Sales - Best Sellers

Running the report

Report options

Select your start date / end date

The first and last trading day to include. Your store's close of trade time is used, so a sale after midnight but before close of trade counts towards the previous trading day. Both default to today.

Select the number of products to show

How many items each list shows before the Other line. The default is 5. A bigger number gives longer lists and more pages.

Hide menu item options

Ticked, the options rung up under an item (for example Medium Egg or Rye Bread under Eggs on toast) are left out of the lists so the real menu items rise to the top. Untick it to list every option as its own line. Totals, the summary tables, the pie charts and every percentage stay exactly the same either way: the options' sales are still counted, they move into Other.

Which sales type do you want to see?

Gross sales is each item at its selling price. Net sales takes each item's share of the invoice's discounts off. The column headings change to Gross sales or Net sales to match. Quantities don't change.

Hide category names

Ticked, items are listed as Classic Burger instead of Burgers - Classic Burger. Use it when item names are long and get cut off.

Show sales figures

Whether every rand figure on the report includes or excludes VAT. Your brand chooses which one is the default: it's always first in the list, marked (Brand default), and already selected when you open the report. If your brand has chosen exclusive, the list reads Exclusive (Brand default) and Inclusive.

Choose Inclusive to compare with your cash-ups and the Recon report, which count the money customers actually paid. Choose Exclusive to look at profitability, where VAT isn't your money. Every rand column heading says which one you're looking at, for example Gross sales (incl), Net sales (excl) or Payment (excl).

The report at a glance

The dates are trading days, Monday 12 to Sunday 18 October here, for a store that closes trade at 02:00. The star points to the note at the bottom of every page: sales between midnight and your close of trade time are included in the previous day's sales. If your store's close of trade is midnight, there's no star and the line ends at 23:59 on the last day.

1. Overall: your store's top items for the whole period, by quantity and by value.
2. Overall drilldown: each of those top items split by where its sales came from.
3. Category: the top items in each menu category, then a summary of all categories.
4. Day of week, Sales channel, Sit down / Take away, Time of day and Transaction type: the top items in each day, channel and so on, each with a summary table and pie charts.
5. Payment type: the top items for each way customers paid.

Overall

The top items for the whole period. The left list ranks items by how many were sold, the right list by how much money they brought in. An item can be in one list and not the other: chips sell in big numbers but at a low price, a premium burger the other way round.

1 Most popular

The items with the highest quantity sold, biggest first. Quantities show one decimal (612.0); you'll only see a decimal other than 0 in the Payment type section.

2 % contrib to total

The item's share of everything sold in the period: 612 of the 4 820 items sold is 12.7%.

3 Other

Everything that isn't in the list, added together, so the list always adds up to the full total: 4 820 items and R268 450.00 here. The percentages then add up to 100% (give or take rounding).

4 Money spinners

The items that brought in the most money, biggest first. The heading tells you what the figures are: Gross sales or Net sales (from Which sales type do you want to see?), and (incl) or (excl) (from Show sales figures). With Exclusive the same Classic Burger line would read 47 842.43 under Gross sales (excl): 612 burgers at R89.90 is R78.17 each before VAT.

Category name - Menu item name

The menu category, a dash, then the item. Tick Hide category names to show the item only.

Overall drilldown

Under the two Overall lists, Overall best sellers source of sales - drilldown takes every item from either list and shows where its sales came from: take away or sit down, transaction type, sales channel, time of day and day of week. Items are listed alphabetically. The first item is open; click any item's name to open or close it.

1 The item

One block per item that made either top list. With 5 products, that's between 5 and 10 items.

2 Each breakdown

Each breakdown adds up to the item's full total (612 Classic Burgers, R55 018.80). The two % columns are each line's share of that breakdown, by quantity and by value. Within a breakdown, the biggest earner is first.

3 Time of day in the drilldown

The breakdowns are listed in alphabetical order. Time of day here uses the same eight three-hour periods as the Time of day section further down, from Breakfast (6am to 9am) to Early morning (3am to 6am). These match the KPI and Labour as % of sales reports. Like every breakdown, the biggest earner is listed first, not the earliest period.

