Your Sales Report Explained: Every Column and What It Means
A plain-English guide to every metric in the AskBiz POS Sales Report — Revenue, Gross Profit, Margin, Avg Sale, and how to use each figure to make better business decisions.
Key Takeaways
- The Reports hub at Operations > Reports shows Revenue, Gross Profit, Margin, and Stock Value as your four headline KPIs.
- Revenue is total income; Gross Profit subtracts product cost; Margin is Gross Profit as a percentage of Revenue.
- The Sales Report breaks down revenue by product, category, cashier, and time period.
- All metrics respond to the Branch and Sector filters — always set these before reading numbers.
Your four headline numbers at a glance
Go to Operations > Reports. Before clicking into any sub-report, the hub page shows your four most important KPIs for the current period: Revenue (KSh 55,630 in this example), Gross Profit (KSh 24,725.25), Margin (44.4%), and Stock Value (KSh 182,297.75). These four numbers answer the most common business questions — 'How much did we sell?', 'How much did we make?', 'Are our prices healthy?', and 'How much is sitting on the shelf?' — without opening a single sub-report.
Revenue: what it means and what it doesn't
Revenue is the total value of all completed sales in the selected period. It does not subtract costs, taxes, or discounts. A high revenue number looks good but can hide a low-margin problem. Always read Revenue alongside Gross Profit Margin — if Revenue is up 20% but Margin has dropped from 44% to 35%, you are generating more turnover at lower profitability, which may not be the outcome you want. Revenue is the starting point, never the conclusion.
Gross Profit: the number that actually matters
Gross Profit = Revenue minus the cost of goods sold (COGS). AskBiz calculates this automatically using the cost price you entered for each product in Inventory. If your cost prices are accurate, your Gross Profit figure is reliable. If you imported products without entering cost prices, Gross Profit will show as equal to Revenue — which overstates your profitability. Audit your Inventory periodically to ensure cost prices are filled in for all products.
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See this in action for your business
AskBiz tracks these metrics automatically — just connect your data and start asking questions.
Start for free →Margin: your profitability health check
Margin is Gross Profit expressed as a percentage of Revenue. A 44.4% margin means you keep KSh 44.40 of every KSh 100 sold after paying for the products. For retail, a margin above 30% is generally healthy; below 20% indicates thin margins that require high volume to sustain. Track Margin week over week — a declining trend almost always precedes a cash flow problem by 2–4 weeks.
Avg Sale: the basket size indicator
Average Sale value (visible on the Overview as KSh 412.07 for Last 30 days) is your total Revenue divided by the number of transactions. It tells you the typical value a customer brings per visit. If Avg Sale drops significantly, either customers are buying fewer items per visit, your prices have decreased, or a popular high-value product is out of stock. Monitor Avg Sale weekly alongside Revenue to distinguish volume growth from value growth.
Using the Branch and Sector filters correctly
Every metric on the Reports hub responds to the Branch dropdown (All Branches, Town, Bondeni) and Sector filter (All Sectors, Retail, etc.) at the top of the screen. Before drawing any conclusion, confirm which filters are active. A Revenue figure of KSh 55,630 for 'All Branches' over 30 days tells a very different story than the same figure for a single branch. Set your filters deliberately and note them when sharing reports with your team or accountant.