Running Your End-of-Month Stock and Margin Report
How to use AskBiz POS to produce a complete end-of-month inventory and profitability report — understanding your closing stock value, COGS, gross margin, and key product trends.
Key Takeaways
- The end-of-month stock report tells you the value of your remaining inventory — a number your accountant needs for your P&L.
- Your monthly COGS (cost of goods sold) is opening stock + purchases received − closing stock.
- Comparing this month's margin to last month's reveals whether your pricing and purchasing decisions are paying off.
Why end-of-month reporting matters
Your monthly management accounts need three stock-related numbers: opening stock value (what you had at the start of the month), purchases received (what you bought during the month), and closing stock value (what you have left). The difference — opening stock + purchases − closing stock — is your COGS (cost of goods sold). Gross profit = Revenue − COGS. Without accurate stock data, you can't calculate accurate gross profit. AskBiz tracks all three in real time.
Step 1 — Run a stock take on the last day of the month
For the most accurate closing stock value, run a stock take on the last trading day of the month (see the Stock Take article for full instructions). This gives you a physical count that reconciles against AskBiz's system count. After confirming the stock take, AskBiz's stock levels reflect reality. The closing stock value is: sum of (current stock quantity × cost price) for all products. AskBiz calculates this automatically.
Step 2 — Export the stock valuation report
Go to POS Reports > Stock > Stock Valuation. Select your branch (or All Branches). Set the date to the last day of the month. The report shows every product with its closing quantity and closing value (quantity × cost price). The total at the bottom is your closing stock value — share this with your accountant. Export as CSV for their records. Compare this to last month's closing stock value to see if you're building or reducing inventory over time.
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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 →Step 3 — Review the monthly sales and margin report
Go to POS Reports > Sales and set the date range to the full month (1st to last day). The summary shows: Total Revenue, Total COGS, Gross Profit, and Gross Margin %. Below the summary is a product breakdown. Click on any product to see units sold, revenue, COGS, and margin for just that item. Sort by Gross Profit descending to see your highest-contributing products. Sort by Margin % ascending to find your most problematic items.
Step 4 — Review purchase orders received
Go to Operations > Retail > Purchase Orders and filter by Date Received: this month. This gives you the total value of stock purchased and received during the month — your purchases figure for the COGS calculation. If any orders were received but not fully processed in AskBiz, address those discrepancies now rather than at year-end. Cross-reference the purchase order total against your supplier invoices as a reconciliation check.
Month-on-month comparison
The most valuable insight comes from comparing months. If revenue is up 12% but gross profit is only up 4%, your margin is deteriorating — find out why (cost increases not passed to the customer? Product mix shift towards lower-margin items?). If revenue is flat but gross profit is up 8%, you've improved margin — perhaps through better purchasing or a pricing adjustment. Set aside 30 minutes at the start of each month to review last month's numbers using this process. Over six months, you'll develop an intuitive understanding of your business's financial rhythm.