Best practice checklist reports

Owned by John Nairn (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jul 12, 2019
3 min read

Ensure you are well trained in and using Analysis reports

  • If you don't know how to use analysis reports you are not getting the best results out of your system.

  • You should be using Readysell's key reports documentation to define most of your reporting requirements and you should be using analysis reports for your custom management reports.

  • You can handle about 90% of your new report requests yourself if you know how to use analysis reports. Analysis reports can answer most of your business questions, but only if you know how to drive them

  • Allow a few hours for analysis report training. This will probably be the most productive training time you could invest in. Analysis allows you to drill into, to slice and dice your data just about any way you can think of

  • So Analysis reports can answer over 90% of your custom management reporting requirements without you having to have new reports built. Every Readysell user should invest about three hours training time in learning analysis reports. You must know what you are after before you start. Review your understanding of the business, your current processes and your existing reports. Then start your Analysis reports studies with at least an outline of an understanding of the information you need. If you are not using analysis reports, make sure you start doing so as soon as possible..

  • While analysis reports can't do direct comparisons between months. You can get the same result by filtering your analysis report to only show the months you want, then drop the month (period) into the columns area on the right of the report. The days/weeks/months you have selected will show right next to each other. Allowing you to do all the comparisons you like.

  • Analysis reports can eliminate all the analysis spreadsheets you are currently building from data contained in your system. If you are analysing prices, contracts, stock, sales people etc.  manually, stop doing so! Analysis reports can give you better information and save you hours of time.

  • Analysis reports give you greater flexibility to drill into your data then any other type of report but can be harder to use. Analysis allows you build a three dimensional view of your data by dragging, for example, columns like sales person and customer to the left of a list, month to the top and sales value to the middle. This allows almost endless report possibilities without custom programming.

  • Best practice is to use form reports for standard requirements and analysis reports where customisation or deeper analysis is required.  Unless you are using both form and analysis reports, you are probably not getting the most from your Readysell system. 

For details of the available analysis reports, please review the Key Analysis Reports Overview.

This feature is not available in Readysell Lite. 



Read the key report guides



Readysell's user guide contains a list of key reports. Review the list, there are probably reports there that answer issues you have not even thought off


Watch the report demo movies on our YouTube channel

Make a list of the key reports from your old system



There will be some reports from your old system that you use all the time. Make a list of those reports, not every report on your old system, just the ones you use frequently


Compare your list of key reports from your old system with the key reports in Readysell. 


Discuss with Readysell any cases where you have a key report from your old system that you can't find an equivalent for in Readysell

Customise your invoices using only the existing invoice reports if possible



Readysell's invoice layout has a lot of customisation options. Make sure you know the options and put them to use in your business


Try to use the input report customisation options on sales invoices, product labels etc. Try to avoid making your own custom versions of form reports if you can help it. As they may be broken by future upgrades and having Readysell repair them may result in a charge

Use list view variants as reports



You can save normal Readysell list views and use them instead of reports. Consider adding subtotals to lists then copying them around to users in each role within your business


Lists give you the answer you need right away using live data without having to change screens. Half your reports should be done through lists, then just export the result to excel if you have to

Document your reporting procedure



Your business will run better if your record which reports are run regularly and who gets them. 

 


Review your report procedure every three months. Perhaps business needs have changed and you can scrap a report or need to add a new one

If you are not using those reports regularly you are not getting the most from your system


Daily



Low gp sale line report, See: Which sales are losing me money and what can I do about it. See also: How can I fix gross profit figures for list bulk or other sell prices before they are sold and before they cost me money


Review actionable meterics. See: Actionable Metrics


Review the sale back order and ourstanding purchase order list views to make sure your back orders are not getting too old. See: Getting started with sale back orders, Tracking ETA dates on outstanding purchase order lines



Review your open sale orders to make sure your sale orders are not getting too old. See: Working with Sales Order Filter, Getting started with sale orders

Weekly/more than once a month



Automatic emailing to customers informing them if their balance is overdue. See: Setting up automatic accounts receivable follow-up email and SMS notifications


Check your delivery in full and on time statistics. See: Delivery In Full, On Time (DIFOT)

Monthly



Profit and loss report should be run and reviewed each month. Look for changes in revenue and costs over time. See: Live Profit and Loss report

 


Customers and supplier trial balances should be reviewed at least once a month, check in particular the oldest balances. See: Checking Customer Balances, Checking Supplier Balances

 


Analysis sales person sales by customer by category. See: Daily Sale By Day By Salesperson

 


Contract price performance report monthly, keep an eye on contract performance. In particular look for fluctuations in gp% from contracts over time. See: Which contract sale lines have been costing me money recently

 


Note for Service Sites: Machine profitability report if you use service, you need to identify the machines that are losing you money. See: Machine Profitability Report (F-032)

Every few months



Slow moving products report, keep on reducing the dollar value invested in slow moving products. See: How can I free up cash and space currently tied up in dead stock

 





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