Order Summary

This standard governs how the order summary is read and checked at the point of sale: subtotal, discounts, taxes, tip, and grand total. It applies to cashiers, who shall verify the summary before tendering, and to managers, who investigate totals that cannot be explained from the cart. Every figure in the summary is stored on the sale record permanently. The summary is what accounting reads, what the end-of-day report sums, and what a refund references. When a customer questions a total, the cashier shall walk the summary from top to bottom with the customer; the arithmetic is all visible.

Subtotal

The subtotal is the sum of the lines before anything is taken off: quantity times unit price, added up, with no discounts removed. It answers what the goods are worth. Line discounts are summed separately, and anything above the line-discount sum is the order-level discount. The subtotal never includes tax, tip, or fees. If the subtotal looks wrong, the error is in the cart: a wrong quantity, a duplicated line, or the wrong variant. Fix the lines and the subtotal corrects itself.

Discounts

The discount total is everything taken off: line markdowns, any sale-level discount, and the coupon or automatic promotion. Each coupon or promotion discount is recorded as its own discount record linked to the promotion and coupon; a manual discount is recorded as a plain register discount. That distinction is how a manager later tells a promotion from a hand-entered markdown. Discounts apply before tax is computed, so a discount on a taxable item reduces the taxable amount.

Two coupon rules apply at the register

• A coupon that fails validation: expired, not yet valid, usage limit reached, minimum not met, or no promotion attached: stops the entire sale, with the reason stated. It never completes with a silent smaller discount.
• Buy-one-get-one coupons are not redeemable at the register.

If no coupon is entered, the register applies the single best active automatic promotion on its own. If the discount total is zero but a promotion was expected, the usual causes are an expired coupon or a minimum subtotal the cart did not meet.

Taxes

The tax total is computed from the taxable amount of each line after discounts. The rates are the store's own tax rules, never a general constant. A rule marked goods-only applies to product lines; every other automatic rule applies to the whole taxable base. The sale writes one tax record per jurisdiction: jurisdiction, rate, taxable amount, and tax amount: adjusted so the records sum exactly to the collected tax, which is what allows a tax return to be filed from the records.

A sale with no tax on a cart full of taxable goods usually means the items were rung as non-taxable service lines by mistake. A tax-exempt customer shall have the exemption verified before the sale completes; removing tax after payment requires a refund and a corrected new sale. When in doubt, charge the tax and let a manager adjust. Under-collected tax is the store's liability.

Tip

Tips are recorded on the payment, not the sale, because a tip belongs to the specific tender it was added to. The register offers tip choices at card tender time. Cash tips handed directly to staff are not recorded by the register and shall not be entered as sale tips. For card-on-file and pending-charge completions, the tip is computed as the sale's tip minus any tips already recorded on prior tenders, so a split tender does not double-count a tip. A tip entered in error may be corrected before the payment is finalized; after finalization, correction requires a manager, because the authorized card amount changes. Tips are never taxed and never discounted.

The accounting entry behind the summary

Every completed sale posts a balanced accounting entry. The debits record the payment, cost of goods, and discounts; the credits record revenue at the gross subtotal, sales tax payable, and inventory relieved. If the entry does not balance exactly, the entire sale stops: no partial sale and no unbalanced books. Staff will not see this in normal operation; it is the control that makes the summary trustworthy.

Grand total

The grand total is the amount the customer pays: subtotal, minus discounts, plus tax. It is the figure the payment screen starts from, the figure printed largest on the receipt, and the figure a refund references. After payment, the register records what was actually paid and, for cash, the change given back. The cashier shall read the total aloud before tendering, every time; it is the last point at which an error is cheap to correct.

The pre-tender check

Before accepting the first tender, the cashier shall run this check

1. Read the item count against the goods on the counter. Duplicated lines and wrong variants are found here.
2. Read the customer name at the top. The wrong attached customer misattributes loyalty, gift cards, and subscriptions.
3. Read the discount lines. Every markdown shall have a reason the cashier can state aloud.
4. Read the tax. Zero tax on taxable goods is a mis-rung line, not a bargain.
5. Read the grand total aloud to the customer. The customer's agreement is the last cheap checkpoint.

Controls

• Staff shall never enter a manual discount to match a rejected coupon. Doing so creates an unaccounted markdown the promotion report cannot explain, and the coupon's usage count remains uncounted.
• If a coupon is rejected and the customer objects, the cashier shall read the exact reason shown, offer an automatic promotion if one applied, or complete the sale without the coupon.
• If the tax total changed between a quote and tender, a line was edited or a discount changed the taxable base. The cashier shall re-walk the summary; the tax follows the lines.
• If a sale is reported as failed because its accounting entry did not balance, the money did not move and the cart is intact. The cashier shall call a manager; this is a system problem, not a cashier problem.

Records

The sale record keeps the subtotal, the discount records (each linked to its promotion or coupon, or marked as a register discount), one tax record per jurisdiction, the tip on the payment record, the amount paid, and any change due. These records are kept in the point of sale system.

Escalation and review

Managers review manual discounts, rejected coupons disputed by customers, and tax figures that cannot be explained from the lines. A summary or accounting-entry fault that the store cannot resolve shall be reported to support@aapawz.com. Legal process concerning a sale record shall be directed to legal@aapawz.com.