What reports does a POS give you?
A POS should tell you what sold, how it was paid, what is left on the shelf and what you made. Wave POS answers those with a dashboard for today and thirteen reports, all built from the sales, returns, purchases and stock movements your tills and back office record as they happen.
Nobody has to add up receipt books at the end of the month. The figures are there as soon as the tills have sent their sales.
The dashboard: today at a glance
The dashboard shows how today is going against yesterday, for one branch or all of them. It shows sales by hour, so you can see when the lunchtime or after-work rush really comes; your top products; what came in by each payment method; and how each cashier is doing. Low stock and negative stock show there too, so problems reach you before a customer finds an empty shelf.
The thirteen reports, and what each answers
Each report answers one question a shop owner asks.
| Group | Report | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Sales | How much did we sell, net of returns, and what was the gross profit? By day, product, category or cashier. |
| Sales | Payments | What did cash, M-Pesa, card, bank, cheque and account each take? |
| Sales | Product performance | Which products sell best and earn most, and which are sitting on the shelf? |
| Profit and expenses | Profit and loss | After the cost of goods, stock written off and expenses, what did the business make? |
| Profit and expenses | Expenses | Where did the money go, by category? |
| Stock | Stock value | What is the stock on hand worth at average cost? |
| Stock | Stock movements | What came in and went out of stock, product by product? |
| Stock | Low stock | What is out of stock or running low? |
| Stock | Negative stock | Which items did the tills sell below zero, and so need a recount or a missing delivery recorded? |
| Tax and cash | VAT | How much VAT is on sales and purchases, by rate? |
| Tax and cash | Shifts | For each shift, what cash was expected in the drawer, what was counted, and was it over or short? |
| Accounts | Debtors | Which customers owe you, and for how long? |
| Accounts | Creditors | Which suppliers do you owe, and for how long? |
Sales and profit figures you can trust
Sales figures are net of returns, and profit uses each item’s cost at the time it was sold. That keeps the numbers honest when goods come back or your buying price changes.
Say you sell 10 tins of 5 litre cooking oil at KSh 1,450 and one comes back. The sales report shows 9 tins and KSh 13,050, not 10 tins and KSh 14,500. If the oil cost you KSh 1,240 a tin on average when it was sold, gross profit is KSh 1,890, and it stays KSh 1,890 even if next month’s delivery costs more.
The profit and loss report takes it the rest of the way: sales, cost of goods sold, gross profit, expenses and net profit. See expenses and profit for how expenses and petty cash get in, and the shop profit guide for reading the result.
The VAT report
The VAT report shows VAT on sales and on purchases, by rate, to help you or your accountant prepare the VAT return. It works with several tax rates and with prices set with or without VAT. You file the return yourself or through your accountant; export the report to Excel and the figures are ready to hand over.
Reports per branch, exported your way
Most reports can be run for one branch or for all of them, for the dates you choose. The debtors and creditors reports cover the whole business at once. Running several shops is covered in branches.
Every report exports to Excel, CSV or PDF:
- Excel or CSV for your accountant, or for your own sums in a spreadsheet.
- PDF to print, file or share with a partner.
The shifts report pairs well with the cash drawer reconciliation guide. And on plans that include it, Wave AI answers questions about the same figures in plain words, such as how much bread you sold last week.