Timely and accurate information is the basis for decision making - which is key to running an efficient eCommerce business. QuickBooks Commerce’s Intelligence Reports now give you an overview that presents meaningful data that is easy to comprehend and navigate between reports seamlessly.
Reporting Overview
On the main page, when you click on Intelligence, you will see the overview page that allows you to view and access your intelligence reports. Now let’s take a look at what the Reporting Overview page looks like:
The Intelligence reports are NOT meant to be used as an accounting tool and should never be used for accounting purposes.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page (on smaller screens), and you will see a chart known as the leaderboard. It provides you with an overview of what has contributed to your overall sales for the date preset selected. Now you can generate specific data for all your sales reports using the various report filters available!
You might notice a Green Arrow or a Red Arrow here. The Green Arrow indicates an increase in ranking, whereas the Red Arrow indicates a decrease in rankings. The increase and decrease of rankings are based on comparing the current time period selected to the previous time period. E.g., If you select a 7 day time period, the rankings will be calculated based on the previous 7 day time period.
Next, click on the 'Reporting' tab on your sidebar, where you’ll see that all reports have been segregated accordingly into 7 sections for clearer visibility.
Within which sit all your various report templates. Select the type of report you want to get started with.
Reporting Sections
6. Product Performance Reports
1. Pinned Reports
If you regularly view the same report, you might find it convenient if that report appears by default. This is where reports you pin for quicker accessibility will appear.
Learn how to pin your favorite reports to your Intelligence Dashboard.
2. Sales Reports
The Sales reports provide you with detailed insight into your business’ overall earnings and profit. This is where you can generate a breakdown of your gross sales, net sales, and net profit. You can also use various groupings to understand your discounts, shipping, returns, and tax.
There are 6 sales report templates available, as shown below.
Invoice and Payment breakdown is where you can find data associated with Invoice or Payment totals rather than Sales Order totals.
This is especially helpful when calculating sales commissions for your sales teams based on Invoiced or Paid Sales.
3. Channels Reports
This is the section that gives you a clear breakdown of how your various sales channels are performing in terms of sales volume and velocity.
There are 2 channel report templates, as shown below.
4. Customers Reports
The Customer reports provide you insight into your customers’ activity to filter using a date range. This allows you to manage better and grow your customer relationships.
The two outstanding reports show you which customers have unpaid invoices and the shipments you have yet to ship to the customers.
There are 7 customer report templates available:
5. Inventory Reports
The Inventory reports provide you with insight on key aspects of your inventory. This information is handy for tracking your stock quantities and value across various locations.
There are 7 Inventory report templates available:
6. Product Performance Reports
Product Performance reports provide information on the volume, velocity, and profitability of your various products. This helps you better manage your product portfolio and strategy.
There are 4 product performance report templates available:
7. Manufacturing Reports
For businesses that manufacture products, there are two exports available to help you understand your production wastage and lead time. This helps you optimize the efficiency of your manufacturing operations.
Save, Pin, Export, and Schedule Reports
Do more with several new actions available to improve reporting efficiency. These functions are found under manage reports and save changes at the top right corner of the reporting page.
You need to save the report to perform the rest of the actions: Pin, Export, and Schedule.
- Save: Saving a report works on an account level, which means that once saved, they are accessible by all users in the organization.
- Pin: Pinning a report works on a user level. Pinned reports will appear in the reporting navigation menu and are only visible to the user who pinned it.
- Export: Exporting a report allows you to download the data table in .csv format for external use.
- Schedule: Scheduling a report works on a user level. Select from a list of presets to have a report sent to your email daily/weekly/monthly.
