Square Close of Day Report Hours: Read the Printed Range Before You Call Sales Missing
Square's October 8, 2026 release lets Close of Day follow a location's reporting hours, but only after Square turns it on. Check the header range on a report you already have, then compare like for like.
Ryan Speier
Quick answer: a Square Close of Day report covers whatever time range is printed in its header, so read that first. Square's October 8, 2026 release notes (v7.28) say the report can now run on a location's reporting hours: from the reporting day start set for that location until someone opens the close-out flow. Sales and tips inside that window count even when they fall outside your posted business hours. A location with no reporting day set uses its business-hours window instead.
The catch: Square says the reporting-hours window is off by default and stays off until Square turns it on for each location. Setting a start time doesn't switch it on. The header on your own report is what tells you which window you actually got.
So before you call an overnight gap "missing sales," compare the report with something that covers the same location and the same start and end times. An overnight gap can be two different windows, not lost money.
What Square has documented, and what it hasn't
- Announced in the release notes: the reporting-hours window, the business-hours fallback, the range printed in the header and the off-until-Square-turns-it-on rollout.
- Documented in Square's help center: the close of day help article that the release links to covers who can run the report, which devices and modes support it, tips, open checks, offline limits and delayed capture. As of October 13, 2026, it doesn't describe the new reporting-hours window. Its page metadata shows a last update of April 23, 2026, months before the release.
- Not answered by either of those two Square pages: how the window handles time zones or daylight saving time, whether a sale rung at the exact start or end minute is included, whether older reports change, the exact settings path, and which report a delayed-capture payment lands on once the reporting-hours window is on. Square may cover some of this somewhere else; this guide relies only on the release notes and that help article. Nothing on this page was tested in a live Square account.
Start with a report you already have
Pull last night's printed or emailed Close of Day report. Don't run a new close of day just to see which window you get. Square's help article says running close of day settles all credit card tips for closed checks, so it's a real close-out, not a preview. Run it when you'd normally close, under your usual procedure.
Four limits from the same article change what you're looking at:
- Open checks aren't included in the report.
- The report doesn't account for fees.
- Close of day can't run while the device is offline. Offline payments upload once the device reconnects; the Square offline payments guide covers that recovery.
- If you use delayed capture (holding a card for a bar tab, or a check left open overnight), close of day captures pending payments still inside the 36-hour authorization window, and the help article says they appear on the report for the business day they settle in. Neither Square page says how that fits with the new reporting-hours window, so this guide can't tell you which report a held tab lands on. List those payments separately.
Which case are you in?
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The header range starts at the reporting day start you've confirmed for this location | That printed range is the window in effect for this report. | Reconcile against the same start and end, using the audit below. |
| A reporting day start is set, but the header follows your business hours | Square may not have turned the window on for this location yet. The release says Square turns it on; nothing in it says editing the start time does. | Nothing to fix on your side. Reconcile against the range that's printed. Ask Square if you need to know when the window will apply. |
| No reporting day start is set for the location | The release says the business-hours window applies. | Reconcile against the printed range. Don't change your posted business hours to move the report window. The release treats posted hours and reporting hours as different things. |
| You can't find Run Close of Day, or it won't let you run it | Square's help article limits close of day to Square for Restaurants Plus or Premium and Square Plus or Premium subscribers, using full service, quick service or bar mode on Square Register or a compatible iPad, run by the owner or a team member with the reports permission. | That's an access question, not a window problem. Check plan, device, mode and permission with the account owner. |
| The report is for a different location | Closing procedure settings are location-specific, and the release describes the window per location. | Get the report for the location you're reconciling. |
| There's no readable range in the header (torn printout, cut-off photo, a copy without the header) | You don't know which window applied. A missing range doesn't mean the feature is off, and it doesn't mean it's on. | Look for another copy of the same report, such as the emailed version if you get one. If no copy shows the range, mark the window unknown and leave edge sales unresolved. Don't run a new close of day to find out. |
Split the work: the account owner confirms each location's reporting day start in Square Dashboard, which the release asks sellers to do, and the closing manager reads the header and fills in the audit.
Copy this report-window audit
Use one per report. Besides a real value, every line has three honest answers: not applicable, confirmed no, or missing. Missing means nobody knows yet, and it blocks a conclusion.
