The Main Reports Overview in CommentSold provides a summary of your business’s performance for a selected date range. Use it to review customer activity, orders, payments, returns, fulfillment, and inventory, then investigate specific metrics through detailed reports or CSV exports.
The overview defaults to the current date. You can change the reporting period using the date fields at the top of the page.
Use the table of contents below to navigate to specific sections of this article:
- What Reports Are Included in the Main Reports Overview
- Why Use the Main Reports Overview
- Configure Your Main Reports Overview
- Customer Overview
- Orders Overview
- Payments Overview
- Vendor Returns Overview
- Return Reasons Overview
- Store Credit Overview
- Processed Returns and Refunds Overview
- Packer Overview
- Inventory Overview (Real-Time)
- Payments by Hour Overview
- FAQs
What Reports Are Included in the Main Reports Overview?
The Main Reports Overview includes summaries for these areas of your business:
- Customer
- Orders
- Payments
- Vendor Returns
- Return Reasons
- Store Credit
- Fulfillment
- Inventory
- Processed Returns and Refunds
- Payments by Hour
Why Use the Main Reports Overview?
Use the overview to:
- Review key financial and business performance metrics for a specific date range.
- Identify trends or unusual results that may need further investigation.
- Review returns by vendor to identify brands with higher return activity.
- Compare fulfillment activity by employee, including orders processed and shipping-label costs.
- Explore more detailed reporting or export data for additional analysis.
Configure Your Main Reports Overview
- Select Reporting in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
- Select All from the report options listed at the top of the page.
- Define your Start Date and End Date in the fields provided, then select the Retrieve button.
The reporting period affects the date-based metrics throughout the overview. Some sections use the date an order was placed, while others use the date a return was processed. Review each section’s description to understand which date determines the results.
Customer Overview
The Customer overview provides you with an up-to-date snapshot of your customer volume as well as metrics specific to the date range you defined.
Customers (Real-Time)
- Total Customers. Displays the total number of registered customers in your CommentSold account. This figure includes shoppers who have purchased from your business and those who have not.
- Messenger Users. Displays the total number of customers who connected Messenger on their account profile when registering.
- App Users. Displays the number of customers who have installed your mobile app and logged in using their registered account. This figure breaks down further to show iOS and Android app users.
- SMS Users. Displays the number of registered customers who have opted into SMS.
Customers (Defined Date Range)
- New Signups. Displays the number of new shopper registrations during the date range you defined.
- First-time Purchasers. Displays all first-time purchasers by name for the date range you defined. You can select a customer name to view the customer record or select Download as CSV to download a list of these purchasers to your device.
- New Signups Which Use App. Displays the number of new shoppers who signed into your mobile app during the date range you defined.
- New Signups Which Have Facebook Data. Displays the number of new signups who signed into their account page using the Login With Facebook button.
- New Signups Which Have Instagram Data. Displays the number of new signups who signed into their account page using the Login With Instagram button.
- Guests. Displays the number of guest checkouts during the date range you defined.
Orders Overview
The Orders overview provides a snapshot of your order volume for the date range you defined. You can also view limited shipping and refund metrics.
- Number of Orders. Displays the number of orders created during the date range you defined.
- Average Order. Displays the average order amount minus taxes, shipping, and discounts for the date range you defined.
- Average Time to Checkout. Displays the average time between a customer adding an item to their cart and the customer completing their purchase for the date range you defined.
- Number of Products in the Orders. Displays the total number of products purchased through the corresponding sales channel during the date range you defined.
- Orders Products Breakout. Displays how many items customers purchased versus how many products customers waitlisted during the date range you defined. You can drill into these figures further by choosing View by Collection or View by Size.
- Shipping Overview. Displays the total shipping revenue and shipping costs for the date range you defined.
- Packages Shipped. Displays the total number of packages shipped during the date range you defined.
- Gross Margin. Displays your gross margins (i.e., revenue - the cost of goods sold) for the date range you defined. You can drill into this figure further by choosing to View by Collection.
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Total Returns.
- Displays a summary of return data for the date range you defined. This includes the number of products returned in that time.
- The COGS (Cost of Goods) in the Orders section is not subtracted or factored into the COGS fields in the Payments section.
- Pulls data by the date the order was placed by default. You can set this to pull data based on the actual date the item was returned by enabling this setting under Setup > Returns.
Payments Overview
The Payments overview provides a snapshot of payments by gateway, taxes, shipping costs, discounts, and more for the date range you defined.
- Total Payments. Displays total payments for the date range you defined. Payments include taxes, shipping, and discounts. This figure breaks down further to show payments by specific gateways.
- Product Revenue. Displays the total revenue for sold products in the date range you defined. Revenue does not include taxes, shipping, and discounts.
- Shipping Revenue. Display the total amount of shipping paid by customers during the date range you defined.
- Out-of-State Sales. Displays the total payments for states outside your business's state for the date range you defined. This includes taxes, shipping, and discounts.
- State Tax. Provides a link to where you can view your state taxes in Avalara.
- County Tax. Provides a link to where you can view your county taxes in Avalara.
- Municipal Tax. Provides a link to where you can view your municipal taxes in Avalara.
- Cost of Goods Sold. Displays the total cost of products sold during the date range you defined.
- Shipping Cost. Displays the total shipping costs paid during the date range you defined.
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Returns.
- Displays the total retail value for products returned in the date range you defined.
- Pulls data based on the date the returned items were sold/ordered.
