Which Money Figure Is Which

MechIQ shows money in several places, and they answer different questions. How much work did we sell today? is not the same question as how much money came in today? -- so the figures can disagree on the same day, and that's expected.

At a glance

Figure	Where you see it	What it counts	VAT	Credit notes
Sales	Dashboard Today's money banner, the Today's sales card, the Money tab	Invoices raised in the period	Ex VAT	Not deducted -- the sale still happened
Gross profit	Dashboard banner, Money tab, Reports → Financial	Sales, minus the parts cost of the jobs sold (minus technician wage cost if you cost labour)	Ex VAT	Never counted twice (see below)
Takings today	Accounts board	Money received today -- every payment recorded for today, any method, less refunds paid out	Inc VAT	A refund paid out reduces it
Cash-up	Accounts → Cash-up	Today's payments by method; the headline is cash + card (what should be in the drawer)	Inc VAT	Refunds paid out are listed
Billed this month	Accounts overview	Invoices raised this month, paid or not (not credit notes, not waived)	Inc VAT	Not deducted
Outstanding / Overdue	Accounts board	What customers still owe -- invoiced, less what they've paid; overdue is past its due date	Inc VAT	--
Total sales	Reports → Financial (owners)	Invoices raised in the period less credit notes raised in it, to match your accounts package	Ex VAT	Deducted, and shown: €X sales less €Y credit notes
Monthly P&L	Reports → P&L (owners)	Reports → Financial, month by month	Ex VAT	Deducted
This week	Mobile app → This week	Invoiced this week: sales Monday to today. Cash collected this week: money received (the same payments as Takings)	Invoiced ex VAT; cash inc VAT	Not deducted from invoiced; refunds reduce cash

Everything follows the garage's own day (your time zone), not midnight UTC. Invoices brought in from your old system keep the date they were raised there, so an import day doesn't show years of history as that day's sales.

In short: sales and gross profit are about work sold (ex VAT); takings and the cash-up are about money received (inc VAT); the owner reports deduct credit notes so they match your accounts package.

Sales and gross profit (dashboard and Money tab)

Sales are the invoices raised in the period, ex VAT. Two kinds of document are left out:

Credit notes. If you credit an invoice, the work was still done and sold -- the credit is an accounting matter, handled in your statements and your accounts package. So a big refund never turns today's sales negative.
Waived invoices. Work done for free isn't a sale.

Gross profit is sales minus the parts cost of the jobs sold (the actual cost where the part was received at a different price than quoted), minus the technicians' wage cost only if you've turned on Cost my labour (show net margin) under Settings → Pricing. With that off, gross profit is parts profit plus labour sales. A credit note never brings its job's parts cost back in -- that cost belongs to the day the job was sold.

The Today's money banner and the Money tab's Today use the same arithmetic, so they always agree. The front desk sees them only if Settings → Dashboard has Show front-desk (FOH) staff the Money tab… ticked; with it off they see the smaller Today's sales card instead. Owners always see them.

Takings and cash-up (money in)

Takings today on the Accounts board is money received: the payments recorded for today -- cash, card, bank transfer, cheque -- with any refunds paid out taken off. It includes VAT, because the customer paid it. A payment counts on its date received, so a cheque you back-date to last week lands in last week's takings, not today's.

Cash-up is the same payments split by method, built for checking the till: its headline, In the till (cash + card), is the money that should physically be there. Bank transfers and cheques are listed but aren't in that headline.

Why sales and takings differ

On any given day they usually do. A few common reasons:

An invoice raised today but paid next week is in today's sales, and in next week's takings.
A customer paying today for last month's work is in today's takings only.
Sales are ex VAT; takings include VAT.
A refund paid today reduces takings; the credit note behind it doesn't reduce sales.

Why the dashboard and Reports → Financial can differ

Reports → Financial is for checking against your accounts, so it does deduct credit notes raised in the period -- the card shows €X sales less €Y credit notes when there are any. The dashboard shows what was sold. On a day or month with no credit notes, the two sales figures are the same.

The monthly P&L is the Financial report month by month: for the current month, the two show the same sales, invoices and costs.