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Reports and the dashboard

The dashboard tells you at a glance how sales are going and what needs you today. The reports under Financials give the detail: what your stock is worth, what the goods you sold cost, your margin, and every figure in the books. You can also build and save reports of your own.

The dashboard

Dashboard is the first item in the sidebar. Owners and admins land on it when they sign in; Finance and Analyst land on Financials, and everyone can open the dashboard from the sidebar.

Sales figures

The strip across the top shows four figures. Choose Last 7 days, Last 30 days (the default) or Last 90 days. Each figure is compared with the period of the same length just before it, with a small chart of each day.

Total sales
What the order lines sold for, after discounts and without tax or shipping. Orders in another currency are converted to your home currency at the rate the order recorded.
Orders
Orders placed in the period, counted on the day they were placed. Quotes are not counted until they are placed.
Units sold
Units on those orders.
Average order
Total sales divided by orders.

Orders you imported from your old system count on the day they were placed there, so the figures can reach back before you started using Manifold.

Today's work

Under the greeting, buttons count Orders to fulfil, orders Ready to ship and orders Awaiting payment. Each opens the orders list. A button with nothing to count is not shown.

Cards

Below are cards, most urgent first: what has gone wrong, then what is owed, then what is running out or arriving, then how the business is doing, then suggestions. A card appears only when it has something to say. Each has a button that takes you to the work, such as Raise a purchase order or Record a payment.

The cards about how the business is doing:

Sales
Titled Sales are up 12%, Sales are down 8%, Sales are holding steady or Sales this period. Sales so far this period drawn against the period before. View reports opens Financials.
Top mover
Titled with the SKU's name: the SKU whose units sold grew most against the period before. View SKU opens it.
Margin
Titled, for example, 34% margin: what the sold lines brought in, less what they cost. A line counts once it has shipped, because that is when its cost is fixed; the card says how many lines are Not yet costed. If any SKU sold for less than it cost, the card is titled, for example, 3 SKUs sold below cost and lists up to five, biggest loss first. Orders imported from your old system carry no cost and are left out. View cost of goods opens the Cost of goods sold report.
SKUs not selling
Titled, for example, 5 SKUs not selling: SKUs with stock on hand and no orders in 60 days, with the value of stock sitting still. Each row says when the SKU last sold. View valuation opens the inventory valuation.

The other cards cover:

  • what has gone wrong: a failed payment, an import that failed or left rows behind;
  • what is owed: parcels waiting for payment, customers owed a refund, orders to fulfil, orders waiting on stock;
  • what is running out or arriving: SKUs running short, purchase orders due or overdue, locations due a count;
  • suggestions: finishing setup, your trial, inviting your team.

Installed apps can add cards of their own, such as a sales channel that needs attention.

Dismiss a card you do not need. It stays hidden for you only, on every device you sign in on. A card about one thing, such as one SKU running short, comes back when it has something new to say. Once you have dismissed a card, Show 2 hidden cards (the number varies) appears at the bottom and brings them all back.

You see only the cards your roles allow; see Who can see it. When nothing needs you, the dashboard says Nothing needs you right now.

The reports under Financials

Open Financials in the sidebar. The screen shows a card for each built-in report, and under Your reports, the reports you and your team have saved. Valuation, cost of goods sold and the ledgers are in your home currency; payouts are shown per currency. Press Refresh on a report to read it again.

The built-in reports need the Finance role. An Analyst sees their cards but cannot open them.

Choosing the period

Reports that cover a period open with a Period menu: Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 90 days or Custom. The three presets include today. For any other range, set From and To; both days are included. Changing either date switches the menu to Custom.

Inventory valuation

What your stock is worth at cost, right now. It has no period: it is a snapshot, and Refresh takes it again.

  • Inventory value: the total cost of everything on hand.
  • Units on hand: the units that value covers.
  • Stock at cost: one row per SKU, highest value first, with its Units, Value and Avg cost (value divided by units, shown for reference only). The top 50 are shown; Show all lists the rest. Click a SKU to open it.

Stock is valued at what you paid for it, from the receipts on your purchase orders, and the cost your opening stocktake gave it. Stock with no cost yet is not in the figure. See Purchase orders and Stocktakes.

Cost of goods sold

What the goods you sold cost you over the period.

  • Cost of goods sold: the total, including corrections, such as a supplier invoice or landed cost that arrives after the goods sold.
  • Write-downs: stock written off, found short in a stocktake, or returned damaged. A loss, kept apart from the cost of goods sold.
  • A chart of cost of goods sold by day, or by week when the period is longer than 31 days. Show table shows the same figures as a table.

A sale's cost is fixed when it ships, so cost of goods sold falls on the day stock left, not the day the order was placed.

