Analyse Sales & Margins - Quick Start 2025

Run the Analyse Sales & Margins [base] Workbook which is View only to get started quickly.

This Workbook runs over Sales Invoices and includes multiple Tabs which allow you to instantly understand your sales trends and margins. Run across any date range, Identify best sellers and investigate issues.

Once you are familiar with the basics learn how to customise your very own Workbooks, see:

• Analyse Sales & Margins - Deep Dive

Each Tab showcases a different report or chart style.

Select the Tab (see Tabs at bottom of the screen) that best matches the report style you want then simply copy and customise to show the exact data you need.

• Customer - a Standard list type report that can be used to report Sales & Margins by Customer and almost any other sales related field e.g. Items, Salesperson, Customer Group etc.
• Monthly Sales - a Pivot type report 
• Headline Sales - Sales Dashboard
• 3M Dashboard - 3 Months - Sales Dashboard over past 3 months
• Sales Chart - Monthly Bar Chart

Customer Tab

This is a Standard list type report that can be used as a template to report sales & margins by Customer and almost any other sales related field e.g. Items, Salesperson, Customer Group, Departments etc.

The Base reports can be customised as follows:

1. Order by - to change sort order
2. Analyze by - to change data displayed in rows
3. Group by - to add a subtotal
4. Drill Down - to see more detail
5. Filter - to add focus 
6. Date Range - filter to select and change Sales Date 

1. Order by - to change sort order

Sort by Margin to find low margin Customers or Items.

• Click on a column to do a simple sort; or
• Click on the Order by icon to add multiple sort orders

2. Analyze by -  to change data displayed in rows

Change rows from Customer to Item to see sales and margins by Item.

• Click on the Analyze by field
• Select another dimension to display that field in the rows e.g. select Item

3. Group by - to add a subtotal

Add a subtotal to organise your data further e.g. see Item sales by Customer.

• Click on the Group by field
• Select another dimension to subtotal by e.g. Items Grouped by Customer or Items Grouped by Item Type or Level.

4. Drill Down

Drilldown to see more detail by clicking on a row

• Click on the Drilldown tab (Green Drill) to Display Drilldown options
• Click on a Row (Customer) to Drilldown to see what Items they have bought
• Setup your own custom drill down sequence by clicking on the Edit icon and Save

5. Filter - to add focus 

Focus on one aspect of your business by setting Filters. Click on the Red Funnel Filters Icon:

• Filters can be set at:
  
  • Tab/Report Level - to just apply to a single Tab/Report
  • Dashboard Level - to apply to an entire Dashboard
  • Workbook Level - to apply across all Reports and Dashboards in a Workbook e.g. Filter by Location or Salesperson and have all tabs in the Workbook focus on one Location or Salesperson)

Tab/Report Level Filter

To set a Filter to just apply on this Customer tab/report, select the Filters on the right highlighted in blue. Here we have set a Filter to run on the Class (Department) and selected only the Golf Shop. 

• Click on the Filters tab (Red Funnel) to Display Filters
• Click on the + icon to Add a new Filter
• Select the Field to Filter on e.g. Class Name, this adds this as a new Filter box
• Click on the Class Name filter box then select one or more Classes, e.g. Golf Shop 
• Click the red Apply Filters button to run the filter

Workbook Level Filter

To set a Filter to apply to the entire Workbook, select the Filters on the left, highlighted in green. Here we have set a Filter to run on the Location field and selected only the East location. 

Workbook level filters apply across all Reports and Dashboards in the Workbook. Filtering by Location will have all tabs in the Workbook reporting on just this one Location. 

 

Alternative Filter View on a Side Panel

To display Filters as a Panel on the left of the screen click on the 3 lines (hamburger icon). This is an alternative way of viewing Filters. This view takes more screen space however may be easier to understand when getting started.

• Workbook Level Filters - Select at the top
• Tab/Report Level Filters - Select at the bottom

6. Date Range

Date Ranges are set as a Filter. Just like other Filters (see above) they can be setup to apply at:

• Tab/Report Level - to just apply the date range to a single Tab/Report
• Workbook Level - to apply across or be used by all Reports and Dashboards in a Workbook

Sales Date Range for the entire WorkBook - Change once and it will apply this as the reference date across ALL Tabs that are linked to it. This is great if you need to run all of your Sales reports as at the end of a previous month rather than as at today. Change once and it applies everywhere.

