Financial data for online sales
The following explanation relates exclusively to online sales.
Unlike a physical store, the concept of opening/closing does not apply to online sales. Financial data (daily Z report) therefore groups together all orders placed between 00:00 and 23:59 on the same day.
In the Financial data, the first status* through which an order passes determines the revenue ("Total incl. VAT" column).
For this to work, the FIRST order status — "Payment by card", "Awaiting bank transfer" for example — must mark the order as "validated" (checkbox "Consider the associated order as validated").
The "Total Collections" column corresponds to the status at which the order is actually paid.
Case 1 (most common): immediate payment
If the order is considered validated (1st status) AND is paid on the same day ("Payment by card" for example), both columns are impacted on the same day in the Financial data.
Case 2: deferred payment
If an order is placed on a given day, the "Total incl. VAT" column is impacted by the order amount (this is the revenue, exactly like in a physical store).
But if this order is not paid on the same day, the "Total Collections" column is NOT impacted that day.
If 2 days later the customer makes the bank transfer (for example) and the merchant changes the status to "Payment accepted" (or any other status that considers the order as paid), the Z report for the day the status was changed (i.e. 2 days after the order) will add the amount to the "Collections" column but will NOT update the "Total incl. VAT" column for that day.
In the end, the "Total incl. VAT" (revenue) column and the "Collections" column are balanced (but not necessarily on the same day).
Key takeaways
The "Total incl. VAT" (revenue) column never changes if the FIRST order status does NOT mark the order as validated (checkbox "Consider the associated order as validated").
And this is true even if it is checked in the subsequent status(es) ("Shipped" for example).
Warning: any modification of the options on a status is not retroactive.
Please note that Financial data does not take into account any refunds on an online order. However, they are impacted by order cancellations.