The daily ones
| Report | Answers |
|---|---|
| Most selling | What actually moves - the basis for what to reorder |
| By category | Which parts of the shop earn their shelf space |
| By employee | Who is selling, and how much |
| Hourly | When you are busy - the basis for staffing |
| Commission | What sales staff have earned |
| Expiry | What is about to go out of date, before it does |
The two that change decisions
Most selling and expiry are the two that pay for themselves.
Most selling tells you where your money actually is. Most shops are surprised: a handful of lines carry the takings while a long tail sits still, tying up cash on shelves.
Expiry tells you what is about to become a loss. Acting on it a fortnight early - discounting, promoting, moving it to the front - turns a write-off into a sale.
Reading them honestly
A report is only as good as what was recorded. In particular:
- Discounts typed in by hand appear as reduced takings, not as a campaign.
- Returns not matched to the original sale distort both stock and sales.
- Sales rung up under a shared PIN make the by-employee report meaningless.
- Expenses not recorded make profit look better than it is.
None of these are faults in the reports. They are what happens upstream, at the counter.
Reporting across shops
With more than one shop, every report can be read per shop or across all of them. Comparing branches on most-selling lines is usually more informative than comparing their totals: two shops of different sizes should not take the same money, but they should both be selling the things that move.