“How much did we take?” can mean sales recorded, payments collected or money settled into your bank. Those are different questions. The POSMENTOR ChatGPT connection can read sales summaries, compare two periods and list products by quantity. Start with the measure you need.
1. Check the restaurant and reporting dates
You need an authorised restaurant administrator connection, an active POSMENTOR licence and reporting access. Follow the connection requirements first, then ask:
Use POSMENTOR to show which restaurant is connected and its currency. Do not change anything.
For each reporting request, specify inclusive calendar dates. Each period can cover 1–31 days. Use the business timezone returned by POSMENTOR rather than assuming it matches the device you are using. For a fair weekly comparison, use two complete periods with the same number of trading days and weekday pattern.
2. Ask about a completed day
Use POSMENTOR to show sales, gross collections, refunds, net collections, outstanding balance and order count for 31 October 2026 inclusive. State the currency and reporting timezone. Keep unavailable values and warnings visible.
In our illustrative day, the venue records £1,460.00 sales across 73 order sessions. Gross collections are £1,430.00, refunds are £30.00, and net collections are £1,400.00. Outstanding on the selected sales is £90.00.
Here, £1,430.00 minus £30.00 gives £1,400.00 net collections. But sales minus net collections is £60, while outstanding is £90. Do not use that subtraction to invent an unpaid balance.
If you ask for “yesterday”, check the dates ChatGPT sends to POSMENTOR. A late-night payment may belong to a different payment business day from its clock date. Sales use the original sale or session date, while payment business dates can follow the venue’s trading hours.
3. Keep sales and collections separate
- Reported sales
- Sales attributed to the selected original sale or session dates. They can include unpaid orders. This is not cash collected or profit.
- Gross collections
- Payment amounts attributed to payment business dates in the range, before subtracting refunds. Separate tip records are excluded.
- Refunds and net collections
- Refund payments use their payment business dates. Net collections subtract those refunds from gross collections; this does not establish bank settlement, provider fees or profit.
- Outstanding balance
- The calculated unpaid balance on the selected sales or sessions. It is not necessarily every unpaid bill in the restaurant or a fixed historical closing balance.
- Order count
- The report counts order sessions. Linked tickets can belong to one session, so this is not a count of card transactions or dishes.
Do not calculate outstanding balance by subtracting period collections from sales. The dates and populations behind the figures differ. If a number needs investigation, use POSMENTOR reporting and the order detail to check the relevant records.
4. Compare two complete weeks
Use POSMENTOR to compare 25–31 October 2026 with 18–24 October 2026, inclusive. Show sales, net collections, refunds, outstanding balances and order count. Include period lengths, timezone, absolute changes, available percentage changes and warnings.
| Measure | 18–24 October 2026 | 25–31 October 2026 | Absolute change | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported sales | £8,000.00 | £8,400.00 | +£400.00 | 5.00% |
| Net collections | £7,950.00 | £8,140.00 | +£190.00 | 2.39% |
| Outstanding on the selected sales | £180.00 | £310.00 | +£130.00 | 72.22% |
| Refunds | £50.00 | £120.00 | +£70.00 | 140.00% |
| Order sessions | 400 | 420 | +20 | 5.00% |
In this worked example, sales rise from £8,000.00 to £8,400.00, an increase of £400 or 5%. Order sessions rise from 400 to 420, also 5%. The average sales per session stays £20, so the higher sales total alone does not show larger baskets.
Net collections rise by £190, while refunds and outstanding balances also increase. The table does not establish why. Review the relevant payments, refund records and open orders before attributing the change to customer demand or a staff issue.
For sales, the calculation is (£8,400 − £8,000) ÷ £8,000 × 100 = 5%. Percentage changes are rounded to two decimal places. If a previous value is zero, the tool leaves the percentage unavailable; it is not 0% or infinite growth. If a required value is unknown, keep the change unknown too.
The comparison tool reports unequal period lengths when you request them, but it does not automatically turn the figures into daily averages. Different opening days, promotions or menu prices may help explain a change; the summary alone does not prove which caused it.
5. Ask which products sold the most units
Use POSMENTOR to show up to five top products by quantity for 25–31 October 2026 inclusive. Include the reported quantities, product-line revenue, currency, timezone and warnings. Do not describe product revenue as profit.
| Product | Reported quantity | Product-line revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Latte | 240 | £840.00 |
| Americano | 210 | £630.00 |
| Cheese sandwich | 165 | £825.00 |
| Cappuccino | 150 | £525.00 |
| Tea | 95 | £237.50 |
These illustrative products are ordered by units: Latte leads with 240, while Cheese sandwich has fewer units but higher product-line revenue than Americano. That does not make the sandwich more profitable; the ranking does not supply its complete costs.
A request for five products can return fewer if fewer are available. Quantities do not prove that payment has been collected. Returns can affect recorded lines, and a payment-only refund does not necessarily reverse the product quantity.
The connection can return up to 20 products ranked by quantity. Product-line revenue can differ from order totals because of discounts, marketplace pricing or fees. Ingredient costs, waste, labour and overheads are not supplied by this ranking. For those questions, review your configured inventory and recipes; the latte costing guide shows how an ingredient calculation differs from net profit.
6. Keep unknowns and warnings in the answer
Explain the returned sales and collections separately. Preserve unknown values and warnings. If these totals cannot establish why they differ, say which order or payment records I should check instead of guessing a reason.
A blank or unavailable amount is not £0. A failed request is not a zero-sales day. Keep the reporting range and any warnings with the figures, and investigate a discrepancy before acting on it. An empty warning list is not a bank reconciliation or an audit result.
These requests read the connected restaurant’s data. They do not change prices, take payments or adjust stock. The reporting tools described here do not provide a sales forecast, product-profit ranking or automatic scheduled report.
7. Keep a short weekly review record
- Record the restaurant, dates, period lengths, currency and business timezone.
- Keep reported sales, net collections, refunds and outstanding balances as separate measures.
- Note the best sellers by quantity and the follow-up question they raise.
- Retain warnings and unresolved figures. Check the relevant orders or payments in POSMENTOR.
- Record the operational change you chose to make separately; a report does not demonstrate that the change improved the business.
For a supported menu change, follow the ChatGPT menu management guide and review the exact preview before approval.
For a demo, bring one reporting question and the dates you want to compare. The ChatGPT connection page covers account access, supported menu changes and simple table ordering.