Using Xero Tracking Categories is a great way to capture divisions or segments in a business while keeping a simple Chart of Accounts. Tracking Categories allow you to report on sales and the profitability of each division and not just the total business.
The challenge however is how to then report efficiently by Tracking Category. Xero allows up to 1000 Tracking Options to be created in each of the two Tracking Categories. However the Tracking Options are just a flat, one level, long list of names with no way to group similar TC Options together.
The Bi4Cloud Solution - Tracking Category Segments
BI4Cloud solves this by splitting the text in a tracking category into segments and dynamically creating multiple Tracking Category segments from your Xero data.
Levels are determined by analysing the Tracking Option names looking for either ' - ' or ":" as separators in the name and these treated as segments with levels named starting from the Left Side of the separator.
Up to 4 levels of segments are supported.
Example 1 - Tracking Category called Venue
Example 2 - Tracking Category called Events
Note: In Xero you can rename existing Tracking Options to take advantage of the BI4Cloud Virtual Segments feature and all you will need to do is edit the Tracking Option Names and sync to BI4Cloud for it to take effect.
When reporting in BI4Cloud, the Tracking Category and the Levels automatically appear as they are named in Xero.
Simply choose these segements as a dimension to appear in reports or to Filter or Group any data by.
Profit & Loss - Pivot by Event as Columns (Tracking Category 1)
Displays each individual Tracking Option as a column across the page. With a large number of Tracking Options this can quickly become a challenge to report on.
Profit & Loss - Pivot by Event Level 1 as Columns
Displays each Event Level 1 as a column across the page. This groups together data for all of the individual Events (Tracking Options) that appear together under each Level based on the name e.g. all of the Classic Events group together then all of the Pop events.
This is very powerful when using Tracking Options for Divisions as it groups together similar Tracking Options under a Divisional header.
Profit & Loss - Filter for the Division "Pop" and Pivot by Event as Columns
By Filtering this report for where Event Level 1 = Pop only and pivoting on the Event as a column across the report focuses on only the Pop events as columns.
Report Over both Xero Tracking Categories Together
Using BI4cloud you now have endless possibilities when creating reports using:
- a single Tracking Category,
- grouping Tracking Options together as divisions; or
- incorporating both Tracking Categories into the one report.
This example shows how to present the
- Venues Tracking Category as Columns
- Events Tracking Category as Rows
- Grouping Events by Event type (Classic v Pop) using the Tracking Category levels
- Displaying more detailed metrics to show Income, COGS, Expenses, Profit and Margin% for each Event, Division and Venue
This is a powerful snapshot to see a business's overall profitability, broken down by Division or Location and also by Activity or Event. Consider adding a time dimension to allow a user to simply click to expand out further by Months or show comparisons to prior year etc.
See also Xero : Tracking Category for Reporting and Budgets
Sign up for your free 14 day trial at Bi4Cloud.com and try it with your Xero company today.