FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS about MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
It is all very simple when you know how, but at first there are lots of questions that come to mind, these are typical ones
CAN I CHECK LAST YEAR TO SEE WHAT I HAD BOUGHT OR HAD STOCK OF THEN ?
Answer: A more intense look at say the whole of last year buying, stocking, and sell pattern would be done using the general enquiry screens which specifically show this detail over a longer period of time.
CAN I TRACE BACK ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS IF I SEE PROBLEMS TO SEE WHO , WHEN AND WHY THEY HAPPENED ?
Answer:As each of the audits above will have originated from some part of the system then by keeping the original document or transaction reference an audit trail back to the original is available. Having located the original the being sales invoice, order, goods inwards then it can be enquired on or reprinted.
HOW HAS RECENT PERFORMANCE BEEN LAST WEEK OR PERIOD ?
Answer:The sales are kept as their original transactions per day , but to locate the sales total for a product per week or period would mean trawling through all previous sales to arrive at these totals. The system therefore stores a summary position for each full year of sales per product for 14 days, 53 weeks and 13 periods with a year to date total. This makes sales enquiries quick and allows for week on week or period on period comparisons.
CAN I CHECK WHICH ITEMS CAME FROM WHICH SUPPLIER ?
Answer:the original deliveries obviously show when suppliers brought stock in and provided that there is only one supplier of the product then no problem. Where there are more than one product the deliveries still show separately but stock on sale and counting all gets merged together if fifo stock taking is used then based on delivery dates then the oldest stock is used first and this is assumed to be the supplier allocated to the sale. The stock audit will hold a record of deliveries and as such is useful in tracing suppliers delivery and performance against orders.
CAN I CONFIRM SUPPLIER PRICES TO SEE WHO IS MY PREFERRED SOURCE TO BUY FROM ?
Answer:there is the support of multiple supplier buy prices, and these are maintained as last cost of that supplier the important thing is to see these supplier prices at the time of maintenance or ordering to see who is your best supplier and hence preferred.
HOW DOES IT INCREASE MY SALES ?
Answer:You need to read the benefits section, but mostly by checking the margin being made between cost and actual sell price. You can also find the best and worst sellers and clear bad stock and buy better stock.
CAN IT SHOW WHICH DEPARTMENTS ARE OVERSTOCKED OR UNDER STOCKED ?
Answer:The stock can be valued at both cost and retail selling price allowing margin to be calculated if sold. The average week sale can be divided into this stock figure to see how many weeks of stock holding you have and need.
FIND WHICH LINES NEED TO BE REDUCED ?
Answer:Valuations by age of stock based on goods inwards date or date of last sale can be used to find which products to delist or promote to clear.
WHICH DEPARTMENTS/GROUPS ARE SELLING AND MAKING THE REQUIRED MARGIN ?
Answer:After each sale the value of quantity sold, sales , vat,cost , discount , promotional and loyalty values get stored at department/group and sub group level. The stored totals show the actual margin made versus the target margin and can be drilled down by department into group or sub group and then down to line level.
ARE THE BIGGEST SELLERS BY QUANTITY MAKING THE BIGGEST PR0FIT ?
Answer:If sales are ranked on quantity alone then this may not show where the profit is being made. The information can identify the top or bottom sellers and also the slow movers need clearing to raise money to buy better performing stock to sell. This is called the 80/20 rule in that 80% of profit comes from 20% of the lines typically .
HOW DO SALES THIS COMPARE TO LAST YEAR ?
Answer:The sales history of each year are saved in separate yearly databases allowing year on year comparisons to be performed in enquiries and reports.
CAN I RUN A LOYALTY SYSTEM AND HOW CAN I TELL IF IT IS WORKING ?
Answer:loyalty is earned by product points and redeemed by voucher at tender level and as such get recorded on the customer as spend and redeemed values with visits information All discounts are recorded in total in groups reports and readings.
CAN I RUN A DISCOUNT CLUB SYSTEM AND HOW CAN I TELL IF IT IS WORKING ?
Answer:Discount allowed is by product or group and reduces the sell price and as such get recorded on the customer as spend, discount and visits information. All discounts are recorded in total in groups reports and readings .
ARE MY PROMOTIONS WORKING OR JUST SELLING FOR NO BENEFIT ?
Answer:Promotions have numbered schemes and therefore all sales that relate to them can be collected and accumulated against them. This is good because they can be involving more than one product. Promotional vouchers can be taken as product price or tender reductions and counted accordingly.Products can be set to record say post code details for later analysis too. All promotions are recorded in against groups and readings..
ARE MY DISCOUNTS GIVEN WORKING OR JUST SELLING FOR NO BENEFIT ?
Answer:Discounts are given at line or tender level and as such get recorded on the sale line. When a discount is given on total sale it will be apportioned across the lines sold proportional to the sales value. All discounts are recorded in total in groups reports and readings.