Metrics for Monitoring Business Health – Part 6: Transactions

Why are Transactions and Average Transactions So Important?

As any business owner knows, you’re in business to make money. So how do your transactions stack up?

There are three sales goals for most businesses:

Increase number of transactions
Increase average transaction amount
Increase the number of lines on your transactions

Reporting on Transactions

Flash Sales Report

The Flash Sales Report can be run to show you a quick overview of your sales including:

Total Sales Dollars
Number of Transactions
Lines on all tickets

You can also use it to compare periods, such as comparing last month this year and the same month last year to see if you have improved in any of your sales goals.

To run the Flash Sales Report:

Select Sales History → Reports → Flash Sales

Choose a Print in order by from the drop-down menu

Enter a Date Range in Report periods for Report period A

(Optional) Check the box for Report period B and enter a date range to compare up to three time periods

Enter a store or click the button for All stores

(Optional) Check the box for Show pie chart

Click the Select columns tab
Pick and choose what data points to print on the report by moving the columns into the visible columns area by either:

Double-clicking a column header you want to add or remove
Clicking once and using the right or left arrow button

NOTE: Recommended data points include:

Sales
Profit $
Profit %
# of tickets
Average ticket
# of lines

If you have chosen more than five Visible columns/data points, use the Report drop-down at the top of the window to select one of the Wide column layouts

Uncheck the Rounding checkboxes

(Optional) Check or uncheck the Show percentage of total check box

NOTE: If checked the checkbox will show the percentage of the total sales and other data points. This can clutter the report. You can preview the report to determine if you want to keep the percentages of totals or not.