Sales Date Range for the Report/Tab - Change to just apply the date range to a single Tab/Report

• Click on Sales Date field
• Select or enter range name e.g. LM = Last Month, TM = This Month, LW = Last Week, YTD
• Click red Apply Filters button

Monthly Sales Tab

This is a Pivot type report that allows you to show and manipulate data in both Row and Column dimensions.

This report can be used as a template to report sales by Customer versus almost any other sales related field e.g. Items, Salesperson, Months, Departments etc.

The base report can be customised as follows:

1. Analyze by - to change rows
2. Versus - to change the columns
3. Order by - to change sort order
4. Group by - Group by is not available in View only Workbooks
5. Drill Down - to see more detail
6. Filter - to add focus 
7. Date Range - to select and change Sales Date 

1. Analyze by- to change rows

Change rows from Customer to Item to see Monthly Sales by Item.

• Click on the Analyze by field
• Select any other dimension to display that field in the rows e.g. select Item

2. Versus- to Change columns

Change columns from Sales by Month to any other dimension to breakdown sales in another way e.g. select Location to see where different Items are selling better than others.

3. Order by- to change sort order

Sort by Total Sales to find top Customers or Items.

• Click on a column to do a simple sort; or
• Click on the Order by icon to add multiple sort orders

5. Drill Down- to see more detail

Drill down to more detail by clicking on any number.

• Click on the Drill down tab (Green Drill) to Display Drill down options
• Click on an amount to drill down to see detail by invoice then again to see what Items they have bought in that period
• Setup your own custom drill down sequence by clicking on the Edit icon and Save

6. Filter- to add focus

Focus on one aspect of your business by setting Filters. Click on the Filters tab (Red Funnel):

• Filters can be set at:
  
  • Tab/Report Level - to just apply to a single Tab/Report
  • Dashboard Level - to apply to an entire Dashboard
  • Workbook Level - to apply across all Reports and Dashboards in a Workbook e.g. Filter by Location or Salesperson and have all tabs in the Workbook focus on one Location or Salesperson)

In our example we have set a Filter on the Customer field then selected one Customer to be able to see what Items they have bought and how often.

7. Date Range- to select and change dates

Date Ranges are set as a Filter. Just like other Filters (see above) they can be setup to apply at:

• Workbook Level - to apply across or be used by all Reports and Dashboards in a Workbook
• Tab/Report Level - to just apply the date range to a single Tab/Report

Change the Sales Date Range for the entire WorkBook once and it will apply this across ALL Tabs that rely on it.

To set a Sales Date Range for just one Tab add a new Filter at the Report/Tab Level. This allows more flexibility, in this example the Monthly Pivot is setup to run over a date range called Year to Month End (YTME) rolling 12/13 months period not just for This Year.

• To Display filters either:
  • Click on the Filter tab (Red Funnel icon) to display filters across the top; or
  • Click on the three lines (Hamburger icon top left corner) to display filters as a side panel
• Select or search for the Field to Filter on e.g. Sales Date
• Click on Sales Date field
• Select or enter e.g. YTME (Year to Month End) - rolling 12/13 months (showing full months) or LY = Last Year
• Click red Apply Filters button

Headline Sales

This is a Dashboard built up of a number of elements (widgets) including:

• KPI widgets - showing highlight boxes for YTD and MTD Sales and Margins with comparison to the prior year or prior month
• Pivot report widget - sales and margins pivot to show breakdown by months 
• Report widget - comparison style report comparing last year to this year with variances, this report includes a horizontal bar chart format to also visually highlight the size of each number.

Dashboards can be created and customised to include different report formats including charts.

Filter- to add focus

Focus on one aspect of your business by setting Filters that apply across the entire Dashboard e.g. Filter for one Department, Class, Location, Salesperson etc.

3M Dashboard - 3 Months

Dashboard filtered to focus on the past 3 months using the Sales date range L3M (Last 3 Months).  The Last 3 months is calculated relative to the end date of the Sales date setup for the Workbook. In this example the Workbook end date is today, 17 March so L3M is the previous 3 months December through to February. 

This combines a simple bar chart with a sales comparison broken down by Customer.  To change from reporting by Customer to Salesperson, Department or Location etc, select the bottom widget and change the Analyse by Field from Customer to your desired field. 

Sales Chart

Simple bar chart of monthly sales by the income account.

Change the Analyse by field to see sales by another dimension e.g. by Customer, Department, Salesperson, Location etc.