Troubleshoot Reporting Discrepancies in DataNow

Description: This guide explains the most common reasons sales figures may differ between DataNow reports, between DataNow and your processor, or between DataNow and other systems. Most discrepancies have a straightforward explanation — use the quick reference below to identify the right one for your situation.

Quick Reference

DataNow vs. Processor / LTM

The most common reason DataNow and your payment processor or Lighthouse Transaction Manager (LTM) show different totals is a date mismatch — not missing revenue. 

In some cases, variances can also result from orders that have settled in LTM but remain in a non-completed state in DataNow. Many of these orders are picked up automatically the following morning by a background process that matches them to the gateway and moves them to either Completed or Authorization Failed depending on the gateway response. For any that are not resolved automatically, our reconciliation support team can manually move them to the correct state.

Effective Business Date vs. Calendar Date

Every order has two timestamps:

• Date Created on Device: When the order was taken on the POS or mobile device.
• Calendar Date: When the order synced to the DataNow platform.

The Settlements report uses the Effective Business Date — which matches the Date Created on Device — to align with how processors batch transactions. Other DataNow reports use the Calendar Date. If an order was taken offline and synced the next day, it will appear on different dates in each report.

Example: An order taken on August 9 (device) that synced on August 10 (platform) appears on August 10 in F&B Sales and Sales Audit, but on August 9 in the Settlements report.

What to do: Use the Settlements report when reconciling against your processor. Use the Late Syncing Sales tile within Settlements to identify any orders that synced on a different day than they were created.

Orders in Approved Offline State

Orders that are still in an Approved Offline state have not yet settled. They appear in DataNow but may not yet appear in LTM or your processor report. Once these orders sync and settle, they will appear in both systems.

What to do: Check the Approved Offline Summary in Sales Audit or the Unsynced Orders tile in Sales Hub to identify how many orders are pending. Do not finalize reconciliation until these orders have resolved.

Differences Between DataNow Reports

Sales Audit vs. F&B Sales

These two reports are designed for different purposes and pull data differently, which can produce different totals for the same time period:

• Order State filter defaults: Both reports default to completed order states, but the specific states included can differ depending on filter settings. Confirm both reports are using identical Order State filters.
• Approved Offline orders: Sales Audit includes an explicit Approved Offline Summary section, while F&B Sales includes offline orders in its general totals. If offline orders are large in volume, this can create an apparent difference.
• Scope: F&B Sales is built for item and category-level analysis. Sales Audit is built for financial totals and reconciliation. Some fields are calculated slightly differently to serve each purpose.

Sales by Revenue Center vs. Employee Sales

It is normal for these two tiles within F&B Sales to show different net sales totals:

• Sales by Revenue Center: Attributes sales to the location where the order was placed.
• Employee Sales: Attributes sales to the employee who created the order — and includes Rich Checkout orders, which have no associated employee. If Rich Checkout orders are excluded from the employee view but included in the revenue center view, totals will differ.

What to do: If investigating an employee-level variance, confirm whether Rich Checkout orders are expected to be included. The Employee Sales tile note indicates whether Rich Checkout is included.

Two Reports with the Same Filters but Different Totals

If you have applied the same filters to two different reports and are seeing different totals, check the following:

• Data tier: The This Month tab and the Last 12 Months tab use different data sources. Ensure you are comparing the same tier in both reports.
• Timezone: If the viewer timezone differs between two sessions or users, the same date range can cover different underlying time windows.
• Order State: The default Order State filter varies by report. A report defaulting to 'completed' only will show different totals than one that also includes 'partially refunded' or 'delivered without alcohol'.
• Report explores: Some report tiles within F&B Sales apply pre-set filters — for example, the Payments tiles exclude voided transactions. These are working as designed.

