It's Monday morning. The weekend was busy, the drawer felt heavy, and yet when you look at the bank balance it doesn't feel like a good weekend. Something sold, something didn't, and somewhere money went that you can't quite place.
Your POS knows. Every sale, every refund, every carton received and every bottle that broke is sitting in it. The trick is knowing which handful of reports to open, and what to do once you've read them.
The short version: run a sales summary and a low-stock report every day, look at product performance, margins, payment methods and staff activity once a week, and check stock movement and stock value once a month. Each report below comes with the question it answers and the action it should trigger. A report that doesn't change anything you do is just decoration.
1. Sales summary
The question it answers: how did we do, and compared to what?
Revenue, number of sales and average basket for a day, week or month. Look at it against the same day last week rather than yesterday, because a Tuesday will never look like a Saturday.
What to do with it: if the number of sales holds steady but the average basket keeps slipping, customers are still coming in and buying less. That's a prompt to look at bundles, what sits near the counter, and whether your best sellers are in stock. If the number of sales drops on a day that's normally busy, ask what happened on the floor: a power cut, a short-staffed shift, a road closed outside.
2. Product performance
The question it answers: what is actually selling, and what's just sitting there?
Rank products two ways: by units sold and by profit made. The two lists are rarely the same.
What to do with it: read the bottom of both lists, not just the top.
- Slow and low profit: clear it out, or stop reordering it.
- Fast but thin profit: talk to your supplier, or review the price.
- High profit but slow: move it somewhere customers can see it, or tell staff to mention it.
The products nobody asks about are often the ones quietly tying up your cash.
3. Stock valuation
The question it answers: how much money is sitting on my shelves right now?
The total value of your stock at cost, by product, category or branch.
What to do with it: watch the trend. If stock value climbs while sales stay flat, you're buying faster than you're selling. That is how a busy-looking shop runs short of cash to pay suppliers. Catch it early and you can slow orders or run a promotion, rather than discounting heavily later to free up money.
4. Low stock and reorder
The question it answers: what do I need to order today?
Everything at or below its reorder point. A simple way to set that point for each product:
Reorder point = (average daily sales x supplier lead time in days) + a safety buffer
If you sell four bags of sugar a day, your supplier takes three days to deliver and you keep four bags spare, you reorder when you hit sixteen.
What to do with it: place the order. Then, every few weeks, check whether the reorder points still make sense. School-term peaks, festive seasons and a supplier who has started delivering late all change the numbers.
5. Stock movement
The question it answers: where did this product go?
A good product movement report shows every in and out for an item: received, sold, returned, transferred to another branch, recorded as damaged, adjusted after a count. When your count doesn't match the system, this is where you find out why.
What to do with it: don't just adjust the number and move on. Most gaps have ordinary explanations: a delivery that came in short and was signed for anyway, a transfer that left one branch but was never received at the other, breakages nobody recorded. Find the reason first, then fix the process that allowed it. If you want a full routine, our guide to [preventing inventory shrinkage](/blog/prevent-inventory-shrinkage/) walks through it.
6. Profit by product and category
The question it answers: which parts of the business actually make money?
Selling price minus cost, for every product and category. Revenue tells you what came in; this tells you what stayed.
What to do with it: give the best shelf space and staff attention to the categories that earn. For low-margin categories, decide on purpose: renegotiate, reprice, or keep them as the reason customers walk in, knowing that's the role they play. Many owners are surprised to find a product they push hard barely earns anything once the cost is counted properly.
7. Staff and shift activity
The question it answers: how is each shift running?
Sales, refunds, voids and discounts by cashier and by shift, alongside the cash-up result at the end of each shift.
What to do with it: use it mostly for coaching. It shows who is strong at the counter, who needs a refresher on the refund process, and where a rule isn't clear. When one shift keeps ending with a cash difference, the first questions are usually practical: are two people sharing a login, is the float being counted properly at handover, is change being given from the wrong drawer? Share team-level numbers openly and keep individual conversations private.
8. Payment method breakdown
The question it answers: how are customers paying, and does it add up?
The split between cash, card, DuitNow and bank transfers, by day and by branch.
What to do with it: use it to reconcile. The cash figure tells you what should be in the drawer. The DuitNow and card figures tell you what should land in your accounts. Different methods settle at different times and some carry fees, so this report is also where you see what each one really costs you.
How often to run them
| Report | How often |
|---|---|
| Sales summary | Daily |
| Low stock and reorder | Daily |
| Staff and shift activity | Weekly |
| Product performance | Weekly |
| Profit by product and category | Weekly |
| Payment method breakdown | Weekly, and daily if you handle a lot of cash |
| Stock movement | Monthly, and whenever a count doesn't match |
| Stock valuation | Monthly |
A simple rhythm works: two reports with your morning tea before opening, four on Monday, two at month end. Once it's a habit it takes less time than counting the drawer.
Keep a note of what you decided
When a report tells you something, write down the finding, what you decided and the date. A month later, check whether it worked. Over a year, that small notebook becomes the most useful record in the business, because it tells you what actually works in your shop rather than in someone else's.
Where EliteTeQ fits
All eight reports are built into EliteTeQ and can be filtered by branch, cashier, category or payment method. Stock moves the moment you sell, so the numbers match the shelf rather than last month's count. Every stock movement and every refund, void and discount is logged against the person who made it. Damages are recorded with a reason. If you run several branches, you see them all in one view instead of waiting for each manager to call in.
If you'd like to see your own kind of shop set up with these reports, book a free demo, or talk to a real person on WhatsApp.
Frequently asked questions
Which POS report should I check every day? The sales summary and the low-stock report. Together they answer the two questions that matter every morning: how did we sell yesterday, and what do we need to order before we run out.
What is the most overlooked POS report? Profit by product and category. Most owners watch sales and assume profit follows. Often it doesn't, and the products you sell most of are not always the ones that earn most.
How do I use staff reports without upsetting my team? Treat them as a coaching tool. Talk about team numbers openly, discuss individual numbers one to one, and look at patterns over weeks rather than a single bad day. Most staff respond well when the data is also used to recognise good work.
What should I do if a report shows something unexpected? Find out why before you change anything. A stock gap, a run of refunds or a product showing a loss is telling you something real. The adjustment should follow the explanation, not replace it.
Do these reports work for more than one branch? Yes. Run each report per branch and then side by side. Comparing branches quickly shows whether something is a one-off at one location or a habit across the business.
Let's discuss how EliteTeQ POS can help you achieve the results you just read about.