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Understanding Home

Welcome Home!

Home is the place where you can always come to for an at-a-glance overview of your shop's performance.

Home is divided into four sections:

  1. Header
  2. Sales Chart
  3. Tasks
  4. Activity

Have a look around and make yourself at Home!

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NOTE: To access Home, a user needs to have the Reports employee permission enabled on their employee role. As with the Reports section of Retail, this will grant them access to Home, but will not allow them to see any reference to profits or margins. To see profits and margins in Home (or in Reports), the user will also need the Inventory - Product Cost permission.

 

  • Header

    The purpose of the Header section is to help you find your bearings on what Home is currently displaying. It does so by giving you a high-level view of your shop's data with the use of its two features:

    1. Shop Selector (if multi-store)
    2. Quick Stats

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    Shop Selector

    If you have multiple shops, the Shop Selector determines which shop's data is reflected on Home.

    Quick Stats

    The Quick Stats help you and your employees evaluate the performance of your shop during the course of a business day. The Quick Stats display six key performance indicators (KPIs):

    1. Revenue
    2. Margin
    3. Profit
    4. Sales
    5. Discounts
    6. Returns

    To help you get a general understanding of each KPI, we've defined them, included examples for context and suggested possible actions to take depending on their values. The main purpose of displaying these KPIs, however, is to engender questions about your shop's performance and spark further exploration into how you and your employees can improve it.

    Revenue

    The amount of money your shop generated from selling its items and services. The Revenue KPI doesn't include taxes.

    As an owner, you can think of your revenue as a yardstick you can compare your other KPIs with, namely Profit and Margin. By doing so, you'll paint a more accurate picture of your shop's success. For example, if your revenue is within expectations but your shop's profit and margin are not, you could consider raising the prices of your items and services or negotiating the cost of your items with your vendors. As you'll see in the Sales Chart section, its also helpful to compare the day's revenue to other relevant time periods (e.g. yesterday).

    As a manager, you can use this KPI to encourage your employees to increase their team's sales commission as a whole.

    Margin

    The percentage profit your shop retained from its revenue after subtracting its cost of goods sold (COGS). For example, if your shop is located in Canada and has a 35% margin, then your shop retained 35 cents for every dollar of revenue it generated.

    As an owner, you can use this KPI to evaluate if your shop's margin is within expectation. Margin expectations are highly dependent on your shop's industry, the items you sell and the services you provide. Define what you consider to be a profitable margin and keep aiming for it every day.

    Profit

    The amount of profit your shop retained from its revenue after subtracting its expenses (cost and refunds). 

    As an owner, you can use this KPI to determine if you're meeting your daily profit targets. By doing so, you'll steadily increase your profits over time and have money to invest as you see fit in the future.

    NOTE: Your shop's profit doesn't take into account operational costs.

    Sales

    The volume of sales your shop generated.

    As an owner, you can gain insights from comparing your shop's Sales KPI to its Revenue KPI. For example, a high sales volume and low revenue can indicate an opportunity to increase the prices of your items and services or reduce the amount of discounts your shop is giving to its customers. If you do make one of these adjustments, however, make sure that the resulting prices of your items and services don't exceed what your customers are expecting to pay.

    Discounts

    The amount of money the employees at your shop subtracted from the price of items and services to generate its revenue.

    As an owner, this KPI is used to make sure that discounts are applied to certain sales intentionally and sparingly. For example, if your shop is trying to turn over some of its dusty inventory and is having a sale for these older items, then having a high Discounts value is expected. If, however, the Discounts value is unusually high, it can raise suspicion that discounts are being applied too frequently or misused by your employees.

    As a manager, you can monitor this KPI to make sure that the revenue your associates generate isn't predominantly driven by offering discounts to customers. This is important because, over time, offering too many discounts can also negatively affect how much customers expect to pay for items and services at your shop.

    Refunds

    The amount of money your shop refunded to its customers.

    As an owner, you can use this KPI to make sure that refunds are kept to an amount that realistically reflects your return policy. For example, a high Refunds value could indicate that your employees are processing refunds that don't comply with your shop's return policy. It could also indicate that certain items, either from a specific vendor or not, are inherently faulty.

