Retail Express provides a range of reports that help purchasing and receiving teams review Purchase Orders, incoming stock, supplier payments, aged inventory and future cash-flow commitments. These reports give managers visibility into what has been ordered, received, backordered and paid for across the business.
This video explains the key reports used by purchasing managers, including the PO Detail Report, Stock Value vs Sales Report, POE Report, Aged Stock Report, PO Payments Report and Purchasing Cash Flow Report.
Click here to view the full Purchasing and Receiving Master Class webinar.
If you are a Purchasing Manager, we strongly recommend that you attend our completely FREE Training Webinar that covers all aspects of Purchasing & Receiving products, using the POE Manager, and also all the Reports associated with your role. It's an interactive webinar where you can ask questions along the way.
Chapters
Timestamp | Chapter |
|---|
00:06 | Overview |
00:13 | PO Detail Report |
01:14 | Finding and Sorting Report Results |
02:05 | Reviewing Purchase Order Line Details |
02:46 | Stock Value vs Sales Report |
03:41 | Reviewing Purchases by Product Type |
05:32 | Reviewing Purchases by Outlet |
06:19 | POE Report |
07:11 | Reviewing POE Actions |
08:13 | Opening Purchase Orders and Products |
09:18 | Aged Stock Report |
11:13 | PO Payments Report |
12:36 | Purchasing Cash Flow Report |
13:37 | Filtering the Excel Report |
14:17 | Reviewing Deposits and Payment Due Dates |
15:27 | Summary |
Transcript
Retail Express includes several reports that support purchasing and receiving activities. These reports can be used to review Purchase Orders in detail, analyse the value of stock entering the business, track backorders, identify aged inventory and manage supplier-payment commitments.
PO Detail Report
Navigate to: Reports > Stock Reports > PO Detail Report
The PO Detail Report displays line-level information for Purchase Orders in Retail Express.
The available filters allow you to search using criteria such as:
- Purchase Order number
- Reference Purchase Order number
- Supplier invoice number
- Supplier SKU
- Product barcode
- Created date
- Received date
- Closed date
- Product Type
By default, the report displays activity from the beginning of the current month.
The results include information such as:
- Purchase Order number
- Creation date
- Current status
- Outlet
- Supplier
- Supplier invoice number
- Currency
- Purchase Order comments
Finding and Sorting Report Results
The report includes a Find field at the top of the results.
Enter a value, such as the name of an Outlet, and select Find. Retail Express moves to the first matching result and highlights it in the report.
The columns can also be sorted.
Select the sort control once to arrange a column from low to high. Select it again to sort from high to low.
You can sort using information such as:
- Outlet
- Supplier
- Invoice number
- Date
- Purchase Order status
Reviewing Purchase Order Line Details
Additional columns display important purchasing and receiving information, including:
- Estimated arrival dates
- Received dates
- Closed dates
- Sale dates
- Overseas shipping and container information
- Deposits
- Product Types
- Supplier SKUs and product codes
- Product descriptions
- Quantities ordered
- Quantities received
- Backordered quantities
- Product costs
- Retail values
- Customer backorders
The PO Detail Report is useful when you need to review Purchase Order information without opening each Purchase Order individually.
Stock Value vs Sales Report
Navigate to: Reports > Stock Reports > Stock Value vs Sales Report
The Stock Value vs Sales Report is a broader management report that compares inventory investment with sales performance.
For purchasing analysis, use the Purchase Orders Received date range to select the required period.
You can also filter the report using criteria such as:
- Product
- Outlet
- Brand
- Product attributes
The report can be grouped in different ways, including by Product Type or Outlet.
Reviewing Purchases by Product Type
When the report is grouped by Product Type, each Product Type is displayed on a separate row.
The results include:
- Annual stock turns
- Sales information
- Current stock
- Value of Purchase Orders received
- Direct costs
- Total cost of goods
- Units received
- Average value per unit
Place the cursor over a column heading to view information about the calculation used for that field.
The report also displays totals at the bottom of the results.
This makes it possible to review the total value and quantity of stock received during the selected period.
Comparing Inventory Investment With Sales
The Stock Value vs Sales Report can be used to compare the percentage of inventory investment in a category with the percentage of sales it generates.
For example, a Product Type may account for a large percentage of the current inventory investment while producing a different percentage of total sales.
This helps managers evaluate whether purchasing investment is aligned with product performance.
Reviewing Purchases by Outlet
Return to the report filters and group the results by Outlet to review where stock is being received.
This is particularly useful for businesses with multiple stores or warehouses.
The Outlet view helps you compare:
- Stock received by individual stores
- Stock received by warehouses
- The value of stock entering each location
- The channels through which inventory is entering the business
The results can highlight stores receiving stock directly rather than through a central warehouse or distribution location.
