This question often crops up when a new till system is installed. The 3 main causes for differences in these 2 types of total are floating clerks, check tracking and discounts/premiums.
1.Discounts/Premiums, Service Charge etc
Any discounts or premium amounts applied will be added/subtracted from net totalizors. However they will not affect the gross sales totalizor and will only affect PLU, PLU Group & Dept totals when it is a % discount/premium and the 'NET Totalizing for PLU's and Depts' flag is set in;
PGM3->Machine Features->General Feature->Machine Control 2.
Under most circumstances these totals appear in net totalizors but not in gross totalizors. The gross and net totalizors will normally be different by any discounts.
2.Floating Clerks
As items are rung into a sale, the gross totals are calculated, depts, plu's etc. If the clerk's sale is now 'floated' to another terminal and cashed off, the net totals will now be calculated. The result is that the gross totals will stay on the terminal that the clerk was originally on, however the net totals will be on the terminal that the sale was cashed off. An X/Z report taken on till A will show gross totalizors, gross sales, dept sale, plu groups sales etc, but no net totalizors, net sales, cash in drawer etc. However till B will be the opposite of this showing net totalizors but no gross totalizors. An inline consolidated report between the 2 tills will show these 2 types of totals as being equal. If for any reason this clerk's sale is not 'cashed off' during that day, or the till powered down without it being cashed off, then the net totals for that sale will not be calculated, and may even be carried across to the next day.
3.Table / Check Tracking:
The rules that apply to check tracking are similar to floating clerks. When checks are stored, only their gross totals are calculated, much like if a sale is not cashed off with a clerk. The check's net totals will ONLY be calculated when that check is cashed off.
Many restaurants specify a terminal as being a waiter station, and as such used only for ringing items into checks/tables, they are often not equipped with a drawer, and sales are not cashed off at them.
X/Z reports taken from a till like this will always show very high gross totalizors, but little or no net totalizors. The other side to this is that there is often a till where bills are paid at, but usually not used for ringing items into. X/Z reports taken from this till will usually show very high net totalizors, but little or no gross totalizors. However an inline consolidated report for these tills will shows these 2 types of total as being equal.
Note if checks/tables are not cashed off on one day, then their net totalizors WILL TILL NOT be calculated. This will give a difference on an X/Z report of all tills, in gross and net totalizors of the value of any check/table that has not been chased off. To compound the situation, when the check/table is noticed next day, and cashed off, it will have contributed to the net totalizors for that day, but not the gross totalizors. On the first day all of the gross totalizors will be higher than the net totalizors, but on the next it will be the other way around, by the same amount. This also will occur if temporary tabs are run up by staff and regular customers using checks.
With both floating clerks and check tracking the 2 types of totalizor will always end up being equal, across all tills, over a period, excluding exceptional circumstances, eg power failure in the middle of a sale, or Z clearing the check tracking file.
In TouchOffice Web, a quick check is to compare the New Balance Transaction key to the Paid Checks Fixed Total. If all the tables/checks have been cashed off (on the same day) then the two should match.
