Gladstone Reporting Frequently Asked Questions
This article provides a summary of frequently asked questions for Gladstone Reporting
Why is the total value of transactions provided by my Payment Processor greater than the total of my Sales report in Gladstone Reporting?
There are several reasons why your Payment Processor report total is greater than your Gladstone Reporting total. The most common reasons are provided below.
Resource Products
When using a sales report such as Gross Sales (Current Month) or Sales (Yesterday) available inside the Sales Dashboard to reconcile transactions in Gladstone Software, Resource Products are automatically excluded. These Resource Products are configurable areas, commonly referred to as Booking Sheets within the primary database. They define specific locations for bookings, such as Sport Hall Court 1, Dance Studio, Pool Lane 1, etc. Resource Products are identified by the Bookings Resource indicator in the configuration, which distinguishes them from revenue-generating products. If the Bookings Resource indicator is set to No, the product is considered revenue-generating and included in the sales report. However, if the indicator is set to Standard or Density, the product is classified as a Resource Product and excluded from the report.
In the short term, using a payments report such as Payments (Yesterday) available inside the Sales Dashboard will include all products, regardless of their Bookings Resource indicator. The inclusion of Resource Products will highlight any which have been manually amended to a value greater than zero. As a result of Resource Product inclusion in the payments report, the Resource Product(s) that total the difference between the two reports will provide the difference.
Long term, it is recommended that Resource Products are not modified from their zero price and not utilised as revenue-generating products when charging customers for products or services.
Unverified Sales Manager / Unverified Bookings Manager
Online sales and bookings must be completed within a nominated time. Typically, the period allowed for transaction completion will be 30 minutes. Where Gladstone Software does not receive confirmation of the transaction completion, the sale will be automatically removed by a process called Unverified Sales Manager or Unverified Bookings Manager dependent on the transaction type. On the rare occasion that Gladstone Software does not receive confirmation of the sale, the issue may be caused by a call-back failure, a transaction time-out, or the browser window being closed or interrupted before completion. In these circumstances, the Payment Processor may record the transaction as complete, but Gladstone Software remains unaware of its status.
To identify the transactions in question, a comparison between itemised entries provided by the Payment Processor and Gladstone Reporting will provide the difference.
Why is the total value of transactions provided by my Sales report in Gladstone Reporting larger than expected?
There are several reasons why your Gladstone Reporting total is larger than expected. The most common reasons are provided below.
Unpaid Sales
When using a sales report such as Gross Sales (Current Month) or Sales (Yesterday) available inside the Sales Dashboard to reconcile transactions in Gladstone Software, the Status filter will default to Include All. As a result, the report may include sales which are paid, voided, credited and unpaid. Unpaid sales will increase the Gladstone Reporting total but will not be reflected in reporting provided by your Payment Processor.
Using the Status filter, you may specify which options you wish to remove from the report. Through the exclusion of Unpaid Overdue and Unpaid Not Due Yet Status, sales reports will ignore unpaid sales.
Additional Payment Methods
When using a sales report such as Gross Sales (Current Month) or Sales (Yesterday) available inside the Sales Dashboard to reconcile transactions in Gladstone Software, the Payment Method filter will default to Include All. As a result, the report may include sales by Payment Method such as Direct Debit, Recurring Card Payment, voucher and BACS in addition to over-the-counter transactions using cash, card or cheque.
Using the Payment Method filter, end users may specify which options they wish to remove from the report. Through the exclusion of targeted payment methods, sales reports can ignore these transactions.
Account Types
When using a sales report such as Gross Sales (Current Month) or Sales (Yesterday) available inside the Sales Dashboard to reconcile transactions in Gladstone Software, the Account Type filter will default to Include All. As a result, the report may include sales from the Standard, Invoicing or Cashless accounts.
Using the Account Type filter, users may specify which accounts they wish to include in the report and remove those which may be inflating the report totals.
What is the difference between Sales and Payments?
Transactions processed online, using kiosks or over the counter via POS (Point Of Sale) terminals are represented in Gladstone Reporting by Sales and Payments reports available inside the Sales Dashboard. Although closely related, data summarised within the two types of report may differ. This can often be confusing and lead to mismatching reports and reconciliation issues. To better understand the differences, the following description of their meaning is summarised below:
- Sales: summarising the process of ownership transfer for products or services.
