Report definitions
What every report and column counts, on which date, how item sales are worked out, and what the reports do not do.
What every report and column counts, on which date, and what the reports deliberately do not do. The same definitions are printed in each export.
The figures, kept apart#
| Figure | Definition |
|---|---|
| Invoiced | The totals of issued invoices. Never changed by a payment, a write-off or a credit note. |
| Payments received | The sum of recorded payments. A write-off or applied credit is never a payment. |
| Credits applied | Credit from the customer's credit notes applied to invoices. Lowers what an invoice can collect, as a payment would, with no money moving. |
| Written off | Write-offs minus their reversals. Money that did not arrive and is no longer expected. |
| Outstanding | Invoiced minus payments, credits applied and write-offs still in force: what can still be collected. |
For an invoice of 1,000 with a payment of 300 and a write-off of 200: invoiced 1,000, received 300, written off 200, outstanding 500. Reversing the write-off makes outstanding 700 and leaves received at 300. Applying 100 of credit from a credit note then makes outstanding 600, and received is still 300.
Credit notes reduce sales: Net sales is sales excluding tax minus credit notes excluding tax, each on its own issue date. A credit note reduces sales when it is issued, whether or not its credit has been used yet. Refunds are credit paid back in cash: money out, not a second reduction of sales.
Which invoices count#
Issued invoices only: an invoice with a number that is not a draft, void or cancelled. Quotations and other document types are never in these reports.
Date basis#
Each figure is counted on its own date:
| Figure | Counted on |
|---|---|
| Invoices, sales, tax, items | The invoice's issue date |
| Payments received | The date recorded for the payment |
| Written off, reversed | The entry's effective date |
| Credit notes | The credit note's own issue date |
| Credits applied | The date the credit was applied |
| Refunds | The refund date |
| Outstanding | Today, for the invoices issued in the period |
So a row can show payments with no invoices in the period: money arrived for an invoice issued earlier.
An issued invoice with no issue date is not in any dated period. It appears under All time, and reports say how many there are. Bookmaker does not use the date the invoice was created instead.
Currencies#
Every amount is in the currency of its invoice. Rows carry their currency, each currency has its own total, and nothing is converted or added across currencies.
Sales by customer#
| Column | Counts |
|---|---|
| Invoices | Invoices issued in the period. |
| Sales excl. tax | Invoice totals minus tax. Includes shipping and fees charged on the invoice. |
| Credit notes | The customer's credit notes issued in the period, minus tax. Draft and void credit notes are left out. |
| Net sales | Sales excl. tax minus credit notes. Negative when more was credited than sold in the period. |
| Tax | Tax on those invoices. |
| Invoiced | Invoice totals including tax. |
| Payments received | Payments dated in the period on the customer's invoices, whenever the invoice was issued. |
| Credits applied | Credit applied in the period to the customer's invoices. |
| Written off | Write-offs minus reversals effective in the period. |
| Refunds | Credit paid back to the customer in the period. Hidden until you choose it from the columns menu. |
| Outstanding now | Today's collectible balance of the invoices issued in the period. |
Invoices with no customer record are grouped by the name written on them.
Sales by item#
Figures are what was written on each invoice line at the time, never today's catalogue price or name.
| Column | Counts |
|---|---|
| Item | The product's current name, or the line's description when it is not from the catalogue. |
| As invoiced | The description on the most recent line in the period, and how many different descriptions were used. |
| Unit | The unit on the lines. The same item in two units is two rows. |
| Quantity | Quantity invoiced, in the row's unit. Not totalled, because units differ. |
| Invoices | Different invoices carrying the item. |
| Line discounts | Quantity times price, minus the line amount. |
| Invoice discount share | The item's share of discounts given on the whole invoice. |
| Sales excl. tax | Line amounts after both discounts, with any tax included in the price taken out. |
| Credited quantity | Quantity on credit-note lines for the item, issued in the period. Hidden until you choose it. |
| Credit notes | Credit-note line amounts for the item, minus tax. |
| Net sales | Sales excl. tax minus credit notes. |
| Tax | The item's share of the tax on its invoices. |
How shares are worked out:
- A discount on the whole invoice is shared across its lines in proportion to their amounts.
- A tax is shared across the lines it was charged on.
- Shares are rounded to the currency's smallest unit so that they add up exactly to the invoice's own figure. No line is ever off by more than one unit.
- Shipping, fees and other amounts that are not on a line are not item sales. The Reconciliation under the report shows them: item sales, plus tax on items, plus those amounts, equals the invoices' totals.
Catalogue items are grouped by the product itself, so two products with the same name stay separate. Lines typed without a product are grouped by their exact description and unit, and marked Not in catalogue. Archived products still appear, marked.
A formula column on an invoice is a displayed value. It does not change a line's amount, so it is not part of item sales.
Quantities are quantities invoiced. This is not a stock report.
Sales by salesperson#
| Column | Counts |
|---|---|
| Customers | Different customers invoiced in the period. |
| Invoices | Invoices issued in the period. |
| Sales excl. tax | Invoice totals minus tax. |
| Credit notes | Credit notes issued in the period, minus tax, counted toward this salesperson. |
| Net sales | Sales excl. tax minus credit notes. |
| Average invoice | Sales excluding tax divided by the number of invoices. |
| Payments received | Payments dated in the period on the salesperson's invoices. |
| Written off | Write-offs minus reversals effective in the period on those invoices. |
| Outstanding now | Today's collectible balance of the invoices issued in the period. |
Credits applied and Refunds are available from the columns menu.
The salesperson is the one assigned on the invoice, never the person who created it. A credit note has no salesperson of its own: it counts toward the salesperson of the invoice its Reference names, and under Unassigned otherwise. This report does not calculate commission, profit, payroll or targets.
Invoices#
One row per invoice issued in the period. Paid to date, Credits applied, Written off and Outstanding now are the invoice's position today.
Payments received#
One row per payment, by payment date. Payments on void and cancelled invoices are left out, and the report says how many and how much. Applied credit is not here: it is not money received. Refunds are in the Credit notes report.
Credit notes#
One row per credit note issued in the period, by its issue date. Drafts, void and cancelled credit notes are left out.
| Column | Counts |
|---|---|
| Status | Closed means all of its credit is used. |
| Total | The credit note total including tax. Credit excl. tax (from the columns menu) is what Net sales takes off. |
| Applied to invoices | Credit applied to the customer's invoices so far. |
| Refunded | Credit paid back so far. |
| Credit left | What the customer can still use or be refunded today. It is owed to them. |
Bad debt#
One row per write-off or reversal, by effective date.
| Column | Counts |
|---|---|
| Written off | The amount of a write-off. Always positive. |
| Reversed | The amount of a reversal. Always positive. |
| Net movement | Written off minus reversed. Positive adds to bad debt. |
| Reverses | For a reversal: the write-off it undoes and that write-off's date. |
| Still written off | For a write-off: how much of it is in force today. |
A write-off stays in the period it took effect in after it is reversed; the reversal appears in its own period.
Comparing#
A percentage is given only against a positive figure in the comparison period. Against zero the change is New; against a negative figure it is N/A; when both are zero nothing is shown.
What the reports do not do#
- They do not reconstruct balances as at a past date.
- They do not convert currencies.
- They do not move credit by themselves. A credit note reduces sales when issued, but it lowers an invoice's balance only once its credit is applied to that invoice.
- They are not tax returns or statutory accounts. A write-off here is an operational record of receivables, not a tax entry.
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