Understanding Insights and advanced reporting

Insights features (forecasting, order recommendations, custom reporting) are available to merchants on Plus plans.

Insights features and advanced reporting in Retail POS include advanced inventory reporting, demand forecasting, order recommendations, and customizable reports to help you streamline your inventory management.

To get started, learn more about the measures used in advanced reporting and the different reports available to you below.

Understanding inventory reporting measures

Historical, Forecast, and other measures in advanced reports give you a more complete view of product performance over time, helping you anticipate future demand and plan inventory needs.

You can also review the measure definitions in Retail POS by clicking the info icon next to the table headers in Reporting > Inventory reports.

Inventory reports Glossary icon

Historical measures

Historical measures show your inventory and sales performance over the last 6 weeks, helping you identify missed opportunities, optimize stock levels, and understand what’s driving revenue and profit.

Items sold

Total number of items sold minus returns.

Items sold per day

Average number of items sold per day over the reporting period.

If inventory became available to sell, or sold out part way through the reporting period, will still be calculated based on the full reporting period, not the period the product was available and in-stock.

Missed sales

Estimated number of sales missed because of stockouts. Missed sales is calculated by determining the average daily sales when the inventory was in stock and multiplying it by the number of days it was out of stock during the reporting period.

Must have 21 days of in-stock inventory, otherwise this will display as -.

Estimated sales

Total estimated sales (assuming the inventory was always in stock), calculated as the sum of items sold plus missed sales.

Days cover

Estimated number of days current inventory will last based on items sold per day.

If Items sold per day is less than 1, this will display as -.

Sell-through rate

Percentage of items sold, out of all items available for sale (sum of inventory available at the start of the reporting period plus any inventory received during the period).

Avg. cost

Average cost of an item at the end of the reporting period, calculated from the start of the item's lifecycle.

Based on the supply price entered when inventory was received, per outlet (may vary by outlet).
Updated every time new inventory is received to account for supply price fluctuations, weighting cost based on supply price and quantity of units received.

Cost of goods sold (COGS)

Total cost of products sold based on average cost at the time of each sale.

If inventory isn't tracked, COGS will be calculated using the supply price at the time of sale.
May not equal Items sold x Avg. cost (cost at the end of the reporting period) as COGS tallies costs from each sale, which can change over time.

Sale count

Total number of sales and returns over the reporting period.

Revenue

Total value of items sold minus returns.

Gross profit

Total revenue less the total cost of goods sold over the reporting period.

Margin %

Percentage of revenue that is gross profit.

Discounted %

Average discount applied over the reporting period (excl. tax).

Start date inventory

Amount of inventory as of the start of the reporting period.

Inventory cost

Value of inventory available at the end of the reporting period, based on the average cost at the end of the period.

Retail value (excl. tax)

Value of inventory available at the end of the reporting period, calculated using retail price (the price at the time of running the report).

Return count

Number of sold items returned by customers.

Returns %

Percentage of sold items that have been returned by customers.

Customer count

Number of unique customers assigned to sales over the reporting period.

Avg. items per sale

Average number of items per sale.

Avg. sale value

Average revenue earned per sale, calculated as total revenue divided by the number of sales.

GMROI (Gross Margin Return on Investment)

How efficiently gross profit is generated from the inventory held over the reporting period, calculated as gross profit divided by average inventory value.

Inventory turns

Number of times inventory has been sold and replaced over the reporting period, calculated as costs of goods sold divided by average inventory value.

Assesses velocity of sales to show inventory health and contributions to gross profit.

Forecast measures

Forecast measures use past performance to estimate future demand, helping you plan your inventory levels to avoid under or overstocking.

The use of this forecasting tool is at the user’s own risk. Lightspeed cannot guarantee the accuracy and reliability of the forecasts generated. Actual results may differ. The tool is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial, investment, or legal advice. Users are encouraged to exercise caution before making business decisions based on the tool’s output.

Inbound inventory

Amount of incoming inventory from dispatched purchase orders and sent transfers.

Forecasted demand

Estimated number of items required to meet demand in the defined forecast period.

Suggested order quantity

Forecasted demand minus closing inventory and inbound inventory.

Other measures

Other measures help you track the inventory lifecycle with inventory status, sales activity, and reorder details.

Closing inventory

Amount of inventory at the end of the reporting period.

Reorder point

Defined threshold for low inventory.

Reorder amount

Defined quantity added to a purchase order or stock transfer when created using reorder points.

Created

Date the product was first added to your store.

First sale

Date of the first sale within the reporting period.

Last sale

Date of the last sale within the reporting period.

Current inventory

Amount of inventory as of today.

Last received

Date the product was last received on a purchase order.

Accessing Insights features and advanced reports

In Retail POS, navigate to Reporting > Inventory reports and click on the tabs to access advanced reports:

Inventory reports Replenishment tab

Replenishment: The Replenishment report summarizes closing inventory, items sold, and days' cover and includes options to add reorder points and amounts and other metrics to help you to stay on top of what you need to order and when. Learn more in Using the inventory replenishment report.

You can also add forecasting columns and out of stock measures to the Replenishment report to help anticipate future inventory needs and reduce under and overstocking. Learn more in Using demand forecasting with the inventory replenishment report.
Summary: The Summary report shows you all, on-hand, or low inventory for products, brands, SKUs, outlets, suppliers, and product categories for a current period and lets you compare to a previous period. Learn more in Using the inventory summary report.
Sell through: The Sell through report shows how much of your inventory you’re selling during a specified date range and can be configured to show products, categories, brands, and supplier metrics. Learn more in Using the sell through inventory report.
Performance: The Performance report lets you compare products, product categories, brands, suppliers, and SKUs to help you better understand what’s selling and what isn’t moving. Learn more in Using the inventory performance report.
Recently out of stock: The Recently out of stock report shows products with zero or negative inventory alongside sales and revenue data to help you prioritize reordering based on revenue or sales figures. Learn more in Using the recently out of stock inventory report.
Dusty inventory: The Dusty inventory report shows what products aren’t selling quickly and might need to be remerchandized, discounted, or discontinued. Learn more in Using the dusty inventory report.

You can also customize your inventory reports and schedule reports to be sent to stakeholders on a regular basis.

Hi. How can we help?

Search