Category

The top items in each menu category, with each category as its own small list, then a summary of all categories. Unlike the other summaries, the category summary is sorted by size: biggest quantity first under Most popular, biggest value first under Money spinners.

1 % contrib to sec

The item's share of its own category (the section it's listed under): Regular Chips is 48.0% of all R33 520.00 of Sides. This example shows 2 products per list to keep it short.

2 The summary table and pie chart

Every category with its total and its share of all sales. The number on the left is coloured to match the category's slice in the pie chart next to it. The categories add up to the Overall total (R268 450.00).

Day of week and the other sections

Day of week, Sales channel, Sit down / Take away, Time of day and Transaction type all work the same way: a Most popular and a Money spinners list for each day, channel and so on, then a summary table and a pie chart. Here is part of the Most popular side of Day of week, with 3 products shown.

1 One list per day

The top items sold on that day of the week, across all the Sundays in your period. % contrib to sec is the item's share of that day: 131 of the 912 items sold on Sundays is 14.4%.

2 Summary table and pie chart

Each day's total and its share of the week. The days add up to the Overall total (4 820). The Money spinners side has the same table in rands. The numbers are coloured to match the slices of the pie chart beside the table.

What each section groups by

Day of week

The day the sale was rung up, Sunday to Saturday, in the store's local time.

Sales channel

Where the order came from, such as in store or a delivery partner. Your brand's default channel is listed first.

Sit down / Take away

Whether each item was rung up to eat in or to take away.

Time of day

Eight three-hour periods: Breakfast (6am to 9am), Mid-morning (9am to 12pm), Lunch (12pm to 3pm), Afternoon (3pm to 6pm), Dinner (6pm to 9pm), Late evening (9pm to midnight), Late night (midnight to 3am) and Early morning (3am to 6am). These match the KPI and Labour as % of sales reports.

Transaction type

How the sale was rung up: Counter, Collect, Delivery, Table, Drive Thru or Lounge, in that order.

Payment type

The top items for each way customers paid, using the same payment names as the Recon report. The Money spinners side shows what each payment type paid for those items, under the heading Payment (incl) or Payment (excl). Payment types are listed biggest first, with Unpaid and No payment recorded last.

1 Matches the Recon report

With Show sales figures on Inclusive, each payment type's total matches the Recon report for the same store and dates. Because what customers pay includes delivery charges and rounding, and leaves out discounts, these totals are a little different from the item sales in the other sections. With Exclusive, each payment type shows what it paid less the VAT, so it won't match the Recon report.

Why some quantities have decimals

When an order is paid with more than one payment type, its items are shared across those payment types according to how much each one paid. An order of 1 burger paid R60 by card and R40 in cash shows 0.6 under Card and 0.4 under Cash. The quantities still add up to the total number of items sold. The report repeats this note at the bottom of the section.

Account - <sales channel>

An account sale, for example a delivery partner that pays you later.

No payment recorded

Items on an order with no payment and nothing owing, such as a fully discounted R0 sale.

Unpaid

The part of an order that's still owing.

Watch the video

A short walkthrough of the Best Sellers report: the options, the two lists in each section and how to read the summary tables and pie charts.

Can't see the video? Watch it on YouTube.

Frequently asked questions

Glossary

Brand default

The VAT setting your brand has chosen for sales reports. It's preselected in Show sales figures.

Close of trade

The time your store's trading day ends. Sales before it count towards that day.

Exclusive (excl)

Figures with VAT taken out.

Gross sales

The value of the items sold at their selling price, before discounts.

Inclusive (incl)

Figures including VAT, the money your customers actually paid.

Menu item options

The choices rung up under an item, such as an egg size or a type of bread.

Money spinners

The items that brought in the most money.

Most popular

The items sold in the biggest numbers.

Net sales

Gross sales less each item's share of the discounts on its order.

Other

Everything not shown in a list, added together, so the list adds up to its full total.

% contrib to sec

An item's share of the day, channel, category or other group it's listed under.

% contrib to total

A share of all sales in the period (Overall), or a group's share of its whole section (summary tables).