    As a manager, it's helpful to understand that refunds can be balanced by sales that drive up your shop's revenue. This balance can be maintained by reminding your associates to offer exchanges to customers who request to return items for a refund. If the offer doesn't interest them, associates can then resort to making up for the refunds by closing more sales than usual throughout the day. In cases where items are returned and refunded because they're defective or damaged, another option is to make a vendor return and be reimbursed for the loss by your vendor instead.

     

  • Sales Chart

    The Sales Chart section is designed to help you visualize the current day's revenue per hour in an accessible and meaningful way by comparing it against four relevant time periods. The Sales Chart section can be divided into two parts

    1. The line graph on the left provides an intuitive visual representation of your shop's sales data.
    2. The time period cards on the right contextualize the current day's revenue data.

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    Line graph

    On the left-hand side of the Sales Chart section, the line graph has two lines:

    1. Green line: The current day's revenue per hour.
    2. Blue line: The selected time period's revenue per hour.

    Its x-axis (horizontal) shows a 12-hour range and, as the day progresses, the current hour remains highlighted.

    Its y-axis (vertical) shows an incremental revenue range based on your shop's sales data.

    By comparing the height of the two lines to the revenue range on the y-axis, you can easily determine a ballpark revenue per hour for each line. You can also determine what is the busiest time for your shop. For a more detailed breakdown, you can hover over one of the hours on the x-axis to reveal each line's:

    • Total revenue for the hour
    • Total number of sales for the hour

     

    Time period cards

    On the right-hand side of the Sales Chart section, you can compare the current day's revenue with one of the following four time periods:

    1. Yesterday

    2. Same time, 1 week ago

    3. Same time, 4 weeks ago

    4. Your usual (day of the week)

    By selecting one of these time periods, the blue line in the line graph updates to reflect its sales data. Within the time period card, you can also see the difference between the current day's total revenue and the selected time period's total revenue. The total revenue calculations of both lines include all sales up to the current hour. This difference in total revenue is shown in two values:

    1. As an amount in your shop's currency.
    2. As a percentage.
  • Tasks

    Tasks are feature-related actions that help you and your employees determine what needs to be done in your shop. With tasks, the status of your shop's main features is brought to the surface on Home. This not only saves you and your employees time from having to navigate around your Retail account but it also prevents important tasks from falling through the cracks.

    Tasks are triggered by events in your Retail account and are tallied on 4 task cards based on the feature they're associated with:

    1. Sales
    2. Special orders
    3. Work orders (if have the Service module)
    4. Purchase orders

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    The headers on the task cards act as shortcuts to the feature they're associated with. They also tally how many feature events (e.g. work orders) have been created or edited in the last 30 days (also referred to as "active"). For example, clicking the 1 ACTIVE WORK ORDERS header on the work orders task card is the equivalent of clicking Service Work Orders and sorting the list to show active work orders at the top. From there, you can easily prioritize which work orders require your attention based on their status, their DATE IN date, and their DUE ON date. 

    As for the tasks listed on the task cards, they act as links to more specific feature events that potentially require your attention. For example, clicking the 1 Finished task on the work orders task card is the equivalent of clicking Service Work Orders and filtering the list by work orders with the Finished status.

    To better understand what feature events headers and tasks are tallying, what they're linking to in your Retail account, and the possible actions to take to update them in real-time, please see the table below.

    Sales

    Header/Tasks Tallied events Links Actions
    Today's sales Sales that were completed in your shop today. This header links to the Totals report and filters it to your shop and to today. 
    • Investigate further into individual sales.
    • Evaluate your shop's overall performance.
    Open Sales that were started but weren't officially completed in your shop today.

    This task links to the All Transactions report, filters it to your shop and to today, and sorts it to show incomplete sales at the top.

    • Continue the sales and complete them.
    • Continue the sales and cancel them.

     

    Special orders

    Header/Tasks Tallied events Links Actions
    Active Special orders in your shop that haven't been completed and were created or edited in the last 30 days.

    This header links to a list of all the special orders in your shop, with active special orders appearing at the top. The list is also limited to the last 30 days.

    • The possible actions to take for each special order are dependent on their status. For more information, please see the To order and Ready tasks below.
    • Click the trash button to delete any unnecessary special orders.
    To order Active special orders in your shop with the Not Ordered status.

