Sales analysis
A sales analysis report answers six questions, and each one has its figures
What goes in a monthly sales analysis report, why each part is there, and how to get one from the sales register you already export — every document counted once, every figure traceable to the invoices behind it.
Free to create. No subscription.
A sales analysis report format, section by section
Each section answers one question. If a figure on the report does not help answer one of these, it can usually come off.
| Section | Figures | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| The month in four figures | Net sales, sales invoices, the average invoice, customers billed | How big was the month, and was it bigger than the last? |
| The trend | Net sales and net purchases for each of the last twelve months | Is this month a blip or a direction? |
| Who bought | Net sales by customer, largest first; new and returning customers | Where did the sales come from, and are we winning new customers? |
| How exposed we are | The largest customer's share and the top five's share of net sales | What would losing one customer cost? |
| What came back | Credit notes, and returns as a share of sales | Are we selling things that stay sold? |
| Cash and tax | Receipts against payments; tax on sales against tax on purchases | Did the sales turn into money, and what tax is due? |
Compare with last month and with the same month last year
A figure alone says little. Beside last month it shows the direction; beside the same month last year it takes the season out, so a busy December is not mistaken for growth. Each money figure on the board carries both changes, worked out from the documents and never typed in.
A sales analysis report in Excel goes wrong in the same places
The workbook usually starts as a copy of last month’s with the new register pasted in. An invoice in both the sales register and the day book gets counted twice. A void invoice keeps its amount. A credit note is left out, or netted against the wrong month. And a new customer cannot be told from an old one, because the sheet holds one month.
Magic MIS Transactions reads the registers, a day book or an invoice list, counts each document once by its kind, number and date, leaves voids out and remembers every customer across the months you have loaded. If a list does not add up to the total it prints, you are told rather than given a wrong figure.
Change the report by asking for what you want
The board starts in the format above. Add a figure from the KPI library, or ask the assistant beside it — “show the top ten customers”, “add the returns rate for the last six months” — and it changes the board, with every figure still computed from the documents. Present it live, save it as a PDF or download the figures to Excel. More on the Transactions board.
What people ask about sales analysis reports
What is a sales analysis report?
A periodic report that breaks the period's sales down — by customer, by month, against the period before — so that whoever runs the business can see where the sales came from and where they are heading. It is built from sales records, not from estimates.
Is there a sales analysis report template in Excel?
A template is the six sections above, laid out on one sheet with last month beside this month. The hard part is not the layout but refilling it each month without double counting an invoice or keeping a void one. Uploading the registers here builds it the same way every time.
How often should a sales analysis report be prepared?
Monthly, once the month's invoices and credit notes are in. Weekly works for a business that sells many small orders, but the monthly report is the one to compare across a year.
Does it analyse sales by product?
Not yet: the board reads documents and the customers on them, not the items on each line. Sales by customer, by month and against last year are on it from the first upload.
Read next
- Customer-wise sales report from Tally, Excel or any invoice listA customer-wise sales report each month: net sales by customer after credit notes, new and returning customers and the top customers' share, from the registers you export.
- What is customer concentration risk?Customer concentration risk is how much of your sales depend on a few customers. How to measure it — the largest customer's and the top five's share — and when it needs attention.
- Transactions: a sales and purchase dashboard from your own registersLoad your sales and purchase registers, invoice lists or day book and get a monthly board of sales, purchases, receipts, payments, customers and tax, each document counted once.
Get this month's sales analysis
Create an account, add a Transactions company and upload the month's sales register or invoice list — paid per action from prepaid credits.
Prepaid credits, no subscription.