Shifted accounting day

Running a café, bar, restaurant, or venue that stays open well past midnight? You don’t want the register starting a new business day right at midnight. Sales made between midnight and closing time belong to the evening before, not the next calendar day. In 20Tabs, you set exactly how late after midnight your revenue should still count toward the previous day, and 20Tabs automatically generates your daily closing at the right time. This is called a shifted accounting day.

What is a shifted accounting day?

By default, a business day in 20Tabs matches the calendar day: midnight to midnight. Once you set the end of your business day under Day ends at, 20Tabs uses your business day instead of the calendar day. Every sale between midnight and that time then counts toward the previous business day. A drink rung up at 01:30 ends up in the same daily closing, the same daily report, and the same export as the rest of that evening. Your revenue is never booked on the wrong day, and you don’t have to close the register before midnight.

Setting up a shifted accounting day

Here’s how to set your business day in the till system:

1. Go to Back office → Settings
2. Under Day ends at, enter the time you want, for example 03:00
3. Leave the field blank if your business day should simply end at midnight
4. The setting is saved automatically

How far past midnight can I shift the business day?

You can extend the business day up to 06:00. That’s plenty of room for late-night hospitality, including the last nightclub or afterparty.

What changes in your reports?

Once Day ends at is set, the following automatically use the shifted business day instead of the calendar day:

• Daily closings — closing the register after midnight is no problem: the daily closing only completes once the configured time is reached
• Back office reports — daily revenue shows your turnover per business day instead of per calendar day
• Accounting exports, for example to Moneybird — entries line up with the correct business day

That means you don’t have to correct anything by hand, and your bookkeeping matches how your venue actually runs.

Does this also match the payout from my card payment terminal?

Note: card payment providers typically count transactions made after midnight toward the next calendar day by default, so your terminal payout can differ from your daily revenue in 20Tabs. Most payment providers also offer a shifted accounting day setting for the card terminal. Set it to the same time as in 20Tabs so your card payout and your daily closing line up again.