---
title: "Sales - Sales Almanac"
url: "https://help.aurapos.com/en/article/sales-sales-almanac"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2026-10-30T07:59:48.970Z"
---

# Sales - Sales Almanac

Five years of sales for your whole brand or one store, on one report. See every trading day of every month side by side, or your calendar and fiscal quarters, with a line chart comparing the years and six short insights such as your record trading day and your best month. Show turnover or gross sales, including or excluding VAT.

Updated Fri 30 Oct 2026

## Running the report

1

Open **Reports** in the brand portal and choose **Sales Almanac** under **Sales**.

2

Pick a store or leave it on **Brand-wide sales (All stores)**, choose **Turnover** or **Gross sales**, choose how to group the periods, and check whether you want figures including or excluding VAT (see Report options).

3

Run the report. There are no dates to choose: it always covers the last five years up to today. At the top of the first page the **Selected parameters** box repeats what you chose. You then get one block per year, followed by the **5 Year insights** and the chart on a new page.

**Tip**Run it with **Daily Sales per Month** to spot quiet days and public holidays, then again with **Fiscal Quarter** when you're preparing for your year end.

**Need a reminder of what something means?**Click **Explain this report**, the small blue link under the logo at the top right of the report, to open this guide.

## Report options

### Select a store

The whole brand (all stores added together) or one store. Stores are listed by name with their store number in brackets. Only active stores are listed.

Brand-wide sales (All stores)

Bob's Burgers Times Square (1001)

Bob's Burgers Wharf (1002)

### Select a sales type

Turnover

Gross sales

**Turnover** is what your customers were charged: after discounts, including delivery charges. **Gross sales** is the value of the items sold before any discounts. The year totals, the blue bar above the chart and every insight use the type you choose, and the **Selected parameters** box repeats it.

### Select your reporting periods

Daily Sales per Month

Calendar Quarter

Fiscal Quarter

**Daily Sales per Month** shows a grid of every day of every month (see Daily sales per month). **Calendar Quarter** shows each year as Q1 (Jan to Mar) to Q4 (Oct to Dec). **Fiscal Quarter** shows each financial year from March to February as FQ1 to FQ4 (see Calendar and fiscal quarters).

### Show sales figures

Inclusive (Brand default)

Exclusive

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 reconciliations, which count the money customers actually paid. Choose **Exclusive** to look at profitability, where VAT isn't your money. The report says which one you're looking at in the **Selected parameters** box, in the blue bar above the chart, next to the year total and in every insight: **(incl)** or **(excl)**.

**How exclusive figures are worked out**The report takes the VAT out using the actual VAT on each store's invoices for that month. For months where there are no invoices to work from (for example very old sales), it uses that store's average over the five years instead, so those months are a close estimate.

## The report at a glance

BOB'S BURGERS

Sales almanac report

5 year history

The line under the title always reads **5 year history**, whichever options you choose, because the report always covers the last five years up to today. What you chose is shown in the **Selected parameters** box just below. In the top right corner you'll see your logo with the **Explain this report** link under it. Each year block shows **Last updated on Fri 16 Oct 2026 at 06:15**: the report reads from a sales summary that is refreshed through the day, so sales made after that time aren't in yet. Each day is a trading day, ending at your store's close of trade time.

At the bottom of every page you'll find your brand name and brand number on the left, the report version and the page number on the right, and the date, time and name of the person who ran it, for example **Run on 30 Oct 2026 at 09:52 by Sam Smith.**

1.  Selected parameters: a box repeating the options you chose.
2.  Daily sales per month: every day of every month, one block per year (Daily Sales per Month only).
3.  Year totals: each month's total, number of invoices and average, and the year's grand total.
4.  Calendar and fiscal quarters: one line of quarter totals per year (quarter options only).
5.  5 Year insights: six sentences about your best days, months and quarters.
6.  The chart: one line per year so you can compare the years at a glance.

## Selected parameters

A pale blue box at the top of the first page, whichever reporting period you chose. It repeats your choices so a printed or saved copy of the report always says what it shows.

| Selected parameters |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| STORE 1 | REPORTING PERIOD 2 | SALES FIGURES 3 |
| **Brand-wide sales (All stores)** | **Daily sales per month** | **Turnover, including VAT** |

### 1 Store

The store you picked in **Select a store**, or **Brand-wide sales (All stores)**.