POE Report
Navigate to: Reports > Stock Reports > POE Report
The POE Report records the actions taken through the Purchase Order Error Manager.
When products are not fully received against a Purchase Order, the outstanding quantities can be sent to the POE Manager.
From there, the user may:
- Place the quantity back on the original Purchase Order as a backorder
- Create a new Purchase Order for the outstanding quantity
- Record a reason or note explaining why the quantity was not supplied
The POE Report provides a history of these actions.
Reviewing POE Actions
The report can be filtered using information such as:
- Date
- Purchase Order number
- Supplier
- Outlet
- Product
The results show details including:
- Original Purchase Order number
- New Purchase Order number, when one was created
- Quantity reordered
- Supplier invoice number
- Supplier
- Outlet
- Receiving date
- Product
- POE reason
- Notes
When the result contains the original Purchase Order and a second Purchase Order, a new order was created for the outstanding products.
When only the original Purchase Order is displayed, the quantity was generally placed back onto that order as a backorder.
Opening Purchase Orders and Products
Purchase Order numbers displayed in the POE Report are links.
Select a Purchase Order number to open the order in a new browser tab. You can then review or edit its details and product lines.
Product descriptions in the report may also be links.
Select a product to open its product record. From the product’s Audit tab, you can review current and previous Purchase Orders associated with that product.
These links make it possible to move from the report directly to the related Purchase Order or product record.
Aged Stock Report
Navigate to: Reports > Finance Reports > Aged Stock Report
The Aged Stock Report categorises inventory according to the date it was received through a Purchase Order.
The report’s legend explains the age periods used to group the inventory.
The report applies to Available inventory. It does not include Allocated stock that has already been committed to a layby, customer order or another fulfilment process.
The results show quantities held within different age ranges, such as:
- Less than 30 days
- Other configured age periods
- More than 90 days
- Unknown
Understanding Unknown and Aged Inventory
The Unknown column contains stock that was entered into Retail Express without being received through a Purchase Order.
This may include stock added through:
- A stocktake adjustment
- A manual inventory adjustment
- A product upload
- Another non-purchasing process
You can sort the report by an age column to identify products with the largest quantities of older stock.
This is particularly useful for products affected by:
- Expiry dates
- Seasonal demand
- Changing product ranges
- Storage costs
- Reduced demand over time
The results can also be exported to Microsoft Excel for further review.
PO Payments Report
Navigate to: Reports > Finance Reports > PO Payments Report
The PO Payments Report displays payments recorded against Purchase Orders.
This is commonly used for overseas or manufacturing orders where the supplier requires:
- An initial deposit
- Progress payments
- A final balance payment
The report includes information such as:
- Purchase Order number
- Payment value
- Payment date
- Estimated arrival date
- Whether the order has been made available
- Payment comments
The report can be filtered to show payments recorded during a particular period.
Managing Payments From the Report
The PO Payments Report includes links to the related Purchase Orders.
Select a Purchase Order when you need to review the original order or investigate a payment.
You can also record another Purchase Order payment from the report when an additional deposit or balance payment is required.
Purchasing Cash Flow Report
Navigate to: Reports > Finance Reports > Purchasing Cash Flow Report
The Purchasing Cash Flow Report provides detailed information about current and future financial commitments associated with Purchase Orders.
Because the report contains a large amount of information, it is generated directly as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet rather than displayed as a standard on-screen report.
Select the required Purchase Orders and choose Export to Excel.
Reviewing the Excel Report
The exported spreadsheet contains Purchase Order and supplier information such as:
- Purchase Order number
- Supplier
- Supplier invoice number
- Purchase Order comments
- Supplier comments
- Deposit required
- Deposit due date
- Balance due
- Other payment dates and values
Because the information is exported to Excel, you can use spreadsheet features such as:
- Sorting
- Filtering
- Freezing columns
- Hiding blank values
- Reviewing particular suppliers or Purchase Orders
Reviewing Deposits and Payment Due Dates
Use the spreadsheet filters to display only Purchase Orders that require a deposit.
You can then compare the deposit due dates with the payments already made.
This helps identify:
- Deposits that are due soon
- Deposits that are overdue
- Payments that have not yet been recorded
- Outstanding balance payments
- Upcoming supplier cash-flow commitments
The Purchasing Cash Flow Report helps finance and purchasing teams plan for supplier payments and follow up overdue obligations.
Purchasing and Receiving Report Summary
The reports demonstrated in this video provide different levels of purchasing visibility:
- The PO Detail Report provides line-level Purchase Order information.
- The Stock Value vs Sales Report compares incoming stock, inventory investment and sales performance.
- The POE Report records actions taken for products that were not initially received.
- The Aged Stock Report identifies older Available inventory.
- The PO Payments Report displays payments recorded against Purchase Orders.
- The Purchasing Cash Flow Report identifies deposits, balances and future supplier-payment commitments.