Reporting > Inventory analysis
The Inventory analysis dashboard offers you comprehensive data on the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) of your warehouse. It provides you with information about the Inventory value, your Sell-through rate, and helps you, among other things, to identify potential inventory bottlenecks. You can further improve your analysis by selecting a specific period and comparing your KPIs with a previous period. With this data, you can adapt your inventory management to the demand of your customers and thereby optimize your business processes.
The dashboard is divided into three areas:
In the upper area of the dashboard, you will find six important KPIs calculated as a summary of your entire inventory. Each KPI is processed for the period selected in the Page filters. The data for the selected main period is displayed and compared with the value of the comparison period.
The middle area of the dashboard consists of five tiles that offer insights at the product level. Each tile consists of a chart showing the corresponding KPI over time in your selected main period, as well as a table with the five products that contribute the highest value to the KPI.
The third and last area consists of the Inventory value overview table, which allows you to group your inventory by Product, Warehouse, or Project, thus offering you a different perspective on your data. You can search through your inventory – just like with a pivot table.
Assigning user rights for the inventory analysis
By default, only users with admin rights can view the Reporting > Inventory analysis menu in Xentral to view and filter data there. If Xentral users without admin rights should also be able to view and filter data in the inventory analysis, an administrator must grant them these rights in advance. To do so, proceed as follows.
Use the Smart Search to open the User module.
Open the user you want to grant rights for the inventory analysis to by clicking the pencil icon on the right.
Open the Rights tab.
Under Analytics_inventory_performance, activate the all permission to grant the user unrestricted read and write access to the inventory analysis.
Click on Save at the top right.
Selecting a time period for the analysis
Note
All your data is stored long-term, which allows you to observe the daily development of your inventory KPIs from July 2023 onwards.
You can select a period to narrow down the data to be analyzed.
To narrow down your data with filters, proceed as follows:
Click on Page filter at the top right.
Select a time period for the analysis. The following periods and intervals are available:
Note
Intervals are only important for chart tiles as they define the scaling of the chart!
(see table below the list)
Finally, you can choose whether you want to compare the results of the selected period with the previous period or the same period of the last year.
Click on Apply changes.
For step 2:
Period | Interval(s) |
Year | Quarterly, Monthly |
Quarter | Monthly, Weekly |
Month | Weekly, Daily |
Week | Daily |
The selected period is applied to your data and displayed after a short loading time.
Caution
Note that some KPIs will change significantly based on the period you apply, as the length of the period over which data is accumulated is affected. This applies in particular to the ell-through rate and inventory turnover rate KPIs, as your total sales figures are likely to increase with the selection of a longer period.
Make sure to select an appropriate time period period when using these tiles for benchmarking. For example, the sell-through rate is normally viewed over one month, while the inventory turnover rate is often determined over a period of six months or a year.
About the overview tiles
The overview tiles provide you with the most important figures for your inventory KPIs at a glance. Each tile compares the data for the end date of the current period with the end date of the comparison period you selected in the Page filters. This makes it easier for you to identify trends and adjust your processes if necessary.
You can find more information on four of the six KPIs in the Chart tiles below. These KPIs are marked as (with chart) in the following table.
