Procedure for taking action using a report
Every report that you print for internal use needs an action item procedure. Otherwise nobody will know what do do with the report and you might as well not bother running it at all
Report action item procedure
Report __________________________________________________________________
Run By (Team member) ______________________________________
Run Daily At (Time) _______
Run Weekly on (Day Of Week) ___________
At (Time) _______
Run Monthly on Week Of Month (First/Last) ________
on (Day Of Week/First Day Of Month/Last Day Of Month) ___________
At (Time) _______
Run Yearly in Month (January/June/July/December) _____________
on Week Of Month (First/Last) ________
on (Day Of Week/First Day Of Month/Last Day Of Month) ___________
At (Time) _______
By filling in the form above, you need to produce a table of report action items. This will involve assiging the report to a team member to run regularly on a fixed day of the week or month and give them a target, like fixing at least specified number of items every time they run the report and follow up to check what they did in a way that can be measured and reward or thank them in some way if they have done well
A simple report action plan built up by filling in the form above might include entries like the following:
When | What | Who | How | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily at 3 pm | Fix 5 products with high or low GP or note that no such products were found | Tom | Run the "Sale Invoice Line Low GP Report" list report for the last 7 days | Stop selling products that are loosing us money or annoying customers |
| On the first Monday of each month | Correct 5 contract lines that have incorrect gp. Communicate any changes and agree them with the customer. | Sue | Run the Sale Invoice Line Low GP Report By Contract" list report and the "Contract Individual Product Review Report" list report | I need to stop contracts prices from costing me too much money |
| On the first Monday of each month | Identify 1 contract that is going to expire this year and review the contract or note that no contracts need review | Mike | From contracts in relationships. Select view variants"Review contracts that have expired or are about to expire" and "Review contracts where the card or machine is about to expire" from contracts | I need to review contracts before they expire or notice any expired contracts that I have missed |
| Weekly on Friday at 3:00 pm | Fix the sell prices for all products with a gp% shown as red or note why it can't be fixed. | Geoff | From list reports, Run the"Product price levels with low GP report" list report | I need to fix crazy product sell prices |
| Weekly on Monday at 9:00 am | Email management a note about any products that show a gp% shaded as red. | Brian | From products in inventory, Select and review "Product List Price Review" list from products | I need everyone to see products that have low gp right way |
| Yearly on the first working Monday in Janaurary | Check both the low GP and Low margin warning message levels are acceptable. | Manager | From system types in advanced administration. Also, Set and review low gp warnings for sales and quotes | I need everyone to see products that have low gp right way |
Then deploy your report action item table by email to all team members, pin it on the notice board and follow up results on the agreed dates. Most importantly put alarms in your phone or your outlook, what ever works for you, to ensure you regularly discuss results with your team.