Advanced Insights’ Sales reports help you identify sales trends and give you an overall snapshot of the financial state of your business. Discover your busiest days of the week, peak service hours, and popular times for repeat customers.
Your sales data is organized into three reports for granular insights: Sales totals, Hourly sales, and Daily sales.
Accessing the Sales reports
Access the Sales reports from the Advanced Insights dashboard in the Back Office.
- Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed Restaurant credentials.
- From the navigation menu, select Analytics > Advanced Insights.
- Under Sales, click Sales totals, Hourly sales, or Daily sales.
- (Optional Use the fourth dropdown on the Sales totals report or the second dropdown on the Hourly sales and Daily sales reports and choose a date range either manually or by clicking a preset option, like YTD or Last month.
To enter a manual date range:
- Click the first date and enter your starting date.
- Click the second date and enter your ending date.
- Click Apply.
To filter by a preset date range:
- Click a preset option.
- Click Apply.
Understanding the Sales totals report
The Sales totals report summarizes your sales over a given time period. Use this report to get an overview of your sales and analyze your best days. By default, the Sales totals report displays daily gross sales for all user groups over the previous 7 days. Use the dropdowns to filter data to your specifications.
Click each column on the graph to display that day's Gross or Net sales, Covers, Orders, and Average order amount.
Understanding Repeat sales
The Repeat sales graph shows sales from customers who have visited more than once versus sales from new customers. Use this report to track customer retention and develop ways to foster better customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Lightspeed tracks repeat customers via credit card sales. Some customers will not want to be tracked. These customers will be able to opt out and will be treated as new customers even if they use the same credit card for future transactions.
Clicking a line on the graph will bring up detailed information for a specific day. This includes the Gross sales, Orders, and Average order amount for Repeat sales and New sales, as well as the overall percentage of Repeat sales.
Understanding the Hourly sales reports
The Hourly sales report summarizes your busiest and slowest hours of each day and displays the information in a heat map. Darker colors indicate higher sales. Use this report to plan staffing schedules and adjust turn time.
Changing the calendar span will average out the data over the selected period. For example, if choosing to filter by This Month, the heat graph will display the average hourly breakdown over four periods, or weeks.
By default, the Hourly sales report displays gross sales for all user groups over the previous 7 days. Use the dropdowns to filter data to your specifications.
Click a time of day to view an hourly breakdown of Average gross or net sales, Average check count, Average total labor hours, and Average order amount.
- Average net sales: The sales during an hour, including service charges but deducting discounts and voids, averaged over the selected time period.
- Average gross sales: The sales during an hour, including service charges but deducting voids, averaged over the selected time period.
- Average check count: The number of checks cleared during an hour, averaged over the selected time period.
- Average total labor hours: The total amount of labor hours put in by all servers on shift during an hour, averaged over the selected time period.
- Average order amount: The average order amount per check during an hour, averaged over the selected time period.
Understanding the Daily sales reports
The Daily sales report displays average sales over a 7-day period, compared to the number of hours your staff is clocked in to the POS. Use this report to plan staffing schedules and identify which days might benefit from special offers.
Changing the calendar span will average out the data over the selected period. For example, if choosing to filter by This Month, the bar graph will display the average daily breakdown over four periods, or weeks.
By default, the Hourly sales report displays gross sales for all user groups over the previous 7 days. Use the dropdowns to filter data to your specifications.
View a chart of your sales data organized over the course of a week, including Average labor hours and a breakdown of Sales per labor hour. Hover over a bar to view the breakdown of Total gross or net sales,Total check count, Average check amount, and % of weekly sales for a given day.
- Total net sales: The total of all sales and services for the day. Voids, refunds, discounts, and taxes are excluded.
- Total gross sales: The total of all sales and services for the day, including discounts and taxes. Voids and refunds are excluded.
- Average check amount: The average amount paid per check, calculated from all checks paid during a single day.
- % of weekly sales: A day’s sales as a percentage of the average weekly sale amount for the selected time period.
Filtering the Sales reports
The Sales reports are generated using the default settings. For the Sales report, you can filter by comparison options, gross, net, or repeat sales, and change interval. For the Hourly sales and Daily sales reports, you can filter by gross or net sales.
Comparison options
Use the first dropdown on the Sales report to compare time periods for a single location or sales between two different locations. Click the button for the filter you want to use and then click OK. Check Show shift events to display notes left by servers at the opening and closing of each shift, which can provide context for sales variations.
Gross, Net, or Repeat sales
Use the second dropdown on the Sales report to sort your data by Gross, Net, or Repeat sales. Click the button for the filter you want to use and then click OK.
- Gross sales: The total of all sales and services, including discounts and taxes. Voids and refunds are excluded.
- Net sales: The total of all sales and services. Voids, refunds, discounts, and taxes are excluded.
- Repeat sales: The number of sales from repeat customers versus new customers.
Change interval
The Sales totals report can be viewed in specific intervals to narrow down the data. These intervals are Hourly, Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. The available change intervals will depend on your Date range filters.
To choose a change interval, use the third dropdown and click the radio button for the filter you want to use, then click OK.