Mekashron provides you with powerful reporting and analysis tools that you can use to easily examine your business data.
In this section, we will see how to create and view reports that relate specifically to your Sales data, and then we will take a look at the Statistics function that Mekashron offers you.
1 - Overview of Sales Reports
The reports are accessed from the main Mekashron menu via Tools -> Reports:
Figure 1.1 - Accessing Mekashron's Reports from the Main Menu
Here is the default Report screen:
Figure 1.2 - The Reports Screen
If you expand the Sales report type group by clicking on it, you will see that Mekashron comes pre-installed with 8 useful Sales Reports that you can instantly use in your business to leverage the power of the data which Mekashron holds for you.
Figure 1.3 - The Pre-installed Sales Reports
The 8 Sales Reports can be categorized into 4 different types.
There are 3 Order Reports:
- Orders by Entities
-
Recurring Orders
-
Orders by Operators
The next report is a Documents Report.
Then we have 2 reports of the Inventory type:
- Inventory Orders
-
Inventory Order by Operators
And finally there are two Payments Reports:
- Order Payments
- Payments by Operator
Well look at each of the Reports in turn, but first lets examine the Standard Report Options which affect all reports.
2 - Standard Report Options
The footer of the Reports screen has a Reports Options button where you can set some standard options that affect all reports.
Figure 2.1 - The Reports Options Button
Click on this button and you are presented with this screen:
Figure 2.2 - The Reports Options Screen
The options available are:
- Header Logo - Here you can setup an image for your header logo, that will automatically be added to your reports when you generate them for printing. Simply click on the Browse button and Mekashron will open up a Windows explorer dialog box so that you can select an image file that is saved on your PC or on your network.
- Footer Image - You can set up an image for your Footer in the same way as the header logo.
- Print Caption - Tick the box if you wish to have an underlined Caption printed on each report, and then type in the text that you would like for your caption.
- Print Value - Tick the box if you wish to have an underlined Value printed on each report, and then type in the text that you would like for your Value.
In addition to the options accessible from the Report Options button, there are some more functions that are available regardless of which report you are using:
Figure 2.3 - The Global Reports Functions
These functions are (from left to right in the footer shown above):
- Report Options - We've already looked at the standard report options.
- Save to Favorites - Once you have customized a particular report to your needs, you can use this option to save the report in the list on the left so that you can access it again in the future.
- Need More Reports Link - Not a function but please note that if the pre-configured reports provided with Mekashron do not completely fulfil your requirements, please feel free to contact us at any time to request additional reporting options. We are always happy to help you get the best from Mekashron!
- Output Type - Mekashron can send your report directly to your installed printer, allow you to preview it before printing, or alternatively export it to one of several formats:
Figure 2.4 - Output Type Options for Mekashron Reports
- Preview - Shows you the report in print preview mode.
- Printer - Sends your report directly to your default installed printer.
- HTML - The default option - creates an HTML file of your report that you can save, print or email as required.
- RTF - Exports your report to a Rich Text Format file.
- TEXT - Exports your report to a Text file.
- Orientation - Allows you to choose whether you wish to generate your report in Portait (the default) or Landscape orientation:
Figure 2.5 - Orientation Options for Mekashron Reports
- Generate Report Button - Once you are ready, use this button to create your report.
Figure 2.6 - The Generate Report Button
3 - Sales Reports: Orders Reports
Orders by Entities: Lets take a look at the first Sales Report in Mekashron the Orders by Entities report. Here you can easily report on all the orders made by your clients.
Figure 3.1 - Customization Options for the Orders by Entities Report
There are plenty of customization options for this report. Before we look at these, lets see what the report looks like with the standard options selected.
First, select the business you wish to run the report for from the drop down box entitled Business at the top right of the screen
Figure 3.2 - The Business Dropdown
then choose to preview the report and click on the Generate button.
Figure 3.3 - Generating the Report
Mekashron will open up the report for you in preview mode:
Figure 3.4 - The Orders by Entities Report in Preview Mode
In this default view, we are seeing all of our orders for all time, with a separate section on the report for each Entity (client).
Closing the preview screen and returning to our main screen for the Orders by Entities report
Figure 3.5 - Filtering Options for the Orders by Entities Report
you can see that it is possible to filter the data for the report. There are number of options and you can use one or all of them.
The options on the left of the screen include:
Filtering by Date:
Figure 3.6 - The Controls for Filtering by Date
Filtering by Orders Values:
Figure 3.7 - The Controls for Filtering by Order Values
And filtering by Order Status
Figure 3.8 - Options for Filtering by Order Status
On the right of the screen there is another filtering option, the ability to filter by User in other words the person that was logged onto the Mekashron application when the order was created:
Figure 3.9 - Filtering by User
In addition to filtering the data on the report, you can also specify which fields you wish to be reported on.