- Payments: summarising the exchange of money for products or services.
Data summarised within sales reports will include transactions at all stages. All sales begin as unpaid and will change Status depending on their journey. Some sales may remain unpaid and become debt against the contact record. Others will advance to paid or become voided or refunded depending on circumstances. Due to the nature of sales reports such as Gross Sales (Current Month) or Sales (Yesterday) which include sales of all Status, the grand totals can be larger when combining paid and unpaid sales simultaneously. This can be influenced by using the Status filter.
Payments will focus on completed transactions processed using Gladstone Software and will exclude unpaid sales. Therefore, widgets such as Payments (Yesterday) are the preferred report when reconciling eCommerce and POS transactions.
Which Gladstone Reporting widget should I use to reconcile my Online and POS transactions?
When reconciling eCommerce or POS transactions, the optimal report to use is called Payments (Yesterday) which can be found within the Sales Dashboard. The widget is based upon payments rather than sales meaning unpaid transactions are automatically excluded.
Using the Standard Drill Down, users may personalise the filters provided to represent data based on specific attributes. The widget includes information in several formats including line by line transaction breakdown, transactions per day in addition to summary reports by Cost Centre, Department, Product and Payment Method.
Should further detail be required, the Payments (Yesterday) widget includes an Extract Drill Down option providing additional columns in a table format. The results may be downloaded and interrogated using 3rd party applications.
Where can I find my new subscriptions total?
Within the Subscriptions Dashboard is the New Subscriptions (Current Month) widget. The widget logic is based upon subscriptions with an Original Start Date within the current month. For example, if today were the 24th January, the report will include all subscriptions with an Original Start Date from the 1st January to the 31st January. The Original Start Date is the date from when the subscription went live and will remain static for the duration of the subscription. The widget Drill Down offers a detailed insight into each subscription along with demographic data. The filters provided allow users to define specific attributes to modify the report contents.
Included within the report filters is the Creation Date attribute. The Creation Date is when the subscription was added to the contact record. The date on which a subscription is purchased and the date it becomes active may differ. If preferring to report on Creation Date rather than Original Start Date, the widget's filters provide this ability.
Where can I see which subscriptions are ending?
End Date and Auto Renew
Within the Subscriptions Dashboard is the Expiring Subscriptions (Current Month) widget. The widget logic is based upon subscriptions with an End Date within the current month and Auto Renew is inactive. For example, if today were the 24th January, the report will include all subscriptions with an End Date from the 1st January to the 31st January that will not Auto Renew.
End Date is when the subscription expires, unless used in conjunction with the Auto Renew attribute which may extend the subscription duration. Where a subscription is configured to Auto Renew, the End Date may be extended automatically following processes such as Start of Day, EFT Collection or RCP Service Submissions.
The widget Drill Down offers a detailed insight into each subscription along with demographic data. The filters provided allow users to define specific attributes to modify the report contents.
Renewal Stop Date
Within the Subscriptions Dashboard is the Renewal Stop Date widget. The widget logic is based upon subscriptions with a Renewal Stop Date in the current month. For example, if today were the 24th January, the report will include all subscriptions with a Renewal Stop Date from the 1st January to the 31st January regardless of End Date and Auto Renew. The Renewal Stop Date attribute is typically utilised when giving advanced notice of a subscription termination, often days or week into the future.
The Renewal Stop Date widget is designed to capture subscriptions that won’t be identified by the Expiring Subscriptions (Current Month) widget due to differences in logic.
Where can I see my Group Exercise attendance?
Within the Bookings Dashboard are the Bookee % Occupancy and Attendee % widgets.
The Bookee % Occupancy is based upon all Group Exercise activities from the previous 90 days. The logic uses Total Bookees divided by the Max Bookees to calculate occupancy (e.g. 10 bookees in a class of 30 spaces will equate to 33% occupancy).
The Attendee % is based upon all Group Exercise activities from the previous 90 days. The logic uses Total Attendees divided by the Total Bookees (e.g. 10 bookees in a class where 9 attended will equate to 90% occupancy).
Both widgets utilise the same Drill Down providing data in both an aggregated table where totals are added together, and a table summarising each class by date. Conditional formatting is also employed to highlight classes where Attendee % is red (below 33%), orange (below 68%) or green (greater than or equal to 68%). The filters provided allow users to define specific attributes to modify the report contents.
