This guide explains how to check the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) amount for a single day's sales in LightSpeed. This is useful for making sure your sales records are correct and for finding any errors.

Why is this important?

Checking COGS for a single register helps identify discrepancies at the daily level, which might be missed when reviewing broader reports. This ensures the accuracy of your daily financial records and simplifies troubleshooting.

Validate Register Closure COGS

Follow these steps to check the COGS amount for a single register:

1. Get the COGS from the Register Closure Report
   1. Go to Reporting > Register Closures
   2. Click the Time Opened link to view the closure summary details. This report provides a breakdown of register open and close date and times, transactions included in the closure and the total cost of goods sold posted to Xero, which you'll use for comparison. 
   3. Hold Ctrl on your keyboard and click View full details, to open the detailed report in another tab.
2. Get the COGS from the Sales Report
   1. In another window or tab, go to Reporting > Sales Reports.
   2. Ensure the Summary Report is selected.
   3. Set the report options:
      • Report type: Customer
      • Measure: Cost of goods sold
      • Date range: Set the date range to include all sales from the first invoice date up to and including the register closure date. For example, for the register closure below, the first invoice date is 14 March and the register closure date is 26 March, set the range from 14 to 26 March.
        
   4. Click More Filters
   5. Turn Include gift card sales on.
   6. Click Search.
   7. Click Format results, choose By SKU name, and click Apply.
   8. Click Export report… and choose XLSX format.
3. Clean up the Sales Report
   1. Open the file you just downloaded. ("XLSX" is a type of file that opens in programs like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.)
   2. Delete any rows or columns that aren't needed, referring to the Register Closure detailed report. For example, delete sales transactions for customers that aren't included in the register closure or if a customer has more than one sale within the exported period, check that the items match the detailed register closure report.
   3. Make sure the Cost of Goods Sold column adds up to the total of the columns to its left. This is particularlly important if you removed columns. 
   4. Add up the total of the Cost of Goods Sold column.
4. Compare the COGS Amounts
   • Compare the total COGS amount from the Register Closure Summary report to the total COGS amount calculated from the cleaned LightSpeed Sales Report.

Next Steps

• To correct an incorrect COGS amount for a product, you'll need to adjust the average cost. See the guide on correcting average costs for instructions.
• Get help from LightSpeed support or Evolution support if you require additional assistance.