KPI | Description | Background | Calculation |
Retail value of inventory (with chart) | Sum of the inventory value of all products in stock, based on their average purchase prices | Quick overview of how much of your company’s capital is tied up in the form of inventory | Inventory value per product = quantity in stock * average purchase price (based on previous purchase prices) Total inventory value = sum of (inventory value per product) across all products |
Sales value of inventory | Sum of the sales value of all products in stock, based on their average sales prices | Understand the total value of your inventory, evaluate the profitability of your products, and make informed decisions about prices, promotions, and product range | Sales value per product = quantity in stock * average sales price (based on previous orders) Total sales value = sum of (sales value per product) across all products |
Total unique products | Number of different products listed as stock items | A larger product range can affect the complexity of your warehouse management | Unique count of product IDs that you had in stock during the selected period |
Excess stock value (with chart) | Value of the inventory that exceeds the expected demand in the next month | Avoid overstocking by estimating how much of your inventory exceeds the expected demand in the next month | Excess value per product = quantity in stock) - (expected demand * (average purchase price) Total excess = sum of (excess value per product) across all products |
Sell through rate (with chart) | Number of units sold relative to the initial number of units in stock | Check whether the quantities you have in stock are adapted to your sales figures | (Sold quantity / initial quantity in stock) * 100% |
Turnover ratio (with chart) | The rate at which inventory is turned over in a period. | An indicator of how quickly inventory is moved through your warehouse | Total cost of goods sold (based on inventory value and sales quantities) / average inventory value |
About the chart tiles
The chart tiles allow you deeper insights into your data by displaying changes over time in the chart. Additionally, five products that contribute the most to the KPI are listed below the chart. This gives you an insight into the products you should pay special attention to. On the left side of a product, you will also find its ABC classification. You can find more information on this in the section Calculation of the ABC classification.
There are five chart tiles. Four of the five KPIs available in this area provide additional information on KPIs already included in the overview tiles. You can find out what they mean and how they are calculated in section: About the overview tiles. The new KPI in this area can be described as follows:
Important
When using the chart tiles, you should pay special attention to the interval you selected when selecting a period for the analysis, as this strongly influences the displayed data. While the overview tiles always show the data for the current day, the data displayed in the charts is based on intervals. This means that with a weekly interval, the data for the average value of that week is displayed.
KPI | Description | Background | Calculation |
Potential stock out | Potential loss of revenue within the next week if the affected products are not replenished in time Xentral marks a product as "at risk" if the current quantity in stock is not sufficient to meet 95 percent of the weekly sales volumes (based on your previous orders) | Minimize your loss of revenue and improve customer satisfaction by ensuring that high-demand products are available | Potential net revenue loss per affected product = quantity in stock) - (95 percent of the weekly sales volumes * (average sales price) Total potential revenue loss = sum of (potentially lost revenue per product at risk) |
Caution
To calculate the inventory value in all the KPIs mentioned above, we use the average purchase price per product from your purchase price data. If you have not assigned a purchase price for a specific product, the inventory value as well as the turnover frequency of this product is considered zero.
Calculation of the ABC classification
The ABC analysis can help you optimize the layout of your warehouse by dividing your products into three categories according to their importance for total revenue. Category A products contribute 80% to your company’s revenue, category B products 16% and category C products 4%. Since category A products are the most important for your company’s revenue and cause the most warehouse movements in your warehouse, they should be stored in easily accessible areas. Category C products, on the other hand, can be stored in hard-to-reach places.
Your products are divided into categories using the following calculation:
Note
The data used for the calculation is prepared from the date the dashboard was activated for your instance.
The revenue for each of your products is calculated.
The share of each product in the total revenue is calculated by dividing the revenue of the product by the total revenue of your orders.
The products are then sorted in descending order by their total revenue, and the percentages added from top to bottom until they amount to 80 % of the revenue. These products are classified as category A.
The next 16 % of the products are classified as B and the last 4 % as C.
The following table shows you an example of the calculation:
Product | Revenue | Share of total revenue | Sum of shares | Category |
Product 1 | 10 | 42% | 42% | A |
Product 2 | 5 | 21% | 63% | A |
Product 3 | 4 | 17% | 80% | A |
Product 4 | 4 | 17% | 97% | B |
Product 5 | 1 | 3% | 100% | C |
About the inventory value overview
At the bottom of the page is a table that allows you to filter your data by product, project or warehouse. The table shows both the inventory value and the sales value of the inventory, each calculated on the basis of average prices as well as the most recent price. In the top right corner, select the dimension you want to group by and use the search bar on the left to find a specific entry.
You can customize this table to your preferences by hiding columns, resizing them and sorting them as you wish. You can hide columns by clicking on Columns at the top right of the table, while resizing and sorting is done via drag-and-drop.