DataNow vs. POS Device Totals

The totals shown on a POS device at end of shift and the totals in DataNow can differ for several reasons:

• Device reports local data: The device summary shows what was processed locally on that device. DataNow reflects what has synced to the platform. If orders are still pending sync, the device will show them but DataNow will not yet.
• Offline orders pending: Orders taken in offline mode appear on the device but will not appear in DataNow until they are synced. Check Device Monitoring in DataNow to see the sync status of any device.
• Attendant sales: In some configurations, the device summary may show $0 for attendant sales while DataNow shows the correct figure. This is a known display behavior on the device side — DataNow is the accurate source.
• Rounding: Minor cent-level differences between device totals and DataNow totals can occur due to how tax rounding is applied at the device vs. platform level.

Understanding Gross vs. Net Sales

These are the most frequently confused fields in DataNow reporting. Here is how they are defined:

Important: Tips and service charges are not included in Gross Sales or Net Sales. They are tracked as standalone metrics and are included in Amount Authorized and Amount Settled.

Tax Calculation — How It Works

Tax in DataNow is calculated based on item-level tax configuration set in Canopy. Two common sources of confusion:

Tax appears to be calculated on Gross Sales, not Net Sales

By design, tax is calculated on the item price at the time of sale — before discounts are applied. This means if a $10 item has 8% tax, the tax is $0.80 regardless of whether a discount was applied to the order. This is consistent with how most tax jurisdictions operate — tax is calculated on the sale price, not the discounted price.

Note: If a venue has inclusive tax configured (tax is included in the item price rather than added on top), the tax displayed in DataNow represents the tax portion extracted from the item price. Inclusive tax totals may appear differently than exclusive tax totals even at the same rate.

Tax amounts are $0 or unusually low for some items

If specific items show $0 tax or a much lower tax amount than expected, this is typically a configuration issue in Canopy:

• The item may be missing a tax group assignment.
• The tax group may have been detached or corrupted.
• The item may be configured as tax-exempt.

What to do: Review the affected items in Canopy and confirm the correct tax group is assigned. After making changes, sync the affected devices and verify the tax calculates correctly on a test transaction before the next event.

Orders Missing From DataNow

If an order appears in LTM or on the POS device but not in DataNow, the most common causes are:

• Order not yet synced: The order may still be in an offline or processing state on the device. Check Device Monitoring in DataNow to see whether the device has outstanding unsynced orders.
• Order in a non-default state: DataNow filters default to completed order states. Orders in Cancelled, Defective, or other states may be excluded. Adjust the Order State filter to include all states to confirm the order is present.
• Defective orders: Orders that received an error during processing may be in a Defective state. These orders reached the payment processor but may not have been fully recorded on the platform. They do not appear in standard DataNow reporting.
• Cancelled during payment retry: If a payment fails and the employee retries, some devices may create a second order that is recorded in LTM but marked as cancelled in DataNow. The charge is legitimate but the DataNow order record shows as cancelled rather than completed.
• DataNow not yet updated: DataNow pulls from a replica database. During periods of high load, there can be a delay of several minutes before new orders appear. If an event is in progress and orders are missing, wait a few minutes and refresh before escalating.

What to do: If an order is confirmed charged in LTM but cannot be found in DataNow under any order state, submit a support ticket with the order UUID, device ID, and the date and approximate time of the transaction.

Approved Offline Orders

Approved Offline is an order state that means the order was taken when the device had no connectivity and has been stored locally on the device, waiting to sync to the platform.

• Do these orders represent real revenue? Yes — the card was charged at the time of sale. The order is real. It simply has not synced yet.
• When will they appear in full reports? Once the device reconnects and the order syncs successfully, it will move out of Approved Offline and into a completed state. It will then appear in all standard DataNow reports.
• What if the authorization fails after sync? If the card cannot be charged after syncing — for example, because the card was declined when the final authorization was attempted — the order will move to an Authorization Failed or Settlement Failed state. These orders will not be captured as revenue.
• Why do my Approved Offline totals appear in Sales Audit but not everywhere else? The Approved Offline Summary in Sales Audit isolates these orders specifically so you can see their financial exposure before they resolve. Other report tiles typically filter to completed order states by default.

Best practice: Before finalizing any reconciliation or end-of-event reporting, check the Approved Offline Summary in Sales Audit and the Unsynced Orders tile in Sales Hub to confirm all orders have resolved.