The Sales vs Prior Period report compares any date range to a prior period and shows the delta on every key sales metric. Use for “how are we tracking vs last year” or “is this month better than last month” questions.
Choose your comparison
The “Compare to” filter offers three modes:
- Prior period (same length) — auto-computed: the equal-length window immediately before your selected range. So “May 1–31” compares against “April 1–30.”
- Same period last year — auto-computed: your range shifted back by one year. So “May 1–31, 2025” compares against “May 1–31, 2024.”
- Custom range — pick any prior From/To. Useful for irregular comparisons (e.g., “this month vs March’s strong month”).
Summary view — the metric comparison
One row per metric, three numerical columns:
- Current — the metric for the current range
- Prior — same metric for the prior range
- Δ Amount — Current − Prior, color-coded green for positive, red for negative
- Δ % — percent change vs Prior
Metrics included: Invoice Count, Net Invoices (excluding voided), Voided Count, Subtotal, Tax, Freight, Total Sales, Voided Amount, Avg Sale.
Total Sales is usually the headline. Avg Sale is useful for “did we have more sales or bigger sales?” — pair the two.
Daily Detail view
The Detail view aligns each day of the current period with the same-offset day of the prior period. Day 1 of current is paired with Day 1 of prior, regardless of whether they fall on the same calendar day-of-week.
Each row:
- Day — 1-based day index within the period
- Current Date + Curr Inv + Current — the current period’s day
- Prior Date + Prior Inv + Prior — the prior period’s same-offset day
- Δ Amount + Δ % — per-day comparison
Days where neither period had activity are skipped so the table stays tight.
This view answers “why did this period beat (or miss) the prior period?” — usually a few high-volume days drive the delta. Sort by Δ Amount in Excel after exporting to find the biggest movers.
Day-of-week caveat
The “prior period” comparison is calendar-aligned, not weekday-aligned. So Day 1 of the current month might be a Monday while Day 1 of the prior month was a Sunday. For weekday-sensitive businesses (jewelry skews Saturdays heavy), the Same period last year mode keeps weekdays mostly aligned (2025-05-15 and 2024-05-15 are different days of the week, but the calendar month structure repeats).
For week-over-week comparison without weekday skew, use a Custom range that ends on the same day-of-week as your current range starts.
Tips
- Run mid-month with “Prior period (same length)” to track pace. If the current month’s first 15 days is below the prior month’s first 15 days, you’re behind.
- Year-over-year with “Same period last year” is the right comparison for seasonal businesses — last May is a better predictor for this May than April was.
- The Daily Detail Excel export is the cleanest way to plot a comparison chart — paste current Total and prior Total into a chart with day-of-period on the X axis.
- Voided amounts going up while Net Invoices stays flat is a process-quality signal worth investigating — usually a training issue at the till.