topic Re: Missing ticket numbers throughout the day in Restaurant Operations

Missing ticket numbers throughout the day

moleary — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 21:40:23 GMT

I was a former Clover user and switched to Toast a little over a year ago, the first thing I noticed was that we were missing ticket numbers, we would rarely start with ticket number 1, never could get a satisfactory answer from Toast and was wondering if anyone else noticed that this happens. On an average we are missing about 15 tickets per day, it makes no sense to me since Clover recorded all ticket numbers and even ticket numbers that were removed and in Toast a normal opening in the past 2 weeks, we start with order 5, what happened to order 1-4. The answer I received from Toast was that orders may have been voided and/or cancelled. But if no orders were placed and/or taken "what causes order numbers to be missing"

Background: with Clover the staff would remove all items from a ticket (cash tickets) and reuse those ticket numbers throughout the day. You could tell by the time stamp of the ticket and the removed items each day. So, that is why I am concerned about about missing tickets. Good news is, that staff is no longer with the business, and I trust my current staff completely. thanks for any input anyone has.

Re: Missing ticket numbers throughout the day

rcmck — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 21:58:54 GMT

This is normal, anytime you open an order screen you get an order number even if nothing is every rang in, depending on how long in-between the next time you login you will likely get another number, it does this for online orders as well I believe. If you are concerned with the removal of items I would turn on audit removed items under UI options if it is not, so that you can keep an eye out for that.

Re: Missing ticket numbers throughout the day

moleary — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 19:33:10 GMT

sorry for the really late reply, I understand what you are saying, but if I was ever audited, I am sure the auditors would like to know where all these tickets are and the system makes it look like you removed a ticket and kept the cash. Your explanation may be true, however, it does not address the fact that I never start with ticket 1, always 3 or 4 at taking the first order. The POS system is only operational for employees to clock in and for adding money to the draw before the start of the day. I would really like to know why I am never starting with ticket 1. I do believe this is a flaw in the toast system, an order is an order, a business should not be missing orders unless that order is voided out and/or all items have been removed and there would be a record of this under the removed items list and voided tickets and/or items.

Re: Missing ticket numbers throughout the day

rcmck — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 20:08:59 GMT

The only reason I can think that would cause that is online gift card sales which are available 24/7 (if you offer that), they will be given a check number so if you sold some outside of business hours you could start with 3 or 4. My explanation is more of a guess on how it seems to work, I do notice the same things as you, but I don't know if eventually the check numbers get reused or if they just go away completely for that day. Maybe @Rob could get some further information on exactly how it works and why.

Re: Missing ticket numbers throughout the day

Nikhil — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 22:39:02 GMT

Hi there moleary!

Aside from voided checks, all items being removed from a check may cause that number to be removed from the check list. Are there any tickets being created and then all items removed from it? If the ticket numbers aren't being reused, that should also avoid the possibility of fraudulent ticketing, but I'll check in with our team to see if they can shed any additional light on this!

Re: Missing ticket numbers throughout the day

Nikhil — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 23:46:57 GMT

Hello again!

I checked in with the team; any time the order screen is opened on any of your devices, a check is started with the next available number in sequence. If you leave that order screen, the order is canceled, but the next number in sequence is often "claimed" by another device that has opened the order screen, which then skips that check number. The skipped numbers are not reused later in the day, and the system is designed this way to avoid any potential for conflicting ticket numbers. Any ticket in which an order is processed will appear in your list at the end of the day, and if someone voids it out, it will appear in the Voided Order report.

Re: Missing ticket numbers throughout the day

moleary — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 18:39:22 GMT

Nikhil, I understand some of what you are saying, however, it does not cover why I start the day with ticket 3, 4 or 5 (this is all done before opening and no orders have been placed), also, sometimes (most times) when my employees clock in the ticket number jumps to ticket 2. Today is a prime example of this, three employees clocked in and we started with ticket 4 for our first order. I really wish I could get a straight answer about this, I have never worked with a system that for no reason decides to skip tickets number. Another example is on Saturday of last week, we were missing at least 20 ticket numbers and when I looked at least 4 of them were consecutive numbers, meaning, 84, 85, 86, 87. WHY..

This statement is not true If you leave that order screen, the order is canceled, but the next number in sequence is often "claimed" by another device that has opened the order screen The reason I say this is because I leave the order screen on most mornings to check sales and the ticket number stays the same. I tested this the other day. Also, the other device has not even been logged into at that time. Make is make sense. Thank you.

Re: Missing ticket numbers throughout the day

cindyb0529 — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 20:26:53 GMT

Can anyone explain why I have order numbers with four or five digits that are issued randomly throughout the day? For example, right now I have 5001, 5002, 8001, 8002, 10001, 10002, 10003, 13001, 13002, 15001, 16001, 16002, 16003, 16004, 21001, 21002 with other "normal" order numbers from 4 - 65?? I've searched through the content but can't find anything that addresses this. Don't necessarily think it's an issue, per se, but I'd like to find out why this happens. And it seems to be happening way more regularly since we were "permanently" switched over to the new experience.

Re: Missing ticket numbers throughout the day

rcmck — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 20:37:48 GMT

You get those ticket numbers when devices go into offline mode, each device will start with a different number.

Re: Missing ticket numbers throughout the day

au79teahouse — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 00:44:00 GMT

just curious to ask. Is it normal to have devices go into offline mode regularly? Devices go into offline mode for a very brief moment (I guess less than 30 seconds) but it happens almost on daily basis. Our devices are all hard wired except for the handheld.

Re: Missing ticket numbers throughout the day

rcmck — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 00:50:50 GMT

Not normal, but I have also noticed this, hasn't occurred enough or caused any issues so I've just ignored for now, assume it's a bug, good chance they are already well aware of it.

Re: Missing ticket numbers throughout the day

Rob — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 16:30:16 GMT

This article explains all the reasons that this may be happening!
Get Help with Missing Check Numbers