Report dates and live data

Completed periods and current service

Selected report dates answer a historical question: what activity has Cover received for this period? Live now answers a current-service question: what is the latest state received from the POS? Live data does not use the selected report dates and can change as new records arrive.

A completed report period can include hours already worked on a shift that is still open. The shift does not need to be closed before those hours appear. Only hours within the selected dates count. Later POS records can revise those totals.

Dates and service periods use the restaurant’s local time. Evening sales cover 18:00 up to, but not including, 22:00. The Today card does not project sales for hours that have not happened yet.

Freshness is not completeness

An update or receipt time tells you when Cover last received data. A recent time does not prove that every sale or time record has arrived. A late POS record can change a report after its first view. An unknown receipt time means Cover cannot confirm when the relevant data arrived.

For fair comparisons, use periods with similar dates and service hours, and check the data status. Use report metrics for value definitions and investigate missing data when an expected record is absent.