Infinity POS
Retail POS reporting an owner actually reads
Sales, margin and movement reporting built into the platform — so the monthly question gets answered on a screen rather than in a spreadsheet somebody rebuilds every time.
Remote implementation nationwide. Onsite service across Tampa Bay.
What reporting does a retail POS system need to provide?
Enough to answer three questions without an export: what sold, what it earned, and what is not moving. Those are margin questions rather than sales questions, which is why reporting has to read the same item file that holds cost and price rather than totalling the till. Reporting that lives outside the system is reporting somebody has to rebuild, and that is the reason it stops happening.
The test is whether the report gets looked at. A number that takes an afternoon to assemble gets assembled at year end; a number on a dashboard gets used on a Tuesday.
- Margin, not just revenueThe busiest line is often the thinnest.
- By department and by lineTotals hide the decision you need to make.
- Inside the platformA report that needs rebuilding stops being run.
- Against the same item fileReporting on a separate copy reports on a different store.
Reporting is only as good as what has been recorded. A store that does not receive deliveries into the system will get sales reporting it can trust and margin reporting it cannot.
What it does
The questions reporting answers
These are the ones retailers actually ask us about.
What sold, and what it earned
Sales and margin by department, category and line.
What is not moving
Inventory managementThe stock quietly holding working capital.
How the tills reconciled
Cash managementOver, short, and by whom.
What the supplier actually charged
Purchase ordersCost movement against what was ordered.
Who relies on it
Who reads these reports, and what each trade looks for
The reports are the same in every store. The question each trade brings to them is not.
Grocery stores
Grocery POSDepartment margin, and the shrink in fresh departments that a total hides.
Convenience stores
Convenience POSMovement across a long, fast-moving item file, and the lines that stop selling.
Liquor stores
Liquor POSMargin per line, where neighboring bottles can earn very different amounts.
Specialty retail
Specialty retail POSSlow and dead lines in a deep catalog, found before the cash in them is a year old.
Where retail reporting breaks down
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Reporting happens in a spreadsheet
It is rebuilt each month until the month nobody has time.
Reporting is part of the platform rather than an export from it.
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Nobody can say which lines make money
Range decisions get made on gut feel.
Margin by line, against the cost the item file holds.
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The numbers disagree between systems
The meeting becomes an argument about data.
One item file, so there is one set of numbers to disagree with.
Item file setup -
Shrink is discovered at year end
A year is a long time to lose money invisibly.
Movement and count variance reported as they happen.
Stock take
In a demo
What to ask to see in a reporting demo
Ask for these in a demo, for a period you choose, and without an export to a spreadsheet.
Margin, from department to line
Ask to see margin for one department, then for the lines inside it, and which of them earn the least.
Two periods side by side
Ask to see a month compared with the same month a year earlier, by department.
One shift’s cash
Cash managementAsk to see one shift’s cash reconciled, and the drawer activity behind any difference.
The lines that are not moving
Inventory managementAsk to see the lines that are not moving, and the stock they are holding.
Reporting questions
Can I see margin by product?
Yes, where the item file holds cost for that product. Reporting reads the same file the register does, so the quality of the margin figure follows the quality of the cost data.
Can I compare periods?
Yes. Comparing like periods is usually more useful than a single total, particularly in seasonal retail.
Do I need to export to a spreadsheet?
Not for the routine questions. The point of reporting inside the platform is that the answer does not need assembling first.
Can I see reporting across more than one location?
Where a store runs more than one site, reporting reads the same item file across them. How that is configured is part of the specification.
What is retail POS reporting software?
Reporting built into the point-of-sale system itself, reading the same item file the register rings from, so sales, margin, inventory movement, cash and purchasing can be reviewed without rebuilding them in a spreadsheet.
Can POS reporting help identify inventory problems?
Yes, where receiving and counts are recorded in the system. Movement and variance reporting shows which lines are not selling and where a count disagrees with the file; stock that was never received cannot be reported on.
Can reporting help investigate cash shortages?
Yes. Till reconciliation by shift and by user shows over and short and who was on the drawer, which is what turns a shortage into something that can be traced.
What is inventory turn?
How many times the stock a store holds is sold through over a period. A low turn on a line is cash sitting on a shelf, and it is more useful read by department than as one figure for the whole store.
Why do POS reports sometimes show the wrong numbers?
Because a report can only total what was recorded. Deliveries that were never received, costs that were never updated and sales rung to an open department all produce figures that look precise and are wrong.
Tell us what you cannot currently see
The question you keep asking and cannot answer without a spreadsheet. That is usually the fastest way to show what changes.