- Coupon Discounts. Displays the total of all discounts applied to orders during the date range you defined.
- Gross Profit. Displays the total payments minus the cost of goods sold, shipping, and taxes for the date range you defined.
Vendor Returns Overview
The Vendor Returns overview provides a snapshot of returned products by their vendor.
- Brand. Displays the name of a brand you offer.
- Returns. Displays the total number of products sold by the brand during the date range you defined and the number of those returned by customers. A high return rate might indicate an issue with the brand or a need for more communication with shoppers (i.e., a "didn't fit" return reason might require more fit guidance during a live sale).
- The fields in the Vendor Returns section pull data based on when the items were sold/ordered.
Return Reasons Overview
The Return Reasons overview provides you with a summary of products returned and the reasons customers provided during the date range you defined. You can manage return reasons on the Returns tab of your Setup page.
- Reasons. Displays the reason a customer selected for their return.
- Count. Displays the number of customers who choose the corresponding return reason for their return during the date range you defined.
- Total Cost. Displays the total cost of returned products associated with a reason for the date range you defined.
Store Credit Overview
The Store Credit overview provides a snapshot of store credit (account credit) activity during the date range you defined.
- Order Returns During Time Period. Displays the total amount of store credit issued to customers from returns processed during the date range you defined.
- Admin-Issued Credit During Time Period. Displays the amount of store credit issued to customers by your admin account during the date range you defined.
- Base Loyalty Program Credit Issued During Time Period. Displays the amount of store credit customers earned from your loyalty program during the date range you defined.
- Live Bonus Loyalty Program Credit Issued During Time Period. Displays the amount of bonus credit customers earned from lives sales during the date range you defined.
- Credit Transferred due to Merging Customer Accounts. Displays the amount of credit transferred due to a customer or your team merging duplicate customer accounts.
- Credit Issued During Period (Total). Displays a total of all store credits issued and earned during the date range you defined.
Processed Returns and Refunds Overview
The Returns overview provides a snapshot of returns and refunds processed by employees and by payment method during the date range you defined. If your business offers partial refunds, you will see additional metrics for those refunds.
Returns Handled by Employee
- Employee. Displays the name of fulfillment employees who fulfilled packages during the date range you defined.
- Returned Items Handled. Displays the number of returned products the corresponding employee processed during the date range you defined.
- Total Refund Amount. Displays the total amount of refunds issued by the corresponding employee during the date range you defined.
- The Returns Handled by Employee and the Returns by Payment Method sections pull data based on the date the item was returned.
Returns by Payment Method
- Shows the total amount of order refunds by the original method of payment for the order. This means that no matter how the shop refunded the customer (credit or back to original method of payment) the refund is reported in this field based on how the customer originally paid for the item.
- Processor. Displays the name of the payment method through which refunds were processed during the date range you defined.
- # Returns. Displays the number of refunds processed through the corresponding payment method during the date range you defined.
- Total Refund Amount. Displays the total refund amount processed through the corresponding payment method during the date range you defined.
Packer Overview
The Packer Overview provides a breakdown of orders fulfilled by employee during the date range you defined.
- Packer. Displays the fulfillment employee's name.
- Orders Fulfilled. Displays the number of orders fulfilled by the corresponding employee during the date range you defined.
- Products Fulfilled. Displays the number of products fulfilled by the corresponding employee during the date range you defined.
- Oz Fulfilled. Displays the total ounces (i.e., product weight) fulfilled by the corresponding employee during the date range you defined.
- $ Spent. Displays the total amount spent on shipping labels for the orders fulfilled by the corresponding employee during the date range you defined.
- Avg $ Per Ounce. Displays the average amount spent on shipping labels per ounce for orders fulfilled by the corresponding employee during the date range you defined.
Inventory Overview (Real-Time)
The Inventory Overview provides a real-time snapshot of your current inventory value and costs.
- Inventory Retail Value. Displays the total retail value for all unsold and uncarted inventory.
- Inventory Cost. Displays the total cost for all your unsold and uncarted inventory.
- Customer Credits. Displays the total amount of unused credit available across all customers. This amount includes gift cards converted to account credit.
- Gift Cards Total. Displays the total amount of issued gift cards, both redeemed and unredeemed values.
Payments by Hour Overview
The Payments by Hour overview gives you an hour-by-hour breakdown of average customer payments for the date range you defined. These values include taxes, shipping, and discounts.
FAQs
How do I change the date range in the Main Reports Overview?
Go to Reporting > All, enter your Start Date and End Date, then select Retrieve.
Does every section use the selected date range?
Most sections report activity for the selected date range, but some metrics are real-time snapshots. In addition, return-related sections may use either the order date or the date the item was returned. Review each section’s description to understand its date basis.
Why might return totals differ between the Orders and Payments sections?
The Orders section’s Total Returns metric is based on the order date by default, although you can change it to use the actual return date under Setup > Returns. The Payments section’s Returns metric is based on the date the returned items were sold or ordered. The sections also describe different return-related values, so their totals may not match.
Can I view gross margin by collection?
Yes. In the Orders section, locate Gross Margin and select View by Collection.
Can I export customer information?
Yes. In the Customer overview, the First-time Purchasers list includes a Download as CSV option.
Where can I review fulfillment activity by employee?
Use the Packer Overview to review orders fulfilled, products fulfilled, weight fulfilled, and shipping-label costs by employee. The Processed Returns and Refunds overview also includes return-handling information by employee.