### 2 Reporting period

**Daily sales per month**, **Calendar quarter** or **Fiscal quarter**, from **Select your reporting periods**.

### 3 Sales figures

The sales type from **Select a sales type** followed by the VAT choice from **Show sales figures**: **Turnover, including VAT**, **Turnover, excluding VAT**, **Gross sales, including VAT** or **Gross sales, excluding VAT**.

## Daily sales per month

With **Daily Sales per Month** you get one block per year. Each row is a day of the month (**1st** to **31st**) and each column is a month, so you can read across to compare the same day in different months, or down to see how a month went. The shortened example below shows the first and last three days of January to March 2026.

| 2026 |  |  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Day | Jan | Feb | Mar | … |
| **1st** | \- 1 | 15 610 | 16 240 | … |
| **2nd** | 13 420 | 12 045 | 12 380 | … |
| **3rd** | 14 980 | 11 230 | 12 905 | … |
| … | … | … | … | … |
| **29th** | 12 610 | 2 | 15 120 | … |
| **30th** | 15 240 |  | 11 865 | … |
| **31st** | 16 875 |  | 12 440 | … |
| Tot: 3 | 412 380 | 398 655 | 431 210 | … |
| #: | 3 214 | 3 102 | 3 377 | … |
| Avg: | 128 | 129 | 128 | … |

Above each year's grid you'll see **Last updated on** with the date and time of the last refresh, and the note **Cents have been rounded to save horizontal space**.

### 1 A grey dash means no sales

The store traded, or could have traded, on that day but there were no sales, for example a public holiday when you were closed. Days still to come in the current year also show a dash.

### 2 A blank means the date doesn't exist

There's no 29 February in 2026, and no 30th or 31st either, so those cells are left empty. The same goes for the 31st of April, June, September and November. In a leap year the 29th of February is filled in.

### 3 Tot, # and Avg

**Tot:** is the month's total, **#:** is the number of invoices (sales) in the month and **Avg:** is the average invoice (Tot divided by #). Cents are rounded off in this grid to fit twelve months across the page; the year totals show the cents.

## Year totals

Under each year's grid is a box with the whole year added up. In this example the year is 2026 up to 16 October.

| 2026 totals |  |
| --- | --- |
| **Total turnover (incl):** 1 | 4 113 333.05 |
| Number of invoices: | 32 100 |
| **Average invoice:** 2 | 128.14 |

### 1 The total label follows your options

It reads **Total turnover (incl):**, **Total turnover (excl):**, **Total gross sales (incl):** or **Total gross sales (excl):**. The same year shown **Exclusive** would be 3 576 811.35, with an average invoice of 111.43.

### 2 Average invoice

The year's total divided by the number of invoices. The number of invoices is the same whether you show turnover or gross sales, inclusive or exclusive.

## Calendar and fiscal quarters

With **Calendar Quarter** or **Fiscal Quarter** you get one block per year with a total, number of invoices and average invoice for each quarter, and the year in the last column. These figures show cents. The **Selected parameters** box, the **5 Year insights** and the chart work exactly as they do for the daily grid.

|  | Q1  <br>Jan to Mar | Q2  <br>Apr to Jun | Q3  <br>Jul to Sep | Q4  <br>Oct to Dec | Year  <br>Total |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2026 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Total: | 1 242 245.00 | 1 301 870.50 | 1 356 402.25 | 212 815.30 1 | 4 113 333.05 |
| #: | 9 693 | 10 144 | 10 611 | 1 652 | 32 100 |
| Avg: | 128.16 | 128.34 | 127.83 | 128.82 | 128.14 |

### 1 The current quarter is still filling up

Q4 2026 only has sales up to the last refresh, so it will be much lower than the others until the quarter ends.

### Fiscal quarters

**Fiscal Quarter** uses a financial year from March to February: **FQ1** Mar to May, **FQ2** Jun to Aug, **FQ3** Sep to Nov and **FQ4** Dec to Feb. Each financial year is labelled with the year it starts in, so January and February 2026 appear under **2025**, in FQ4.

