Feature of the Month

JANUARY 2002

REPORT TYPES

There are four Report Types in Retail Pro: Journals, Summaries, Merchandise, and Lists.  The first step in running a report is to know what kind of report will return the correct answer.  Below is an explanation of each report type and some examples for each version.

Journals:  Journals are transaction or detail based reports.  Common uses are to see all the sales detail for one workstation on one day to research a shortage.  Journals will ONLY report on transactions.  So a sales journal filtered for a specific inventory item will display all the transactions that have that item on it and will total the transactions not just that filtered item.  Journals can display item detail in some cases.

Reports to try:

6 Series

Sales Journal:  Reports & Analysis > Point of Sale > Sales Journal > Sales > ALL or FILTER as needed > Select a date Range > Select the detail needed by pressing enter on each and Press END > Select a Printer or screen file.

Receiving Journal: Reports & Analysis > Inventory Control > Purchasing > Receiving Journal > Select date range > enter through the date and subtitle > select printer or screen file.  This report is not filterable in this version.

7 Series

Sales Journal: General Reports> Journals > Sales: Invoice Journal > select the date range and press END > Filter as needed and press END > Select a printer or screen file.

Receiving Journal: General Reports> Journals > Receiving: Voucher Journal > select the date range and press END > Filter as needed and press END > Select a printer or screen file.

Other reports to look at would include the PO journals, SO Journals, Transfer Journals, and the Canceled Invoice Journal. All these report can be designed to include item detail.  Please call for assistance if you have not designed reports before.

Summaries: Summary reports summarize.  So they do not see documents, but can summarize document totals.  There are 2 types of summary reports: Merchandise based summaries and transaction based summaries.  Summary Reports can only use one data type, but can change the date at run time and run faster that other reports.  In 7 series they are the most accurate when looking at margin at POS because they include all types of discounts.

Reports to Try:

6 Series

Summary Reports:  Reports & Analysis > Point of Sale > Summary > Select the type of summary > Report > All or FILTER as needed > select a date range > Select a printer

Best Seller Reports:  Reports & Analysis > Point of Sale > Best Seller > Select the type of summary > Report > All or FILTER as needed > select a date range > Select a printer

7 Series

Summary Reports: General Reports > Select a Report > select a date range and press END > filter as needed and press END > select a printer or the screen file.

Reports that are cool:

INVENTORY: On Hand Summary, PO: Status, SALES: Cashier Performance Report, SALES: Dept Best Sell by Retail - Top 50, SALES: Hourly Summary - This Month, SALES: Style Best Sell by Units - Top 25, SALES: Tender Reconciliation by Day –MTD, SALES: Vendor Best Sell Retail - Top 25

All these reports are default reports. If they are not in your menu, use the Designer to change the Access Level or contact BHD tech support.

Merchandise / Inventory Control / Buyers Reports: These reports are multiple data type reports.  These reports only report on merchandise or item information.  They can not see transaction information.  But using the multiple data types, they can report on On Hand, On Order, Sold, and Received in the same report.  That report could be run for items in inventory, styles in inventory, Departments, Vendors, etc…

Reports to Try:

6 Series

Inventory Control: Reports & Analysis > Inventory Control > Inventory > Define Reports

First use the up arrow to scroll through the reports and delete the DATA TYPE on each of the BASIC reports.  Do this by selecting CHANGE in the menu and using the DOWN ARROW to move down to the Data Type and then delete the DT1 data type and press END to save the change.

Now try Reports & Analysis > Inventory Control > Inventory > RUN Reports and run any of these BASIC reports.  The fist menu will be the DATA TYPE screen.  Place a Y (for Yes) next to each data to be included in the report. Also set the date range for data types like Sales or On Order.  Press END to continue. On the filter press F2 to clear the filter and type in the filter criteria needed. Press END to continue.  Rpro will prompt: <Include items with 0 OH qty?> Yes No Select one and select a printer or the screen file.  There are different BASIC layouts for different kinds of analysis.  Try them all! If you are unable to run any of these reports call in to BHD tech support.

7 Series

Merchandise Reports: General Reports > Merchandise   These reports can support up to 16 data types defined different for each report.  That means 16 different sales ranges or this year sale vs last year sales or back orders, current orders and pre-season orders.  There are some great Reports here:

SALES: By Dept - Last 7 Days vs. LY, SALES: By Dept - Yesterday vs. Same LY, SALES: By Item - (Dept) YTD vs. Same LY, SALES: By Item - (Vendor) YTD vs Same LY, SALES: By Style - Last 6 Mo vs. Same LY, SALES: By Style - MTD vs. Same LY, SALES: By Style - YTD vs. Same LY, SALES: No Sale by Dept - Last 90 Days, SALES: No Sale by Vendor - Last 90 Days

If you are good at designing, try these:

1. Penetration - Sort:Vendor   Data Types Sold last 90 days and On Hand  Layout compare the actual cost columns and the Percent to Total values for a penetration report.  If the vendor is 4% of the inventory, are they 4% of the sales?  Also try this report sorting by Dept.

2. Sales Trend – Sort: Style (or Vendor or Dept)  Data Types: define 8 sales ranges, the total of the sales range, Last years sale for the same range, On Hand, Received for the current sales range and On Order.  That still leaves 3 unused data types.  The only problem is that the paper is too small.  The only value for each data type that will print to a regular piece of paper is quantities.

Lists:  These reports are for printing lists of Customers, Vendors, and Depts.  In 7 series there is a Customer Export report that allows filtering by Marks or other criteria in the customer data base.

Knowing what reports are designed to do is the first step to learning how to use reports effectively! Remember, no harm to your system will come from running reports. The worst thing that can happen is that no report will print.  Be curious – run reports.  They are the best part of the system, the icing on the cake!