Analyzing Sales to Kick Off a Great 2020

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As an AutoFluent® user, you have a head start in knowing how to make the most of 2020. You have the tools to analyze the needs of your customers throughout the year to know how well you met those needs. This helps you decide what to concentrate on in the coming years to increase your success, and perhaps discover places in your operation which may not have been worth the time, effort or expense expended.

AutoFluent® offers several useful reports in this discovery process.  Let’s look at a few of them:

Inventory Annual Sales Summary

Whether your operation is a lube shop, a service shop, or a large warehouse, the Annual Sales Summary can be an invaluable tool. The report shows quantity sold for each month of the previous year.  

  • You can run it for your inventory items, such as tires or filters, to see at a glance which items are sold more at which times of the year, to help you stock enough, but not overfill your shelves.

  • You can run it on your Labor items to see which services were most needed and when.  This valuable information can help you know how to allocate your staff, and what times of year are best to promote your various services.

  • If you have a lot of parts, tires or labor items, sorting by Item Group can be very helpful in giving you summary information for your various categories of inventory or services.

Comprehensive Reports

There are two comprehensive reports in the Customer Reports section which offer great insights into the current state of your shop. They compare current information state with both the last month and the last year, helping you spot trends. Although these reports are especially important for operations with multiple locations, the information is relevant for shops of all sizes.

  • The Comprehensive Group Report lets you select the groups and sub-groups you wish to report on. You can save several customized reports to help you analyze the progress of your shop from different perspectives.

  • Use the Comprehensive Sales Report to monitor your sales of goods and services, and watch how close you are to meeting your budgeted sales goals. You can easily create and adjust month-by-month goals.  

  • Both reports will even project sales for the current month, and compare those sales with the previous month and year.

Daily Report

The AutoFluent® Daily Report is the first place you should look to see the current status of your business.  Here are some things you”ll want to know about the Daily Report:

  • In the Daily Report tab of System settings you can:

    • Select which sections you wish to include in the report.

    • Change the columns of the Item Group, Sales Rep and Mechanic sections of the report. You can tell the third column to report on the previous month, this month last year, the last 7 days, or last month at about the same time of the month.

    • Change the month of the start of your fiscal year.

  • One of the most useful sections of the Daily Report is the Item Group Subtotals section. This section is customized in the Item Group section of Setup Entry. Contact support or see the Help section for instructions on how to use these subtotals to summarize your groups to help you monitor key parts of your business.

  • After adjusting any of these settings, you can reprint any daily report, with the sections, columns or subtotals you tailored to your needs.

With its 90+ reports, most of which have many options, AutoFluent® offers you a wealth of tools at your disposal, to help your business grow and prosper from year to year.

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