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Department

What's on the Page?

The Department report (found under Inventory in the Reports menu) shows the value of your inventory on hand as of the report date, broken down by department and sub department. Consignment items are excluded.

Tip

The table groups its rows by department. Each department's title row shows the department's subtotals; click the title row to expand or collapse the sub department rows beneath it.

Each row shows a department / sub department combination with these columns:

  • Department — the department name. Click it to drill down to the items in that department (see "See the Items Behind a Department's Inventory Numbers" below).
  • Sub Department — the sub department name, or - if the items have no sub department.
  • Qty, Qty LY, Diff, % Diff — the quantity of inventory on hand, the quantity for the previous year, and the change between the two.
  • Cost, Cost LY, $ Diff, % Diff — the cost value of the inventory on hand, the previous-year value, and the change.
  • Retail, Retail LY, $ Diff, % Diff — the retail value of the inventory on hand, the previous-year value, and the change.
  • Margin, Margin LY — the margin percentage implied by the cost and retail values: (Retail − Cost) ÷ Retail × 100.

The LY (last year) columns fill in when a previous-year checkbox is checked (see below); otherwise Qty LY, Cost LY, and Retail LY show zero and Margin LY shows -. A % Diff column shows - when there was no value last year.

Department Report Options: Previous Year and Store Selection

At the top of the Department inventory report:

  1. Check Include previous year (1 year ago) to fill the LY (last year) columns with values from this date one year ago.
  2. Or check Include previous year (52 weeks ago) to compare against 52 weeks ago instead — useful when you want to line up the same day of the week.
  3. If your company has more than one store, use the store selector (Choose store...) to pick which stores are included. Select All selects every store; Deselect clears the selection.
  4. Click Go to run the report.

To change the report date, use the date control in the report sidebar — the page heading shows which date the report is for. To export the table, click the download icon (Download CSV) above the table.

See the Items Behind a Department's Inventory Numbers (Item Drill-Down)

To find out which items make up a department's inventory value on the Department report:

  1. Go to Reports and open Department under the Inventory heading.
  2. Click a department name in the Department column. This opens an item-level Inventory Analysis page listing every item in that department, for the same report date.
  3. Check Include previous year to add last-year values to the LY columns (the page reloads automatically).

The item table shows one row per item:

  • Dept. — the item's department.
  • Item # — the item number. Click it to open the item's page.
  • Description — the item description.
  • Qty / Qty LY — quantity on hand as of the report date, and one year prior.
  • Cost / Cost LY — cost value of the on-hand inventory, with $ Diff and % Diff columns comparing the two.
  • Retail / Retail LY — retail value of the on-hand inventory, with $ Diff and % Diff columns.
  • Margin / Margin LY — margin percentage: (Retail − Cost) ÷ Retail × 100.

% Diff shows - when there was no value last year. A totals row at the bottom sums each column across all items. Click a column heading to sort, and use the download icon (Download CSV) to export the table.

If your company has more than one store, note that the item drill-down does not have a store selector and does not follow the store selection made on the Department report — it shows quantities and values for the store you are currently working in. Its totals can therefore differ from the department row you clicked if you had a different store selection on the Department report. Consignment items are excluded.

Compare Department Inventory Across Stores (Department (Stores) Drill-Down)

The Department (Stores) report (under Inventory in the Reports menu) breaks the same inventory analysis down by store: instead of one row per department, you get a table per department with one row per store. This view is enabled per-client by VMX — if you don't see Department (Stores) in your Reports menu, contact help@vmxllc.com to discuss enabling it for your company.

To run it:

  1. Go to Reports and open Department (Stores) under the Inventory heading.
  2. Optionally check Include previous year (1 year ago) or Include previous year (52 weeks ago) to add last-year comparison columns.
  3. Use the store selector (Choose store...) to pick the stores to compare. Select All selects every store; Deselect clears the selection.
  4. Click Go.

The page then shows:

  • One table per department, with a row per store showing Store, Qty, Cost, and Retail. When a previous-year checkbox is checked, each measure also gets LY, Diff, and % Diff columns (Qty LY, Qty Diff, Qty % Diff, and the same for Cost and Retail), plus Margin and Margin LY columns. A TOTAL row sums the department across the selected stores.
  • Totals By Store — one row per store summed across all departments, with a GRAND TOTAL row.
  • Totals By Department — one row per department summed across the selected stores, with a GRAND TOTAL row.

Each table has its own download icon (Download CSV) so you can export a single department, the store totals, or the department totals separately. Consignment items are excluded.