Figure 3.10 - The Visible Fields Options
The default fields that are selected for this report are:
- OrderID - The unique ID number of the order.
- Order Date - The date the order was created.
- Username - The user that created the order.
- Currency - The currency of the order.
- Total Order - The total value of the order.
however you can choose from a wide variety of other fields relating to your orders, so that you can customize the report to exactly how you want to see it.
Note that in addition to selecting your chosen fields you can also change the order in which the fields appear on the report using the blue arrow buttons at the bottom right of the Visible Fields control. Simply highlight one of your selected fields in the list and click the up arrow or the down arrow to move the field.
Recurring Orders: The Recurring Orders report allows you to report specifically on Orders for which you have set up a Recurrence within Mekashron. Other orders wont be shown on this report.
Here is the standard setup for the Recurring Orders report:
Figure 3.11 - Default Settings for the Recurring Orders Report
As for the other Orders type of reports, you can filter your data by Date, Order Value, Order Status (Open, Closed or All) and by User.
You can also select the exact fields that you wish to report on in the Visible Fields section. The available fields for this report are the standard Order fields and in addition the Cycle (i.e. Billing Cycle) and the Next Due Date for your recurring orders.
Orders by Operators: The Orders by Operators report is very similar to the Orders by Entities report, which we looked at in detail above. You have the same options to filter and customize the report, as shown below.
Figure 3.12 - Options for the Orders by Operators Report
This reports simply groups your data by Operator rather than by Entity, as we can see in the Preview example below.
Figure 3.13 - Preview of the Orders by Operators Report
4 - Sales Reports: Document Report
This report allows you to report on one or more Documents that you have created for an entity or for an order.
Figure 4.1 - Options for the Documents Report
The filtering options available for the Documents Report are:
- Date Range
- Document ID Range
- Documents Kind check the boxes for the types of document, e.g. Invoice, Receipt, etc, that you wish to include on the report.
In Preview, the default report looks like this:
Figure 4.2 - Preview of the Documents Report
As you can see, the report is conveniently grouped by document type.
You can use the Visible Fields tool to select which of the many available fields you would like to be reported on for your documents report.
Figure 4.3 - Visible Fields Options for the Documents Report
5 - Sales Reports: Inventory Reports
There are two Inventory reports in the Sales section that allow you to report on the orders within your system.
Inventory Orders
and
Inventory Order by Operators
Both reports have the same filtering options; the only difference is that the second report is grouped by Operator.
Date Range and Users are the standard filters as we have seen for previous reports.
The Inventory-specific filters for these reports are:
Inventory: This filter lists the various products that exist within your inventory, and you can select one or multiple of these products as desired and the report will report on orders that contain these products.
Figure 5.1 - Filtering the Inventory Reports by Product
Document Options. These options allow you to decide which orders you want to report on in terms of the status that the orders are in.
Figure 5.2 - The Document Options Filter
For example, if you wish to report only on orders that have already been invoiced, your selection would be:
Figure 5.3 - Reporting on Orders that have been Invoiced
If you wanted to report on orders that have been invoiced, but EXCLUDE those that have been shipped:
Figure 5.4 - Reporting on Orders Invoiced but not yet Shipped
and any other combination that you require.
The default fields that are selected for both of the Inventory Reports are:
- Invoice #
- Product Name
- Price
And you can choose from a wide variety of other fields that you may wish to display, simply by selecting them in the Visible Fields section:
Figure 5.5 - The Visible Fields Options for the Inventory Reports
6 - Sales Reports: Payments Reports
There are two Payments reports in the Sales section.
Order Payments
and
Payments by Operator
Both reports have the same filtering options; the only difference is that the second report is grouped by Operator.
Date Range and Users are the standard filters as we have seen for previous reports.
The Payments-specific filters for these reports are:
Payment Kind One or more of cash, credit card or cheque payments.
Figure 6.1 - Payment Kind Options for the Payments Reports
Receipt Options Choose to include payments that have a Receipt or do not have an Invoice (or both)
Figure 6.2 - Receipt Options for the Payments Reports
Payment State Choose to show Live or Deleted payments (or both)
Figure 6.3 - Payment State Options for the Payments Reports
Payment Status Choose to show Charged or Uncharged payments (or both)
Figure 6.4 - Payment Status Options for the Payments Reports
The Visible Fields section for the Payments reports, as for the other reports in Mekashron, allow you to select exactly the fields that you wish to display on your reports:
Figure 6.5 - Visible Fields Options for the Payments Reports
7 - Statistics
Mekashrons Statistics functions are accessed from the main Mekashron menu via Tools -> Statistics:
Figure 7.1 - Accessing the Statistics Functions in Mekashron
8 - Summary
The data that you will build up in your Mekashron system over time will be an extremely valuable asset of your business. The versatile Mekshron reports and statistics that come packaged in with your application allow you to tap into your data and find the management information relating to your sales - all at the click of a button.