COGS ledger

Every entry behind those figures, over the period. The tabs narrow it to COGS, Corrections, Reversals (refunded units returned to stock, giving their cost back) or Write-downs. Type in Filter by SKU to see one SKU. Each row shows the date it takes effect, its type, the SKU, quantity, amount and a memo.

General ledger, trial balance and payouts

General ledger
Every entry in the books over the period, with its debits and credits by account. The tabs narrow it by what caused it, such as Sales invoices, Payments or Receipts; Filter by account code narrows it to one account.
Trial balance
Each account's Debit, Credit and Net over the period, with totals that balance. Click an account code to see its entries in the general ledger.
Payout reconciliation
Money a payment provider, such as Stripe or Shopify Payments, has paid into your bank, matched to the payments and refunds it settles. It needs permission to see payments.

Until your opening stocktake is complete, the general ledger and trial balance show Your books begin at the opening stocktake, with a button to Go to stocktakes. How sales, costs and payments are posted, and sending them to Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks, is in Accounting and ledgers.

Building your own report

On Financials, press New report. A report adds up figures (measures), split into rows by what you group by, over a period. Some menus show fields by their short names, such as quantity for Units sold or proceedsCents for Proceeds; the steps below say where.

  1. Give it a Name, such as Units sold by SKU, monthly.
  2. Under Start from, choose what the report is about, such as Order line (what you sold), Receipt line (what you received), Stock movement or Shipping (parcels booked, what you charged and what the carrier cost).
  3. To add a record the line is linked to, choose it under Follow an edge (each one added is a hop). The menu shows short names: sku → sku for the SKU, then product → product for its product; party → party for the customer's or supplier's company; location → location for the location. Remove last hop steps back.
  4. Under Measures, tick at least one figure to add up, such as Units sold, Proceeds, Cost of goods sold, Units received or Shipping margin.
  5. Under Group by, press Add grouping and pick what to split rows by (the menu says Pick a dimension…), such as Day, SKU, Item name, Product title, Company name, Location name or Carrier. A field from a linked record appears only after you follow the edge to it in step 3. For a date, choose a Bucket: Exact day (the default), Day, Week or Month. With no grouping the report is one total.
  6. Under Filters, press Add filter to count only some rows: pick a Field, a Condition (is, is not, contains, is at least, is at most) and a Value.
  7. Under Derived fields, press Add derived field to add a column worked out from two ticked measures: pick a First measure, an Operator (− minus or ÷ divided by) and a Second measure. These menus show the measures' short names. The name starts with a lower-case letter and has no spaces or symbols, such as profit or grossMargin.
  8. Set the Period, as on the built-in reports.
  9. Under Sort & limit, choose what to Sort by (short names again; Natural order is the default), the direction (Highest first or Lowest first), and a Row limit from 1 to 1,000 (100 to start). Subtotals and the total always cover every row, even those past the limit.
  10. Press Preview to run it as it stands. Nothing is saved.
  11. Press Save report. Anything missing is listed above the button.

A saved report appears under Your reports for everyone in your organization who can see reports. A preset period moves with the calendar: a report saved over the last 30 days always shows the latest 30. To change a report, open it and press Edit, then Save changes.

You are offered only the figures your roles let you see; see Who can see it. A person's name is never shown in a report; customers group by company.

Example: best sellers last month

  1. Start from Order line.
  2. Follow an edge: sku → sku.
  3. Tick Units sold and Proceeds.
  4. Add grouping: Item name (or SKU).
  5. Period: Last 30 days.
  6. Sort by quantity, Highest first; Row limit 20.
  7. Save report.

Example: margin

There is no Margin report under Financials. The dashboard's margin card shows the period's margin and any SKUs sold below cost. For margin by SKU, customer or month, build one (it needs the Finance role):

  1. Start from Order line.
  2. For margin by customer, Follow an edge party → party and Add grouping Company name. By SKU, follow sku → sku and group by SKU. By month, group by Day with Bucket Month.
  3. Tick Proceeds and Cost of goods sold.
  4. Add derived field: First measure proceedsCents, Operator − minus, Second measure cogsCents, named margin.
  5. Set the Period and Save report.

Reading a saved report

Open it from Your reports. The time at the top says how up to date the figures are; something recorded a moment ago may take a few seconds to appear. If a report has more groups than its row limit, a note says how many are shown.

Click any figure on a row to see what makes it up. Behind this figure lists each record that adds up to it, so you can check where a number came from.

Exporting

  • On a saved report, press Export CSV to download the rows it shows.
  • On Import › Export, choose COGS ledger or Valuation, filtered and with the columns you choose. See Import & export.

Who can see it

The Finance role sees every report, including stock value, cost of goods sold, margin and the books, and can build reports. The Analyst role sees the sales figures and builds reports from orders, stock and purchasing. Analysts see what you paid suppliers on receipts, but not cost of goods sold, stock value, shipping margin or the cost ledger; those need Finance. Owners and admins see everything. See Team.

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