📝 Overview
Your software comes with numerous built-in reports and even gives you the option to write your own. This article covers how to find and run reports, customize how they look, create graphs and charts, and where to learn more about the most commonly used reports.
For information on creating your own custom reports, see Custom Reports (Structured Query Language) SQL Overview.
🔎 Find and Run a Report
The reports are categorized and listed on the Reports pull-down menu. You can run a report in any of the following ways:
Select the report from the Reports pull-down menu.
Select Search for Reports from the Reports pull-down menu and choose the Browse All Reports option. You'll see a complete list of all reports. Double-click the report you want to run.
Select Search for Reports from the Reports pull-down menu and choose the Run by ID Number option. Enter the ID of the report you want to run.
Select Search for Reports from the Reports pull-down menu and choose the Search by Keywords option. Search for the report with the appropriate keywords.
To make finding a report easier, each report has its own ID Number. This number is a simple way to remember and reference a report. To see the latest list of available reports, select Search for Reports from the Reports pull-down menu and choose the Browse All Reports option. The report IDs are in the left-most column. If desired, click Print to print this list for future reference.
🛠️ Customize a Report
🧩 Customize Columns
Customizing the columns of a report can make it more concise or limit its horizontal length so everything prints on one page.
Run the desired report.
Click the Customize View button to add or remove columns as desired.
Use the Add, Remove, Move Up, and Move Down buttons to customize the information to view.
Click OK to save the settings. The report updates to reflect these changes.
📰 Report Header and Footer
You can customize the Header and Footer displayed on a report by selecting Report Header and Footer from the Reports pull-down menu. These fields can be used to display your business name and details on each report generated using your software.
📉 Graphs and Charts
For most reports, you can create graphs and charts of the information contained in the report. After running a report, click the Graph button if it's available. You can create the following types of graphs and charts:
Area: typically used for graphing accumulated totals.
Bar: good for comparing specific items.
Pie: good for showcasing percentages or totals.
Step: like an area chart, good for showing growth or trends in totals.
XY Plot: typically used for statistical analysis and measuring variance.
📊 Create a Graph or Chart
Run the desired report. The results of the report are displayed.
Click the Graph button. If there isn't a Graph button on the report, the graphing feature isn't available. The graph or chart is displayed.
If the graph isn't displayed in the desired style, you can change it to fit your needs.
✏️ Edit the Graph or Chart Appearance
Run the desired report. The results of the report are displayed.
Click the Graph button. The graph or chart is displayed.
Click the Edit Graph Properties button. The Graph Options screen appears.
Select the graph type from the pull-down list:
Area
Bar
Pie
Step
XY Plot
Enter the Title.
Select the item that you want to graph from the Horizontal axis pull-down list.
Enter the Horizontal axis label.
Enter the Vertical axis label.
Select the items to graph by checking the appropriate box(es).
Optionally, check Use 3D Effects or Invert Vertical Axis.
Click OK.
🖨️ Print a Graph or Chart
Run the desired report. The results of the report are displayed.
Click the Graph button. The graph or chart is displayed.
Edit the graph or chart to fit your needs.
Click the Print button. The Print Options screen appears.
Verify the settings and click Print.
⭐ Most Used Reports
There are hundreds of reports available in your software, but certain reports get used more often than others. These are nine of the most commonly used reports:
Sales Totals and Sales Tax Report (Report #1): shows calculated business totals and taxes for any selected date and time period, and for specific employees and booth renters/independent contractors. Learn more about the Sales Totals and Sales Tax Report.
Business Performance Report (Report #147): provides various metrics to measure the business' performance. The report provides the ability to set goals, and reports whether or not those goals are being met over different time ranges.
Business Growth Report (Report #152): provides a comparison of the business' performance between two different time ranges. For example, the report can be used to compare the total sales of the most recent month to the same month a year prior.
Client Retention Report (Report #4): review the percent of new clients that return to your business for repeat services. Return rates are listed for each employee, and the average return rate represents the overall return rate for the business. Learn more about the Client Retention Report.
Employee Performance Report (Report #146): provides performance information regarding a specific employee. Learn more about the Employee Performance Report.
Profit and Loss Report (Report #80): provides comprehensive tools for analyzing income, expense, and net profit for your business. Learn more about the Profit and Loss Report.
Product Sales Statistics (Report #5): analyze your product sales and profit statistics to determine relative product profitability.
Service Sales Statistics (Report #6): analyze your service sales and the net profit for each service to determine which services are the most and least profitable for your business.
Top Spending Clients (Report #2): review your highest spending clients. The top clients are listed vertically in descending order for purchase totals, and listed in categories for overall business and employee sales.
📋 Other Report Walkthroughs
🎯 Business Performance Report
The Business Performance Report provides various metrics measured against goals to show a business' performance.
Select Business Performance Report from the Reports pull-down menu. The Select Date screen appears.
Select the desired date.
Click OK. The Business Performance Report appears. Business goals can be set from this report to measure the business performance.
Click Edit Goals. The Modify Business Performance Goals screen appears.
Enter each performance goal for your business.
Click Save to return to the Business Performance Report.
🌱 Business Growth Report
The Business Growth Report compares the business' performance between two different time ranges to measure how well the business is growing, such as this past January compared to the January from the year before. This report only makes sense if the two date ranges are the same length. When comparing month-to-month, a 31-day month tends to appear "better" than a 30-day month simply because there's an extra day, whereas comparing one January to another January shows clear differences. Holidays, the days of the week they fall on, and inclement weather aren't accounted for in totals.
Select Business Growth Report from the Reports pull-down menu. The Business Growth Report screen appears.
Enter the following information:
First date range: the older of the two date ranges to compare.
Second date range: the more recent of the two date ranges to compare.
Employees: the employees to include in the report.
Employees: All (grouped by employee name): include all employees.
Employees: Only employees listed on the Employees screen (group by employee ID): include only current employees.
Only this employee: select the employee from the pull-down list.
Only this booth renter/independent contractor: select the booth renter/independent contractor from the pull-down list.
Click OK. The Business Growth Report appears.
📦 Product Sales Statistics Report
The Product Sales Statistics Report helps you analyze your product sales and profit statistics and determine relative product profitability.
Select Product Sales Statistics from the Reports pull-down menu. The Options screen appears.
Select the Date Range for which to calculate statistics.
Click OK. The Product Sales Statistics appear.
🛎️ Service Sales Statistics Report
The Service Sales Statistics Report calculates your business' service statistics to show the quantity of services sold and the net profit for each service. This allows you to see which services are the most and least profitable for your business.
Select Service Sales Statistics from the Reports pull-down menu. The Options screen appears.
Select the Date Range for which to calculate statistics.
Click OK. The Service Sales Statistics appear.
💰 Top Spending Clients Report
The Top Spending Clients Report allows you to review your business' highest spending clients. The top clients are listed vertically in the Top Clients table in descending order for purchase totals and listed in categories for overall business and employee sales.
Select More Reports from the Reports pull-down menu.
Select Top Spending Clients from the Clients menu. The Top Clients screen appears.
Select the appropriate dates for which to run the report.
Select the number of clients to view on the report, such as the top 10 spending clients.
Select which employees you'd like to see on the report. The entire business is the first item on the employee list. Keeping this entry checked shows the top clients for your entire business overall.
Click OK. The Top Spending Clients Report appears.