Report Metrics
Under the Intelligence > 'Reporting' tab, we have revised metrics to comply with industry standards where respective reports are concerned. You can now tailor your metrics to suit the needs of your reports. E.g., Sales reports provide you with the following report metrics:
- Quantity: The total number of items sold (excludes custom line and returned items)
- Ordered Quantity: The total number of items ordered
- Returned Quantity: The total number of items returned
- Order Revenue: The total value of an order inclusive of tax based on original ordered quantity (includes items that are later returned)
- Gross Sales: The total value of an order or product line item inclusive of tax (excludes returns)
- Discount: The discount applied to line items or the whole order
- Tax: The sum of the tax on each item in the order
- Cost of Goods Sold: The moving average cost of items sold.
- Total Returns: The value of goods returned inclusive of tax to be refunded
- Net Sales: Gross sales less shipping and taxes
- Gross profit: Net Sales less Cost of Goods Sold
- Shipping: The cost of shipping excluding taxes
Non-product Line Items in Reports
There is often the existence of non-product line items that affect various subtotals in an order. Discount, shipping, and tax line item(s) sent from your sales channel are supported in our Sales reports. Read on to understand how each line item type is treated in our reports.
The 'Quantity' of custom line items entered in your sales order(s) will not be reflected in the Reporting breakdown.
1. Discount line item type
A discount line item indicates a reduction in the amount paid for an order or a specific product (discounted price). In sales reports, this metric is used in calculating Net Sales.
Exception: When grouping by product, product brand, product type, or variant, discount line items applied at a whole order level will not be accounted for. This is because we are unable to distribute the order level discount to every item in an order.
Note: Automatic discounts from Shopify are not supported in our app at the moment and will not show up under the 'Discount' metric either.
2. Shipping line item type
A shipping line item indicates the expenses incurred for freight services/management. In sales reports, this metric is used to calculate the Cost of Goods Sold and Net Profit.
Exception: When grouping by product, product brand, or product type, shipping line items will not be accounted for because we cannot distribute the order-level shipping cost to every item in an order.
3. Tax line item type
A tax line item indicates an amount charged for tax purposes. In sales reports, this metric has a unique functionality as it is not used to calculate other metrics.
Invoice Report Metrics
2 report templates are based on Invoice issue dates, Invoice Breakdown, and Total Invoiced by Customer. These reports allow you to understand and analyze specifically the revenue that has been invoiced within a defined time period.
The metrics for Invoice Reports that you will see are Quantity, Gross Amount Invoiced, Tax, Discount, Shipping, and Net Amount Invoiced.
- Quantity: The total number of items invoiced
- Gross Amount Invoiced: The total value of an invoice or product line item inclusive of tax
- Discount: The discount applied to line items or the whole invoice
- Tax: The sum of the tax on each item in the invoice
- Shipping: The cost of shipping excluding taxes
- Net Amount Invoiced: Gross Amount Invoiced less shipping and taxes.
Shipping Report Metrics
The breakdown in the Shipment report is based on Shipment fulfilled dates. This report allows you to understand and analyze the revenue that has been shipped within a defined time period.
The Shipment Reports metrics that you will see Quantity, Gross Amount Shipped, Tax, Discount, Shipping, and Net Amount Shipped.
- Quantity: The total number of items shipped
- Gross Amount Shipped: The total value of a shipment or product line item inclusive of tax.
- Discount: The discount applied to line items or the whole shipment
- Tax: The sum of the tax on each item in the shipment
- Shipping: The cost of shipping excluding taxes
- Net Amount Shipped: Gross Amount Shipped less shipping and taxes.
Legacy reports migrated to a new location.
We have made several legacies reports to enable a more consistent experience and cater to better reporting. Below are the reports that have been migrated:
- Orders History
- Inventory Details
- Stock by Location
- Incoming Stock
The perk is that you can now save these reports on an account level and pin or schedule on a user level!
Saved Reports
We have added a handy feature that now allows you to save any reports for quicker access in the future and is accessible from the main sidebar on the left, under the tab that reads 'Saved Reports'.
We have enlightened you with our Intelligence Reports overview, which we trust will be key in your venture to generate business success.
Are you eager to experience it for yourself? 👏