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BI Foundation

Heather Worthington avatar
Written by Heather Worthington
Updated over 3 weeks ago

BI Foundation provides the essential business intelligence you need to monitor your operations, track performance trends, and make data-driven decisions - all included free with your subscription. It provides essential Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with time comparison charts across five main business areas:

  • Purchases

  • Inventory

  • Production

  • Sales

  • Customers


Tutorial Videos

Analysing Purchasing with Business Intelligence

Analysing Inventory with Business Intelligence

Analysing Production with Business Intelligence

Analysing Sales with Business Intelligence

Analysing Customers with Business Intelligence


Navigate BI Foundation dashboards

The date selection feature, displayed as a drop-down menu in the top right corner of the Business Intelligence's Foundation tab, lets you analyze your business performance across different time periods:

  • Month to Date (Default): This shows you everything that has happened from the 1st of the current month up until today. For example, if today is August 20th, you'll see data from August 1st through August 20th. This is the default because it gives you the most current snapshot of your performance.

  • Quarter to Date: Shows data from the beginning of the current quarter until today. If you're in Q3 (July-September), this would show July 1st through today's date.

  • Year to Date: Displays all data from January 1st of the current year through today. This is perfect for understanding your annual performance trajectory.

  • Last Month: Shows the complete previous month's data. If you're in August, this would show all of July's data. This is useful for comparing complete periods rather than partial ones.

  • Last Quarter: Displays the entire previous quarter's performance. This gives you a complete picture of the most recent full quarter.

Export BI data

Dimension Export: Click the download icon to export visualizations in different file formats for reports and presentations: PNG, SVG, PDF, or CSV.

Context Export: Click on the three-dot icon in the top right corner of the BI Foundation's context page to take a screenshot of all the page's visualizations and export them into the preferred format: PDF or PNG.

Dimension Data

Hover over the i icon on each KPI or dimension tile for a description of what the result is showing. Click the 9-dot menu or grid icon to view the underlying data tables, that generated the visual formats.


Purchases

The Purchases page focuses on the current status of purchase orders with 6 key metrics and 3 visualizations.

KPIs

  • Created Purchase Order Value - Total value and count of new purchase orders.

  • Open Purchase Order Value - Outstanding orders and count (limited to last 12 months).

  • Completed Purchase Order Value - Finished orders and count.

  • Order Cost and Cost-to-Order Ratio - Cost efficiency analysis.

  • Average Delivery Duration - Days between order placement and receipt.

  • Supplier Return Value - Returns and count of return transactions.

Visualizations

  • Timeline Chart: Shows daily/monthly purchase order values with status indicators. Hover over bars to see specific day/month values.

  • Open Order Status View: Displays open purchase orders by status:

    • Costed

    • Parked

    • Placed

    • Receipted

    • Unapproved

  • Age Analysis Table: Groups open purchase orders by how long they've been in open status.

Common questions answered by BI Foundation's Purchases

  • How many orders were created last month and their total value?

  • What open orders do I have and their current status?

  • Are there any purchase orders open for more than 90 days?

  • What's the average delivery time for received products?


Inventory

Track your stock levels, costs, and turnover rates with 5 essential inventory metrics.

KPIs

  • Stock on Hand Value - Current inventory value.

  • Allocated Stock Value - Stock committed to orders/transfers.

  • Available Stock Value - Stock available for sale.

  • Open Purchase Order Value - Incoming stock value (last 24 months).

  • Average Days to Sell - Estimated time to sell current inventory.

Visualization

Time Series Chart: Shows Stock on Hand value over time:

  • Daily values for accounts with 3 months or less of data.

  • Monthly values for accounts with more than 3 months of data (up to 12 months).

Common questions answered by BI Foundation's Inventory

  • What's my current inventory value and how has it changed?

  • How much stock is allocated to existing orders?

  • What stock is available to sell immediately?

  • What's the value of incoming inventory on order?

  • How quickly does my inventory typically turn over?


Production

Monitor your assembly operations with metrics focused on completed assemblies only (excludes disassemblies).

KPIs

  • Total Assembly Cost - Sum of assembly costs plus supplier costs.

  • Average Cost per Assembly - Including additional supplier costs.

  • Completed Assemblies - Number of assemblies finished.

  • On-time Assembly - Average days early/late compared to target dates.

  • Wastage as % of Assemblies - Waste cost relative to assembly cost.

Timeline comparisons

All charts compare current period vs prior period performance:

  • Total Assembly Cost comparison

  • Completed Assemblies count comparison

  • Average Cost per Assembly comparison

  • On-time performance comparison

  • Wastage percentage comparison


Sales

Track your revenue performance with 5 KPIs that compare current sales with prior periods. Default view shows month-to-date figures compared with the same period of the previous month.

KPIs

  • Sales Revenue - Invoiced sales including charges, minus credits (tax exclusive)

  • Gross Profit - Profit after cost of goods sold

  • Gross Profit % - Average margin across all invoiced sales

  • Sales Orders - Count of unique invoiced sales orders

  • Average Revenue per Order - Revenue divided by order count

Sales Revenue calculation

BI Sales Revenue differs from Classic dashboard Sales Revenue, which includes all completed orders without accounting for credits.

Formula: (Completed Invoices + Order Charges - All Credits)

Example: If you have $444,000 in invoiced sales + $5,000 in charges - $55,000 in credits = $394,000 Sales Revenue

Common questions answered by BI Foundation's Sales

  • What was my sales revenue and gross profit for last month vs. the month before?

  • How does this quarter compare to the same quarter last year?

  • What's my current gross profit percentage?

  • How many sales orders did I complete this period?

  • What's my average order value?


Customers

Understand your customer base and their purchasing behavior with 5 customer-focused KPIs.

KPIs

  • Total Customers - All non-obsolete customers in your system

  • New Customers - First-time customers for the selected period

  • Active Customers - Customers who placed invoiced orders

  • Average Orders per Customer - Based on active customers only

  • Average Revenue per Customer - Based on active customers only

Common questions answered by BI Foundation's Customers

  • How many total customers do I have in the system?

  • How many new customers did I acquire this period?

  • How many customers actually purchased something?

  • What's the average number of orders per active customer?

  • What's the average revenue I generate per active customer?

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