Contributed by Tom Martin, Altaireon
I am thrilled to have guest blogger, Tom Martin of Altaireon, contribute to our series on Reports. I consider Tom to be a master of reports :-)! Tom developed Communique´ for Monsoon Stone Edge and Communique´ for Monsoon Pro, which I consider a “must have” if you use either order manager program. The recent release also includes a data analyzer, taking your reports to the next level. If you’ve never heard of Communique’ or if you have it but haven’t really looked through the 330+ reports that are available, I’m sure you will find the next few articles quite interesting.
So let’s get started!
Communiqué V3 is a must have tool for Monsoon StoneEdge. With 330 standard reports, 22 reconciliation reports and 60 data analyzers, Communiqué V3 provides a wealth of information and illuminates many aspects of your business that you would not otherwise be able to visualize.
When demoing Communiqué to a new customer, I always like to discuss their return on their Communiqué purchase (ROI). There are 2 standard reports in Communiqué which usually accomplishes this goal right from the start. The Inventory -> Slow Movers – Slowest by Date and the Inventory -> Zero Movers -> Zero Sales Listing. Each report looks at different aspect of your Inventory, but together it highlights in-stock inventory issues listing items which has never sold, or has not sold in a while.
The “Zero Sales Listing” report looks at in-stock inventory which has no record of any sales. You can use the “Shelf Days” option to control when to start looking. By default the “Shelf Days” option is set to 90 so this report will not list any item that has not been sitting on the shelf less than 90 days. We use the last purchase order receive date for the item when calculating shelf days. The last notable option for this report is the QOH filter. By default it is set to 1 but you can set it to whatever value you want.
The “Slowest by Date” report looks at in-stock inventory which has sold in the past but has not sold within the period specified. By default this report looks back 90 days for any in-stock items with a QOH of 1 or more. We use the last order date for aging the last sale to determine the Days since last sale.
Setting the QOH value to 0 with either report defeats the purpose of the reports since it will also list out-of-stock items as well. These reports are designed to find in-stock items which have an inventory value representing a monetary investment on your part. Even though you can set the QOH to 0 I would recommend against it since it will list items of no monetary consequence for these reports.
For those of you with Communiqué, run each of the reports with whatever filters is appropriate for your business and see the results, they can eye-opening. Let’s hope there are lots of smiles out there after running these reports and your results are few to no items listed. For the rest of you, no need to panic just yet, or reach for the Prozac to calm your nerves. Information like this can be very valuable when used the right way.
Take a look at the items on each report to determine your course of action. Some items will not sell and are not worth the continued effort so it’s best to put them on clearance to recoup what you can so you can invest the proceeds towards inventory which will generate a profit (take a look at the Inventory -> Items Sales report). Other items may need some additional help with marketing, promotions, re-pricing, etc. I had one customer exclaim “I know why this item has never sold. It has never been listed on our website.”
Remember, every great tree needs to be pruned, much like every great company. Use these reports as an opportunity to prune inventory from your stock which does not help you grow your company to make it strong and prosperous. Running reports like this periodically can help you to focus and set your direction.
You cannot make good decisions without good reports providing good data.
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About Altaireon:
Altaireon provides software and database development services. We specialize in feature rich desktop applications and utilities, back office integration, and internet solutions. Our solutions are professional grade designed for ease of use, stability and high performance.
We offer 2 Indispensable solutions for Monsoon Stone Edge Order Manager users, Communiqué for reporting and Touché for CRM/CSR operations. Communiqué is the definitive reporting solution for Stone Edge Order Manager. With 330 plus standard integrated reports, Communiqué provides unique insight about your business, both operationally and strategically. Touché is an integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for SEOM.
Go to www.alatireon.com to learn more. Email sales@altaireon.com to schedule a demo.