The sales in your POS or ordering system won't always line up exactly with your Owner Dashboard or your bank deposits. In almost every case the money is all there, it's just grouped or timed differently across systems.
What is reconciliation?
Reconciliation is checking that your sales match across three places:
Your POS or online ordering system
Your Owner Dashboard
Your bank
You can reconcile any time. Most owners do it:
Monthly
At tax time
Right after launch, when you're still learning what a normal payout looks like
Note: Your Owner Dashboard is the source of truth for your sales, fees, and payouts. If your POS or a delivery integration shows different figures, compare against your Owner Dashboard.
Know what each report counts
Most mismatches are really two reports answering different questions. Before you compare two numbers, know what each one counts:
Gross is menu prices before discounts (it leaves out tax, tips, and fees).
Net is what's left after discounts and adjustments.
Total Collected is what your guest actually paid.
Each report in your Owner Dashboard answers a different question:
Report | What it counts | Use it when |
Total Sales | The full breakdown: gross, minus discounts, equals net, then taxes, tips, and Total Collected. | Matching against your POS tender (use Total Collected and the order count). |
Payouts | Money in the bank, pulled straight from Stripe. Each row is one deposit. | Matching against your bank statement. |
Overview | Net sales trend on your home page. | A quick pulse. Remember it shows net, not collected. |
Item Sales | Base items only. No options. | Item-level questions. |
Option Group Sales | Option money on its own. Can be close to a third of revenue. | Explaining why items plus options is higher than items alone. |
Sales by Category | Items plus options, before discounts, and it still counts voided orders. | Category questions. It sits a little above Total Sales because of discounts and voids. |
Note: When a number looks off, check which line you're reading. Nine times out of 10, a mismatch is net on one side and Total Collected on the other.
Compare the matching numbers
Compare totals over a period, not order by order across systems. Run these checks in order:
Your POS tender total for Owner orders should equal Total Sales › Total Collected for the same day. If your POS also takes its own orders (walk-ins or tabs), its whole-store total will be higher, and that's correct. Filter to the Owner.com tender before comparing.
Your Payouts report should equal your bank statement. They come from the same source, so if they don't match, contact Owner support.
If a day looks noisy, match the week or the month instead. Batching evens out over a period.
Why Stripe shows one fee line
In Stripe, everything Owner deducts collapses into a single Owner.com application fee. That includes the Owner fee, the delivery fee, and the driver tip, plus a Delinquency Fee if your account has one. Your Owner reports break that same number back into its parts. It's the same total shown differently, and it's one of the most common reasons a payout looks short.
Worked example: one day on a Toast account
In Toast, add up the Owner.com tender for the day: $885.95 + $30.54 + $41.84 = $958.33.
In your Owner Dashboard, open Total Sales › Total Collected for the same day: $958.33, 22 orders.
They match. That day is reconciled.
Tip: Check totals once a week, match your bank once a month, and export at the same time each week so you compare stable snapshots. Chasing individual daily deposits is where the frustration comes from.
Why one day can look off: cutoff times
Each system has its own "end of day," like a store's closing time. An order placed after one system closes gets counted the next day there. Your Owner reports, Stripe, and your POS each close at a different time, so one late order can count as today in one system and tomorrow in another. The money isn't lost. It just moved to the next day. When a single day looks short, check the days before and after it first. The difference is usually there.
The most common reasons your numbers differ
If your totals still don't match, one of these is usually the reason.
Reason | What's happening |
Payout timing | A single payout can bundle more than one day of sales into one deposit, so a transaction may land in a different day's payout than you expect. |
Toast or Otter fee mapping | Owner's platform and delivery fees have to be mapped into Toast or Otter, and they can appear differently there. Taxes may also be calculated on a different net amount. |
Gift cards or reward points | When part of an order is covered by a gift card or reward points, the amount collected can differ from what's expected. |
Very small orders (under $0.50) | Stripe requires a $0.50 minimum per charge. A cart between $0.01 and $0.49 is topped up to $0.50, with the small difference added to the Owner fee. |
A Delinquency Fee | If your subscription payment fails several times in a row, Owner recovers the unpaid balance from your order revenue. It shows on your payout report as a Delinquency Fee. It reflects a real unpaid invoice, not an extra charge. |
A dispute (chargeback) | When a guest disputes a charge with their bank, the disputed amount plus a $15 fee is pulled from your balance while the case is reviewed. |
If your numbers still don't add up after checking these, contact Owner support and we'll take a look.
If you use another POS or a marketplace
Owner orders can look different in other systems. Find yours below.
Toast (via Otter)
Toast's whole-store total will be equal to or higher than Owner, because walk-ins and Toast-tab orders never touch Owner.
The Owner.com tender line can be lower than your Total Collected, because driver tips aren't sent to the POS. On a delivery-heavy day, subtract those tips from Total Collected to get the number the tender should match.
If you see an unexpected Gratuity on your Owner orders in Toast, that's almost always the Owner fee, not a tip, and none of it should go to your employees. Contact Owner support and we'll help fix it.
Clover
Owner orders show in Clover labeled External Payment (the label can't be changed).
Driver tips and third-party delivery fees aren't sent to Clover, but the Owner fee and processing fee are included in the ticket.
To reconcile: Owner Total Collected, minus driver tips, minus guest-paid delivery fees, equals Clover's External Payment total. Small penny gaps are rounding.
Marketplaces (DoorDash and Uber Eats)
Marketplace orders show in your sales reports, tagged by channel, but that money never touches Owner or Stripe, so it never appears in your Payouts.
What your payout messages mean
You may see one of these messages on a payout.
This payout is still being reconciled: We're still compiling the order list. The money is fine, so check back a little later.
Reconciliation failed: We couldn't tie every dollar to an order yet, usually because of gift cards, loyalty redemptions, or non-Owner transactions in the same account. The deposit amount is right. The itemization is catching up.
Refund and dispute timing
Refunds and disputes post on the day they're processed, not the day of the original order. A refund today against last Tuesday's order lands in today's numbers, which is often why a week can look low.
Disputes
Owner covers almost all disputes, including the disputed amount plus the $15 Stripe fee, once the dispute is marked Lost. There's no automatic sweep, so let Owner support know when a dispute comes in. Always fight your disputes. You have the evidence, and fighting keeps your dispute rate healthy. If you fight and still lose, Owner makes you whole, including the fees.