The daily inventory and the monthly KPI scorecard

Summary

Besides the notices for each operation, the system can email the customer two periodic reports:

• The daily inventory («Inventory & Transactions report»): every morning, what it has in the warehouse and what came in and went out yesterday.
• The monthly KPI scorecard: early in the month, its KPIs for the month that just closed, with target and traffic light.

Both are switched on per customer on its Notifications tab, go to the same recipients as its other emails and have a button to send them by hand. This article covers them in depth; the general tab setup is in Customer emails and reports.

Before you start

• Permission: Configure Clients to switch them on and send them by hand.
• Modules: the daily inventory needs the inventory module; the scorecard, the KPIs module. Without the module, the checkbox or button does not appear and nothing is sent.
• Recipients: contacts with email chosen under Notifications, an additional email or, as fallback, a Billing contact.
• For the scorecard: KPI cards marked for the client portal. See Which KPIs the customer sees.
• Warehouse settings (set by the superadmin on the warehouse): the daily report time and the default email language.

The daily inventory

What it contains

The email body is short on purpose: it greets the customer, says how many receipts and shipments it had yesterday and points to the attachments. The detail comes in two files:

• PDF to read or print, with its current inventory, the receipts confirmed yesterday and the shipments shipped yesterday.
• Excel with three sheets (current inventory, receipts and shipments), so the customer can filter and work with the data.

The current inventory section comes out by warehouse receipt or by SKU according to the inventory report mode on the Data tab. «Yesterday» is counted in the warehouse’s time zone.

When it goes out and to whom

• The system checks every hour. From the warehouse’s daily report time (7:00 local if nobody changed it) it sends to each customer with the checkbox on that has not received it that day. If a run fails (a restart, a mail server problem), the next hour tries again.
• It only goes to customers that have goods in the warehouse today or had activity yesterday (a customer that shipped everything and is at zero still gets it, to confirm its balance). A customer with nothing and no activity does not get a blank email.
• It goes to recipients that accept «Daily inventory». It does not depend on the tab’s Email channel.
• It is sent per warehouse: if the customer has goods in two warehouses, it gets one email from each.
• Every send is logged; if someone sent it by hand that day, the automatic one does not repeat it.

The monthly KPI scorecard

What it contains

The warehouse KPI cards that are marked for the portal and can be calculated per customer (for example on-time shipping, receiving accuracy, inbound on time, units on hand), calculated with that customer’s data only and for the closed calendar month. It comes as PDF and Excel; the Excel shows the customer, the period and the generation date at the top.

Each card’s traffic light compares against the target agreed with that customer if one exists; otherwise, against the warehouse target. (In the portal, by contrast, cards with no agreed target have no colour.) How cards and targets are defined is in Build the KPI board.

When it goes out and to whom

• Every day at 6:00, from the 4th of each month, the system sends last month’s scorecard to customers with the checkbox on that have not received it yet. It waits until the 4th so that month-end closings (shipments, billing, count adjustments) are included. If one day fails, it tries the next.
• Only active customers get it, and only from their home warehouse.
• It goes to recipients that accept the monthly scorecard (under «Only these:» it is the checkbox with the technical text clients.notifications.types.monthly_scorecard).
• Every send is logged per month: once sent (by hand or automatically), that month is not repeated.

Switching them on step by step

1. Open the customer under Commercial › Clients and go to the Notifications tab.
2. Check the recipients: at least one contact that accepts the report.
3. Switch on «Send daily inventory report by email» and/or «Send monthly KPI scorecard».
4. Check the language.
5. Click «Save».
6. Test with the «Send now» buttons.

Sending them by hand

• Send inventory report now sends the current inventory (PDF and Excel) from the warehouse selected at the top, even if the daily checkbox is off. Message: «Inventory report sent to N recipient(s).»
• The scorecard’s «Send now» button sends the previous closed month, on any day of the month, even if the checkbox is off. Message: «Scorecard sent to N recipient(s).»

Example: a week at Southern Logistics

The Principal warehouse report time is 7:00. Southern Logistics has the daily inventory and the scorecard on; Luis Pérez receives everything.

• Monday 1: at 7:00 the inventory goes out with «Yesterday: 0 receipt(s) and 2 shipment(s)».
• Tuesday 2: the mail server fails at 7:00; at 8:00 the system tries again and it goes out.
• Wednesday 3: at 6:40 Ana López clicks «Send now» because the customer asked for the report early. At 7:00 it is not repeated.
• Thursday 4: at 6:00 last month’s scorecard goes out; at 7:00, the daily inventory.
• Friday 5: the customer shipped everything on Thursday and is at zero: it still gets the report confirming a zero balance. On Saturday, with no goods and no activity, it gets nothing.

Special cases and limits

• Removed customers: the daily inventory does not check whether the customer is active or deleted. If the checkbox was left on and it still has goods, the email keeps going out. Turn the checkbox off before removing the customer. (The scorecard does stop for inactive customers.)
• No cards for the portal: the scorecard comes out empty if the warehouse marked no card for the portal. Review the board before switching it on.
• Channel: these two reports do not depend on the Email channel; if someone left only WhatsApp ticked, they still go out.
• Several warehouses: the inventory comes from each warehouse where the customer has goods; the scorecard only from its home warehouse.

Best practices

• Agree the report time with the customer and set it on the warehouse.
• Before switching on the scorecard, review which cards are marked for the portal and their targets.
• Ask the customer to add the sending address to their safe senders so it does not end up in spam.
• When a customer leaves, switch both checkboxes off before removing it.

Troubleshooting

Frequently asked questions

Can I change the daily inventory time?

Yes, but it is per warehouse, not per customer: «Daily inventory report time» in the warehouse settings, edited by the superadmin. Every customer of that warehouse gets it from that time.

Is it the same report I see under Reports?

Yes. The PDF and Excel come from the same generator as the customer inventory report under Reports. See Warehouse reports.

Can I send the scorecard for an older month?

Not from the screen: the button always sends the previous closed month. For other periods, open the KPI board filtered by the customer and export it.