CLOSE OF DAY REPORT-WINDOW AUDIT
Location on the report:
Copy checked: printed / emailed / other: ____
Header range as printed:
start ____ (date, time) end ____ (date, time)
[ ] range missing or unreadable: window unknown, edge sales stay unresolved
(don't run a test close of day to find out; it settles card tips)
Reporting day start for this location (confirmed in Dashboard):
____ / no reporting day start set / not checked yet
Reporting-hours window on for this location:
confirmed on (how: ____) / confirmed not on / unknown
Comparison report or export:
same location? yes / no same start and end? yes / no
Sales near the printed start or end (time, amount, status):
Open checks when the report ran: none / yes, not on report / unknown
Delayed capture (held cards, overnight checks):
not used / used / unknown
if used: list each (opened ____, captured ____, amount ____);
which report it lands on is unresolved until you find it on one
Offline payments still pending upload: none / yes / unknown
Result:
[ ] totals match for the same window
[ ] difference explained by sales outside the window (list them)
[ ] still unexplained after a same-window comparison: escalate
[ ] can't conclude yet (list what's missing)Worked example: one overnight Friday
Copper Lantern is an invented cafe-bar, and every number below is made up. The example checks the window arithmetic. It doesn't predict what Square will print for your account.
- Posted business hours on Friday: 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.
- Reporting day start: 6:00 a.m.
- Assume Square has turned the window on for this location, and the printed header shows a range of Friday, October 16, 2026, 6:00 a.m. to Saturday, October 17, 2026, 2:40 a.m. The manager opened the close-out flow at 2:40 a.m.
- Every sale with a known time is a closed card check, with no refunds or voids. Amounts are sale totals before tips. Copper Lantern doesn't hold cards for tabs, so delayed capture is confirmed not used.
- No sale is near either edge of the range, and the example doesn't cross a daylight saving change.
| Sale | Time | Amount | Inside the printed range? | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Fri 5:35 a.m. | $18.00 | No | Catering pickup rung up early, 25 minutes before the printed start. Check the previous report's header to see where it landed. |
| B | Fri 11:45 p.m. | $64.50 | Yes | During posted hours. |
| C | Sat 1:25 a.m. | $27.00 | Yes | After posted closing, before close-out opened. The release says sales inside the window count even outside posted hours. |
| D | Sat 3:05 a.m. | $12.00 | No | Rung 25 minutes after the close-out flow opened. Check the next report instead of assuming. |
| E | Not recorded | About $35 | Can't tell | A note says "tab, about $35." No time and no status. |
- Inside the printed range: B + C = $64.50 + $27.00 = $91.50
- Outside it: A + D = $18.00 + $12.00 = $30.00
- Unresolved: E, about $35, in neither total
Now say the owner compares against a sales list covering Friday, October 16, midnight to midnight. Of the four timed sales, that list holds A and B: $82.50. The gap to the report is $9.00, and it's all window: $82.50 − $18.00 (A, before the printed start) + $27.00 (C, after midnight but inside the range) = $91.50. Nothing is missing.
Sale E is a different problem. Nobody knows when it was rung or whether it was ever paid. If it was a tab still open when the report ran, it isn't on the report at all, because open checks aren't included. Find it in the transaction list before you place it on either side. Delayed capture, by contrast, is a confirmed no here, not a blank. If Copper Lantern did hold cards for tabs, this example couldn't place them. You'd list each held tab with the time it was opened and the time it was captured, and keep it out of both totals until you find it on an actual report.
And $91.50 is sales for the window, not what lands in the bank. Square's help article says close of day doesn't account for fees, and it describes funds reaching your bank on your normal transfer schedule. Cash sales never go through a card transfer at all. The weekly P&L walkthrough covers the step from sales to cash.
Keep four times separate
| Time | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Posted business hours | When you tell guests you're open. Also the report window for a location with no reporting day start set. |
| Reporting day start | The start of the report window, once Square has turned the window on for that location. |
| When the close-out flow opens | The end of the report window. |
| When funds transfer | When money reaches your bank account. That follows your transfer schedule, not the report window. |
One more gap neither Square page covers: a sale rung after someone opens close-out but before they tap Run Close of Day. The simplest guard is a house rule that all ringing stops before close-out opens. If a sale slips through anyway, treat it like sale D and check where it landed.
If you track weekly numbers, the first-30-days scorecard only works when every week uses the same period and definitions, so note which report window your sales figures come from.
Sources
- Square release notes, October 8, 2026 (Vol. 14, v7.28): "Run Close of Day reports on a location's reporting hours." Checked October 13, 2026.
- Square Support Center: Set up and run your restaurant's close of day report. Checked October 13, 2026.