    This header links to a list of all the special orders in your shop, with Not Ordered special orders appearing at the top. The list is also limited to the last 30 days.

    Locate special orders with the Not Ordered status and do the following:

    • Add the special orders to purchase orders.
    • Receive your purchase orders to add your special order items to your inventory and automatically update their status to Ready, Not Called.
    • If you don't use purchase orders to bring in special order items, click the Ready button to manually update the statuses of your special orders to Ready, Not Called.
    Ready Active special orders in your shop with the Ready, Not Called, or Ready For Pickup status.

    This header links to a list of all the special orders in your shop, with Ready, Not Called, and Ready For Pickup special orders appearing at the top. The list is also limited to the last 30 days.

    Locate special orders with the Ready, Not Called status and do the following:

    • Contact your customers to let them know that their items have arrived.
    • Select the Called checkbox to manually update the statuses of your special orders to Ready For Pickup.

    For special orders with the Ready for Pickup status, you can do the following: 

    • Let your employees know which customers are expected to come in-store and which items they're picking up.
    • Complete the special orders at your register.

     

    Purchase orders

    Header/Tasks Tallied events Links Actions
    Active Purchase orders in your shop that don't have the Finished status and were created or edited in the last 30 days.

    This header links to a list of all the purchase orders in your shop, with active purchase orders appearing at the top. The list is also limited to the last 30 days.

    • The possible actions to take for each purchase order are dependent on their status. For more information, please see the Overdue and To check in tasks below and our Creating a purchase order article.
    • Archive any unnecessary purchase orders.
    Overdue Active purchase orders in your shop that have missed their EXPECTED date.

    This header links to a list of all the purchase orders in your shop, with purchase orders that have the earliest EXPECTED dates appearing at the top. The list is also limited to the last 30 days.

    Locate purchase orders that are overdue (EXPECTED dates are in red) and do the following:

    • Contact your vendor to know when you should expect to receive your shipments.
    • Advise your shop/warehouse of the new expected delivery date to make sure they're prepared to receive the shipments.
    • Once you receive the shipments from your vendors, update the status of their associated purchase orders to Check In.
    To check in Active purchase orders in your shop with the Check In status.

    This header links to a list of all the purchase orders in your shop that have the Check In status. The list is also limited to the last 30 days.

     

    Work orders (if have the Service module)

    Header/Tasks Tallied events Links Actions
    Active Work orders with the Open status, Estimate status, Waiting status, or a custom status in your shop that were created or edited in the last 30 days. This header links to a list of all the work orders in your shop, with active work orders appearing at the top. The list is also limited to the last 30 days and hides work orders with the Finished and Done & Paid statuses.
    Overdue Active work orders with the Estimate status, Waiting status, or a customer status in your shop that have missed their DUE ON date. This header links to a list of all the work orders in your shop, with work orders that have the earliest DUE ON dates appearing at the top. The list is also limited to the last 30 days and hides work orders with the Finished and Done & Paid statuses.

    Locate work orders that are overdue (DUE ON dates are in red) and do the following:

    Finished Work orders with the Finished status in your shop that were created or edited in the last 30 days. This header links to a list of all the work orders in your shop that have the Finished status. The list is also limited to the last 30 days.  
    • Contact your customers and let them know that their items are ready for pick-up.
    • Let your employees know which customers are expected to come in-store and which items they're picking up.
    • Complete the work orders at the register to update their statuses to Done and Paid.
     

     

  • Activity

    The Activity section is a feed that shows you up-to-date events on what sales/refunds were completed in your shop. Each sale/refund event includes the following details:

    • Sale/refund total
    • Amount of items in the sale/refund
    • Who completed the sale/refund
    • When the sale/refund was completed

    By compiling sale/refund events in an easy-to-follow feed, you and your managers can get a general overview of your shop's activity from anywhere, at any time. Should a sale/refund event stand out, simply click it to investigate it further in the related sale or in your reporting. For example, if your Returns KPI is unusually high, this could indicate that a customer made a big return or your customers collectively returned an unusually large amount of items. You can look through the feed to investigate the refund(s) further in your reporting and follow up with your employees for more information.

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    NOTE: At this time, refunds display as sale events with a negative total in the feed.

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