## 5 Year insights

Six short sentences picked from all five years. Amounts are rounded to the nearest rand, except the ticket average. If two periods are exactly equal, the earlier one is named.

| 5 Year insights |  |
| --- | --- |
| **Record sales** | Your record trading day was Friday 19th Dec 2025 with turnover (incl) of R48 215 |
| **Best performing month** | Your best performing month is December 2025 with turnover (incl) of R512 940 |
| **Busiest month** | Your busiest month is December 2025 with 3 962 sales |
| **Strongest calendar quarter** | Your strongest calendar quarter is Q4 (Oct to Dec) 2025 with turnover (incl) of R1 402 118 |
| **Strongest fiscal quarter** | Your strongest fiscal quarter is FQ4 (Dec to Feb) 2025 with turnover (incl) of R1 323 760 |
| **Highest ticket average** | Your highest ticket average (incl) is December 2025 at R129.46 |

Record sales

The single trading day with the highest sales.

Best performing month

The month with the highest sales.

Busiest month

The month with the most invoices, whatever their value. It doesn't change with turnover, gross sales or VAT.

Strongest calendar quarter / Strongest fiscal quarter

The quarter with the highest sales. FQ4 2025 is December 2025 to February 2026.

Highest ticket average

The month with the highest average invoice (sales divided by invoices).

The insights are the same whichever reporting periods you choose; only the store, the sales type and **Show sales figures** change them.

## The chart

Under the insights, a blue bar repeats the sales type, the VAT choice and the grouping (for example **Turnover (incl) by month**) above a line chart with one coloured line per year. Months or quarters run along the bottom and sales up the side, so you can see at a glance whether this year is running ahead of last year.

In **Daily Sales per Month**, months with no sales aren't plotted, so a year that started part way through (or this year's months still to come) simply has a shorter line.

## Frequently asked questions

Why doesn't today's figure match my till or cash-up?

The report reads from a sales summary that's refreshed through the day, so recent sales may not be in yet. Check **Last updated on** at the top of each year. Also make sure **Show sales figures** is on **Inclusive** and the sales type is **Turnover**, because cash-ups count what customers paid including VAT.

Why does the heading always say 5 year history?

The report always covers the last five years up to today, whichever options you choose, so the heading doesn't change. The options you chose are in the **Selected parameters** box under it, and the sales type and VAT choice are repeated in the blue bar above the chart.

Why are some cells a dash and some blank?

A grey dash means there were no sales on a date that exists. A blank means the date doesn't exist, like 30 February or 31 April.

Why don't the monthly figures add up exactly to the year total?

The day and month figures in the grid have their cents rounded off to fit the page. The year total box adds up the exact amounts, so it can differ from adding the rounded figures by a few rand.

Why is a late-night sale shown on the previous day?

Each day is a trading day that ends at your store's close of trade time. A sale at 00:30 belongs to the trading day before if your store trades past midnight. If your close of trade time was changed, sales recorded before the change keep the day they were given at the time.

Are exclusive figures exact?

For turnover, each month's exclusive figure matches the VAT on that store's invoices for the month. Gross sales exclusive uses the same rate, so it's a very close estimate. Older months with no invoice detail use the store's five-year average VAT rate.

Why does January 2026 show under 2025 in the fiscal quarters?

Your financial year runs from March to February and is labelled with the year it starts in. January and February 2026 are the end of the financial year that started in March 2025, so they're in FQ4 of 2025.

Why is a store missing from the list?

Only active stores are listed. A closed store's sales are still included in **Brand-wide sales (All stores)**.

Why does the report only go back five years, and why is the first year short?

The report is built to compare recent years, so it always covers the five years up to today, counted back from today's date. That means the first year shown starts part way through, and the current year ends today, so both are part years.

## Glossary

5 year history

The heading under the report title. The report always covers the last five years up to today.

Average invoice / Avg

Sales divided by the number of invoices.

Brand default

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

Calendar quarter

Q1 Jan to Mar, Q2 Apr to Jun, Q3 Jul to Sep, Q4 Oct to Dec.

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.

Explain this report

The small blue link at the top right of the report that opens this guide.

Fiscal quarter

A quarter of the March to February financial year: FQ1 Mar to May, FQ2 Jun to Aug, FQ3 Sep to Nov, FQ4 Dec to Feb.

Gross sales

The value of the items sold, before discounts.

Inclusive (incl)

Figures including VAT, the money your customers actually paid.

Number of invoices / #

How many sales were made.

Selected parameters

The box at the top of the first page that repeats the options you chose.

Trading day

A day's trade, from close of trade one day to close of trade the next.

Turnover

What customers were charged: after discounts, including delivery charges.

VAT

Value-added tax, or your country's equivalent sales tax.