The week in five minutes

Nine o'clock on a weeknight is not the time for a long spreadsheet. The owner wants two answers: was it a good week, and what should change tomorrow? This tour shows Reports used as a five-minute review, from the headline figures down to who sold what, with the sample figures of a cash-and-carry that delivers to corner shops.

Step by step

1. Open Reports and read the headline row. Four figures, each stated once: sales this week against last week, profit, the number of orders and the average order. In the tour's sample, sales are £24,884.20, up about 6% on last week's £23,495.75. There were 214 orders, around 31 a day, at an average of about £116 each.

2. Read the bars, day by day. Below the headline, thin bars show each day's sales with last week's beside it and the average marked. In the sample, Saturday was the biggest day at £5,210 and Sunday the quietest at £2,240. More useful than the totals is any day that broke its pattern: a Wednesday well below last Wednesday is worth a question.

3. Check the best sellers. The week's best-selling products are listed with an Up tag where they grew. These are the lines that must never run short on the van or the shelf. If one of them is also on the reorder plan, it moves to the top of tomorrow's buying.

4. Check what is sitting still. Slow movers are tagged Slow. They are the products tying up cash that could be in something that sells. For each one, decide: run an offer to clear it, stop buying it, or leave it if it is seasonal and its season is coming.

5. See who sold it. The last panel splits sales by where they came from: each rep, the trade counter and the online shop portal. In the sample, the shop portal brought in about 23% of the week. A channel that is growing deserves attention; one that is falling deserves a conversation.

6. Export if someone else needs it. If your accountant or your bank wants the figures, export them to CSV and send the file. You do not need to retype anything.

7. Write down one change for tomorrow. A review that ends with nothing to do was not worth the five minutes. One action is enough: reorder a best seller earlier, put a slow mover on offer, or ring the rep whose round dipped.

The week in the tour's sample

Six days up, one down. The week is about 5.9% ahead. The single dip, Wednesday, is the one worth asking about. Perhaps a rep was off, a delivery ran late, or a big customer skipped an order. The total hides it; the bars show it.

Sales are up. Is profit?

A higher sales figure is good news only if the margin held. If the extra sales came from a discount or a product sold close to cost, profit can stay flat or fall while sales rise. That is why the headline row shows profit next to sales. If the two move apart, look at profit by product and at the products priced below cost, which show you the loss if they sell. Our article on stock value and margin reports explains what each of those reports shows. And if markup and margin still get mixed up in your business, markup vs margin clears it up with examples.

What a slow mover really costs

Take a line you bought 40 cases of at £12 each, two months ago, that has sold six. That is £408 of cash sitting on a shelf, at cost, and it is earning nothing. If you put it on offer at a price that still covers cost and clear it in a fortnight, you get most of that money back to spend on lines that sell every day. If you wait until the year end, it may be past its date and worth nothing.

The decision does not need a spreadsheet. Ask three questions of each slow mover: will it sell in its own time without help, is anyone asking for it, and could the money be working harder elsewhere? Two noes means an offer this week and a smaller order next time, or none at all.

Tips for a weekly review

• Same time, same day, every week. Patterns only show up when you compare like with like.
• Read the headline, then look for the odd one out. A week is rarely bad everywhere; usually one day, one product or one rep explains it.
• Act on slow movers before they become dead stock. A small offer this month costs less than a big write-off at the year end.
• Share the rep figures with the reps. People who can see their own numbers usually move them.

Common mistakes

Looking only at total sales. Sales can rise while profit falls. Always read the two together.

Comparing a short week with a full one. A bank holiday week will look bad against a normal one. Note it and move on.

Treating every slow mover the same. A seasonal line that is slow in October may be your best seller in December.

Reviewing without acting. If the same slow movers appear four weeks running, the report is doing its job and the business is not.

Where the numbers come from

Every figure on this page is built from the rest of the day: the trade counter sales, the reps' orders, the shop portal, the deliveries and the closed days. If the day close is done properly every evening, these figures can be trusted on Sunday night.

What to do next

If slow movers are tying up cash, the next step is to look at what your stock is worth at cost and at selling price; see stock value and margin reports. For a wider view of how sales turn into cash, and why a good sales week can still leave the bank account short, read cash flow for small business.