Sage Intelligence Reporting – Discovering the Power Beyond Financial Reporting

Sage conducted a survey back in 2015 that found that 98% of Sage customers rely on data to either support or aid in their decision-making processes. We honestly can’t imagine what’s going on with that other two percent—sounds a little like that one dentist who didn’t recommend sugarless gum to their patients who chew gum. Seriously, every business depends on data to make decisions. The smart ones, though, understand how to get up-to-date, accurate, meaningful data without heroic efforts—and we know you’re one of the smart ones.

You may already know that components of Sage Intelligence Reporting come to you as part of your Business Care plan, and most of our clients are leveraging this tool for their financial reporting needs. But in many cases, that’s where their use of Sage Intelligence Reporting ends. So, today we wanted to inspire you to use Sage Intelligence Reporting to streamline reporting and data sharing across other aspects of your operation. Here’s a glimpse at three standard reports included with Sage Intelligence Reporting that provide insight into sales, inventory and purchasing activity. Note that each report provides options to view the data in graph and/or chart format—and you can drill down on data elements to view the underlying transactions.

Sales Analysis

This report is an excellent tool your sales team can use to obtain up-to-date information on demand, without relying on the finance or IT department. It’s also useful for management to track profitability by product and by sales rep. Use the Sage Intelligence Reporting Customer Sales report to:

• Analyze customer buying behaviors
• Identify up and cross-selling opportunities
• Analyze sales performance by product

Inventory Holdings

In addition to the money you pay for actual product you sell, inventory costs your business because it requires labor to procure and store it, and to mark it down if nobody buys it. By optimizing your inventory holdings, you can reduce costs and increase profits, and decisions about how to optimize come from, you guessed it, data. The Sage Intelligence Reporting Inventory Status report can help you:

• Forecast the consumption of goods for the near future
• Determine stock requirements with respect to seasonal fluctuations
• Highlight inefficiencies in inventory management

Purchasing Activity

Visibility into your purchasing activity across the organization provides you with the insight needed to optimize procurement. Using the Sage Intelligence Reporting Vendor Purchases report you can perform a comparative analysis of your purchasing data, gaining visibility into the facts that can help you streamline your supply chain.

• Compare purchasing data across warehouses, divisions or product lines
• Identify vendors with whom volume discounts could be negotiated
• Identify purchasing cost variations over time

Sage Intelligence Reporting leverages Microsoft Excel, meaning you can use your existing Excel knowledge to easily manipulate and edit the standard reports to suit your business’s unique needs. You can also design new customized reports to provide the specific business insight you’re looking for.

We hope we’ve got you thinking about ways you can use Sage Intelligence Reporting to provide the business intelligence data all companies need to thrive. There are dozens of excellent resources available—including this informative recorded webinar—to help you build and edit reports and dashboards within the solution. Let us know how we can be of help.