Avero's Check Search Tool - Explained
We import your POS data at the check level, meaning that any sales report you view is built up from the individual checks from that day of business. This is why with Avero, unlike Point of Sale reporting, you can drill down to more detail from almost any report, and drilling down will lead you to the individual guest checks.
Check search is a convenient tool for the obvious, searching for specific checks, but the Avero team has also included several other helpful features. This article explains the different ways to search for a check, and the included Smart Searches.
Find Check Search in the productivity tools listed across the top of your Avero screen, or drill down from an Item Sales Report.
Jump to:
Navigating Check Search
Check search will open with a search utility to the left.
- Set the business and time period to search.
- Select a Smart Search from the drop-down or enter a value into one of the Manual Search fields.
- There are many search fields available, you only need to select one to search by but you can also enter multiple fields if appropriate.
- Please note: the payment information received varies by POS System. Not all systems provide all payment information.
When the check search loads you will see a list of the checks that match your parameters. In this list you can:
- Sort columns in ascending/descending form
- Manage Columns - this button allows you to unselect columns that aren't relevant to you
- Export or Print this list of checks - note this will export the current page of checks only
- Navigate between pages of checks
- Open checks to view/print/export them - note that checks pop up in a new window, be sure your browser is not blocking pop-ups
What are the extra rows on only some checks?
You may notice some checks have multiple rows, this is because each filed can only hold a single value so if there are multiple payments, like a split check, or gratuities, like an autogratuity and a direct tip, you'll see these reflected on the additional rows for the same check.
Manual Search
Search by Payment Information
Payment details are the first fields you see in the Manual Search box. You can search by:
- Payment Amount - if someone is calling to receive a copy of a check for an expense report, they sometimes only have the date and payment amount, use this search field. You can also search for checks with payments over or under a certain amount.
- Payment Type - returns all checks that were paid with the selected payment type
- Payment Reference - If you have payment references set up in your POS system you can search by those here. These may be set up for certain deals, house accounts, or club memberships. Not available on all systems.
- Name on Credit Card - you can search by the name on the credit card used if we receive that additional payment information from the POS, some systems do not include this information. Run a search for a payment type and see if the information is included to be sure.
Search by Sales Filters, Promotions, Voids
Below payment details, you will see filters similar to what you see for sales reports.
Sales Filters you can search by:
- Revenue Center - limit your search to specific areas of the restaurant, such as Bar or Patio.
- Meal Period - limit your search to a meal period such as Breakfast or Dinner.
- Order Type - limit your search to specific order types such as Delivery or Room Service.
Promotion and Void search fields:
- Promotion Type / Void Type - These are drop-down fields that will contain the promotion and void types present in your system and bring up a list of every check showing this promotion or void type.
- Promotion / Void Authorizing Employee - Bring up a list of checks on which a particular employee, or employees, have authorized a promotion or void. This will bring up all promotions they've authorized, unless you also filter by promotion or void type.
Search by Employee Information
If you are looking for checks from a specific employee, or multiple employees, you can select them from the Employee drop-down menu.
If you have multiple employees that may interact with a check you can search by Cashier to find who processed the payment on the check.
If you would like a filtered list of checks by the employee who authorized certain Promotions or Voids, scroll down to the drop-down menu and select the employee(s) you want to include.
Search by Check Details
Payment Information and Check Details are the most common search methods.
You can search by:
- Check Open or Close Time - a drop-down will allow you to narrow the field to 1 hr blocks for the time checks were opened or closed
- Check Number - input check number, or multiple check numbers separated by commas. Must be exact match.
- Covers - look for checks with an exact cover count, or greater than or less than a certain amount of covers
- Table Name - search for checks from specific tables or rooms if those names are consistent in your system
- Order Type or Charge Type - if set up in your system, find Delivery, Room Service, or House Account checks
- Promo as a % of total sales - find checks where promos we applied and were a significant portion of the checks sales. Search for exact percentages, or greater than/less than. This is a good opportunity to highlight troubled tables if you want to reach out and follow up or if you are looking for potential promotion abuses.
- Average Check - Equal/Greater than/Less than. Use this to identify checks that likely have errors such as under or over reported covers, or red flags.
- Tip % - Equal/Greater than/Less than Another opportunity to look for particularly high or low tip percentages, potentially uncovering errors or malfeasance.
- Turn Time - Equal/Greater than/Less than, represented in minutes. An hour and a half would be represented as 90, not 1:30. Use this to filter out to-go orders, or identify red flags for checks that were closed immediately or open all day.
- Tax Amount - Equal/Greater than/Less than.
Smart Searches
Below the business and time period information is a drop-down menu with our pre-loaded smart searches. These are common red flags for identifying employee errors, training opportunities, data quality issues, fraud, and theft.
Here is a brief summary of each of these smart search types:
- All checks with Promotions/ Voids - bring up all checks for the time period that have a promotion or void applied.
- All checks with promo/void and cash payment - bring up all checks for time periods where a promo/void was applied and the check was paid with cash (will bring up checks with partial cash payments as well). This is n opportunity to spot check and make sure promotions/voids on cash tickets are legitimate.
- All checks with promo/void and cash payment and transfer - same filtering as above with the added requirement of transfers, which in this subset can indicate errors or theft
- All checks with promo/void where payment is $0 - this identifies checks that were promo'd or voided in full. It is a good idea to review these checks periodically to make sure a full comp of the check was appropriate. Can be a red flag if employees have the ability to void or promo items.
- All checks with irregular cover counts or average check - the is a pre-filtered list of checks that stand away from your averages so you don't need to run a service report and manually add average check or cover count filters, this one click will do it all. We recommend checking this smart search often, it helps spotlight errors (such as entering 80 covers when the correct amount was 8) that might be affecting sales reports or team average check. It may include things such as large to-go orders that were closed out to 1 cover, banquet or private dining events where the average check was unusually high/low, or deliberate under-/over-reporting of cover counts.
Drill Down to Check Search
All sales reports will lead to the check tool via a few clicks! With all sales reports, you will notice blue hyperlinks, by clicking these you will drill down to a deeper level of detail. When you are at the Item Sales level, the link will take you to the check search tool pre-filtered with a list of checks containing the item you clicked. See here:
Missing Data Points
If you notice some expected data points are missing when you are looking for checks, such as table number or payment reference, this is likely a data point not supplied by your POS.
Some data points are variable by POS. While we will always pull payment types and amounts, the following data points may not be available based on the type and version of POS in use:
- Check Transfer Information - some systems do not send any information on transferred checks, some will supply data that a check was transferred but not the amounts or to which employee.
- Cashier Information - some POS systems provide data on who opens and who closes a check, for example if all checks are opened by individual servers but closed by a central cashier or if servers routinely close each others' checks.
- Payment Reference Information - this may or may not be supplied, and in some cases will not be supplied for credit cards but will be supplied for other payment methods such as Room Charges.
- Customer Name / Last-4 of CC - this is commonly restricted by POS Systems for PCI Compliance reasons. This data is most often not available.
To view information specific to your POS, go to our list of POS Integrations and select your POS to view our POS Guide.