Understanding Reports

Weekly we receive a support email from a facility where they are confused that different reports don't "add up", particularly related to payments and sales.

It is absolutely critical to understand that each report displays different information. And most importantly, some reports are based on INVOICE DATE and others are based on PAYMENT date. Additionally, some reports show only COLLECTED SALES and other reports show both UNCOLLECTED and COLLECTED sales.

For example: people often don't understand why the z-out report and sales report don't match. They don't match because the z-out report is based on PAYMENT DATE and only includes collected sales. The sales report is based on INVOICE DATE and includes both collected and uncollected sales.

The same is true for the Margin and COGS reports.

Typically, a report will have a comment at the top of the report indicating if it uses invoice or payment date as well as if it includes collected or uncollected sales.

So before emailing and saying their is a "bug in a report", be sure to read the note atop the relevant reports to understand the information it is using to generate the data!

Cheers
Andy