciliation
While your terminals don't require a manual "day-end" close, Adyen provides robust reporting to give you a clear overview of your incoming funds.
Key reports for daily reconciliation:
- Daily Finance Report: This report provides a summary of all balances and transactions for a given day, using a CE(S)T cutoff (unless otherwise configured). It includes details like total received turnover, authorized transactions, sales volume, and payouts.
- Settlement Details Report: This report helps you reconcile your merchant payouts by providing an overview of what happens within each payable batch, including payments received, fees deducted, adjustments (refunds, chargebacks), and payouts to your bank account.
Reconciling "Cash / PIN" Takings
The core of your question lies in reconciling your physical cash and card (PIN) payments with your POS/PMS data. While Adyen automates the processing and reporting of card payments, the reconciliation of these with your local cash takings still largely depends on your internal POS/PMS procedures and physical cash counting.
Here's how to approach it:
- POS/PMS Day-End Report: Your POS or PMS system should have its own "day-end" or "shift close" report. This report is crucial as it aggregates all transactions processed through that specific system, including both card payments (handled by Adyen) and cash payments. It will give you your internal record of daily sales.
- Adyen Reporting for Card Payments: Utilize the Adyen reports (e.g., Daily Finance Report, Received Payment Details Report) to get the precise figures for card transactions processed through Adyen for your defined sales day.
- Manual Reconciliation:
- Card Payments: Compare the total card payments reported by your POS/PMS with the total card payments reported by Adyen for the corresponding sales day. Any discrepancies should be investigated.
- Cash Payments: Physically count your cash takings and compare them with the cash sales reported by your POS/PMS.
- Overall Balance: Once cash and card payments are reconciled individually, you can combine them to ensure your total physical takings match your POS/PMS total sales.
Important Note on Terminal "Day-End":
While Adyen does not require a manual day-end close on the terminal for continuous operation or settlement, some businesses may still choose to initiate a "day-end" or "batch close" function on the physical payment terminal itself, if available. This is often done for:
- Immediate Local Review: To get an immediate, localized summary of transactions processed by that specific terminal before comparing it with the broader POS/PMS data. This can help in quickly identifying discrepancies at the individual terminal level.
- Legacy Process Alignment: For businesses accustomed to traditional terminal batching, performing a terminal "day-end" might be part of their established internal reconciliation process.
However, understand that this terminal-initiated "day-end" is generally for local verification and does not initiate or control Adyen's overall sales day processing or settlement, which happens automatically based on your configured sales day closing time.
Concluding
Adyen streamlines payment processing by automating the "day-end" from a system perspective. Your focus should be on leveraging Adyen's comprehensive reporting in conjunction with your POS/PMS reports and internal cash handling procedures to ensure accurate daily reconciliation of all incoming funds. While a terminal "day-end" can provide an immediate local snapshot, it's the consolidated reports from Adyen and your POS/PMS that form the authoritative basis for your daily financial assessment.