What Is a Z Report? X vs Z Reports and the End-of-Day Cash Count

1What Is a Z Report?

A Z report is the closing report a cash register prints at the end of the business day. It shows the day's sales total, the tax by rate, the number of receipts and the payment types, and each Z report has a sequence number.

When the Z report is printed, the day's totals are stored and the counters start again from zero for the next day. In countries with fiscal cash registers, such as Turkey, the totals go into the device's fiscal memory and businesses print and keep a Z report at the end of every business day; bookkeeping is based on these reports.

2How Is It Different From an X Report?

An X report is a snapshot taken during the day. It shows sales up to that moment but does not close the day, does not reset the counters and is not stored; you can print it as often as you like. It is used to check the till in the middle of the day or to see sales so far at a shift change.

A card terminal's end-of-day report is something else: it closes the day's card transactions and gives that day's card total. It does not replace the cash register's Z report.

3How Do You Count the Till at the End of the Day?

At the end of the day, the cash in the till is counted and compared with the amount that should be there. That amount is the opening cash plus the day's cash sales and cash payments received, minus the money taken out of the till. Payments by card, on account or by bank transfer do not go into the till and are not part of this comparison.

• Count by denomination. Sort notes and coins by value and count each one; this leads to fewer mistakes than counting the total in one go.
• Note the reason for a difference. If the till is short or over, write down why: a change error, an on-account sale that was not entered or another reason.
• Count together at a shift change. If the person handing over and the person taking over count the till together, any difference is discussed on the spot.

4PratikKasa's Z Report

In PratikKasa, each person opens their own shift with an opening cash amount, and their sales and payments received during the day are recorded on that shift. When you close the shift, you count the till. PratikKasa calculates the expected cash, shows the difference and prepares the shift's Z report. The report includes the shift summary, the payment breakdown, the cash comparison, the denomination count and signature lines.

This Z report is the shift's cash and sales summary; it does not replace the fiscal Z report of a cash register. In Turkey, PratikKasa connects to Token cash registers: for card payments, the cart is sent to the cash register and the fiscal receipt comes from the cash register. You print the fiscal Z report from your cash register at the end of the day.

On Windows, the Z report is prepared as a PDF when the shift closes; you open the reports of past shifts from the Shifts screen and from Reports › Shift. On a phone, the Z summary appears on screen at closing. Shifts open and close without an internet connection.

The drawings in this post are based on the screens of PratikKasa 2.1.0.