Glossary:
- Revenue - Total value of all paid orders & open orders
- Open Orders - Total number of orders that are not yet paid for.
- Paid Orders - Total number of orders that are already paid for.
- Average Transaction - Revenue divided by total orders (paid orders + open orders)
- Guest - Total number of guests. This requires that you have Guest Tracking set up.
- Avg. spend/ head - Revenue from sales with guest/s added divided by number of guests. This is the average amount spent per person
- Profit - Revenue minus COGS
- COGS - Total cost of all goods
- Reporting Groups - Total value of all paid orders, open orders & outstanding account sales per Reporting Group. This requires that you have Reporting Groups set up.
- Order Types - Total value of all paid orders & open orders per Order Type. This requires that you have Order Types set up.
- Benchmarks - (see FAQ # 6)
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why am I seeing zeroes?
Insights Live gives you nothing but the freshest data. If you’re seeing zeroes, it means you do not have data yet for the time range filter (1D, 1W, or 1M) selected. This commonly happens when the time range filter is 1D and trading has not started for the day yet. Try selecting a different time range filter. If you're still seeing zeros, it may be because your trading times and timezone aren't set in Back Office, to resolve this just head Back Office > My Site > Trading times to configure your trading times and timezone.
2. How soon does the data update?
All data of relevant POS activities (e.g. sales, refunds, deleted orders, takings) updates in a matter of seconds.
3. What does the solid line and dotted line mean on the Revenue graph?
This is the graph just under your total revenue.
- Solid line - shows the current day/week/month depending on which time range you chose
- Dotted line - shows benchmark values* based on historical averages
*Benchmark values change based on whether you chose 1D, 1W, or 1M
4. How can the revenue graph help me with staff scheduling?
By looking at the dotted line (benchmark line) on this graph, you will know if you are approaching a time/day when there is, on average, a spike in your sales. A quick look at this can help you prepare so that your venue won’t be understaffed. Managers can view this to decide if they need to adjust break schedules or if they need more staff on certain days of the week.
- View the graph under the 1D* filter - to find the busiest hours
- View the graph under the 1W* filter - to find the busiest days of the week
*Defined in FAQ # 5
5. What do 1D, 1W, & 1M mean?
These are time range filters that you can use to narrow down or broaden your data set.
-
1D - By default, each day starts at midnight and ends 24 hours later.
- For businesses that trade past midnight, the start of the day is adjusted to your trading hours. For this, you need to enter your trading hours in Back Office.
- 1W - 1 week starts from Monday to the current day of the week.
- 1M - 1 month starts from the 1st of the month up to the current day.
6. What are those red and green arrows with numbers beside some of the values?
These are your benchmarks. Benchmarks give you the historical context to show if any metric is significantly increasing or decreasing. These are automatically calculated for you.
You will see these benchmarks on your sales, guest count, revenue, cost of goods and so on. Here’s what the colours mean:
- Red arrow - bad news (e.g. increase in COGS or decrease in Avg. spend / head)
- Green arrow - good news (e.g. increase in profit or decrease in COGS)
7. Are benchmarks different for 1D vs. 1W vs. 1M?
Yes, they are.
-
For 1D - Benchmarks are based on the average over the past 12 same days of the week (up to the current time). For example:
- Current day & time = Monday, 1:15pm
- Benchmark comes from = Cumulative data up to 1:15pm for the past 12 Mondays
-
For 1W - Benchmarks are based on the average over past 4 weeks (up to the same day.) For example:
- Current day = Tuesday
- Benchmark comes from = Cumulative data up to Tuesday (meaning, Monday + Tuesday) for the past 4 weeks
-
For 1M - Benchmarks are based on the average over the past 3 complete months (up to the equivalent date). For example:
- Current day = February 15
- Benchmark comes from = Cumulative data up to the 15th (meaning, from the 1st day until the 15th day) for November, December, January
8. When the current line (solid line) on the revenue graph dips down compared to the benchmark line (dotted line), does that always mean that sales are relatively lower? Is that always bad news?
There are also additional factors to consider such as:
- You are viewing the 1D time range and the hour has just begun - The graph shows an hourly trend. So if the current time is 12:15pm, it is included within the 1pm mark. Most likely, this means the solid line (current data) looks like it’s dipping down during the early parts of an hour - in comparison to the benchmark line. As you approach closer to 1pm (e.g. 12:45pm), the dip may become less apparent and may align closer to the benchmark.
- You are viewing the 1M time range and the closed days do not align - If your venue is closed on a Sunday (e.g. the 15th), you will see that the solid line (current data) for revenue is dipped down on the graph. Possibly, the broken line (benchmark data) may show an upward direction in comparison. This is because closed days don’t always fall on the same dates. The 15th could be a Sunday right now but in the past 3 months, these were days when your venue was open.
9. What do benchmarks tell me?
Benchmarks offer greater perspective on questions like:
- Is my business really yielding significantly more sales this Monday - or do I just feel like that because yesterday had really low sales?
- Is my business really doing well for the first half of the month compared to previous months - or do I just feel like that because I’ve been having great sales for the past few days?
10. What can I find under Trends?
Very soon, you will have an easy-to-access page showing you trends in your business for the past weeks or months. Stay tuned! This feature is still cooking.
11. What can I find under Alerts?
Like Trends, this feature is in the works - and equally worth the wait! With Alerts, you can be notified whenever staff deletes orders or does takings.
12. Where can I view the other sites I manage?
- First, select your site name at the top of the screen.
- This will take you to a list of all your sites that have the Insights View plan and higher. Simply select another site name from here then select Save Selection.
13. Where do I log out?
- From the bottom of the screen, select More.
- Then, select Logout