How do I report on Direct Debit Transactions?
For customers using the EFT Collection procedure for Direct Debit processing, Gladstone Reporting provides several widgets to assist and support the reconciliation process.
Direct Debit Collection
Within the Sales Dashboard is the Direct Debit Collection widget. The widget summaries the total value of paid sales attributed to the Direct Debit Payment Method from the last 90 days by Raised Site. As subscriptions do not have site specific allocation, the Raised Site will equal the Home Site associated to the contact record.
The widget Drill Down summaries data in a table format with columns including Raised Site, User ID, Contact ID, Full Name, Product, Bank Account Reference and more. The filters provided allow users to define specific attributes to modify the report contents. By default, the report will include Paid sales only. Upon completion of the EFT collection process, Direct Debit sales are first raised and then paid automatically before producing the EFT file for electronic submission via your BACS transmission software. The following day once the reports have updated, the value of the EFT collection run will match the total represented in the Direct Debit Collection widget.
Typically, a short while after EFT file submission the banks will provide a summary of Direct Debit sales which failed to collect. These are known as EFT Rejections.
Direct Debit Rejection
Within the Sales Dashboard is the Direct Debit Rejections widget. The widget summaries the sales with a Credit Note Status attributed to the Direct Debit Payment Method from the last 90 days by Raised Site. As subscriptions do not have site specific allocation, the Raised Site will equal the Home Site associated to the contact record.
The widget Drill Down summaries data in a table format with columns including Raised Site, User ID, Contact ID, Full Name, Product, Bank Account Reference and more. The filters provided allow users to define specific attributes to modify the report contents. By default, the report will include all sales with a Credit Note Status. As the report is unable to differentiate between a single manual amendment and the EFT Rejection file import, both will be represented by the report. The EFT Rejection data is typically provided in the form of AUDDIS, ADDACS and ARUDD electronic files provided by BACS Payment Services. Upon successful import of the file(s) into Gladstone Software, the affected sales are updated and the following day, the rejection totals summarised by the Direct Debit Rejections widget. Please note that the total for EFT Rejections shown in the report is based on the value of successfully imported rejections and the logic used during the rejection process.
Subscription Debt
Within the Sales Dashboard is the Subscription Debt widget. The widget summaries the total value of Unpaid Overdue sales attributed to the Subscriptions Sales Type. Included within the report are Direct Debit subscriptions which have been rejected.
The widget Drill Down summaries data in a table format with columns including Home Site, Contact ID, Full Name, Home Email, Due Date, Product, Gross and more. The filters provided allow users to define specific attributes to modify the report contents. Please note as part of the EFT Rejection process, the Payment Method for affected Direct Debit sales may be updated to allow settlement via an alternate solution. For example, changing the affected sale from Direct Debit to cash will allow the customer to settle the transaction over the counter or online.
Where can I report on debt?
Debt in Gladstone Software is represented by unpaid sales. Debt may exist for a variety of reasons including abandoned sales of products or services, unpaid subscription fees or bookings from the past, present or future where payment is overdue. Gladstone Reporting provides several Widgets and Drill Downs to assist with debt management.
Current Aged Debt by Due Date Range
Within the Sales Dashboard is the Current Aged Debt by Due Date Range widget. This widget summaries the percentage contribution and total value of Unpaid Overdue sales based on Due Date. Sales are grouped by age from 1 to 30 days, 31 to 60 days, 61 to 90 days or > 90 days old. Please note, the report sample period consists of a rolling 36 months.
The widget Drill Down summaries data in a table format with columns including Raised Site, Contact ID, Full Name, Product, Raised Date, Due Date, Gross total and more. The filters provided allow users to define specific attributes to modify the report contents.
Subscription Debt
Within the Sales Dashboard is the Subscription Debt widget. This widget summaries the total value of Unpaid Overdue sales attributed to the Sales Type Subscriptions. By default, the report will include any subscription debt regardless of the subscription Payment Method.
The widget Drill Down summaries data in a table format with columns including Home Site, Contact ID, Full Name, Home Email, Address, Product, Due Date, Gross total and more. The filters provided allow users to define specific attributes to modify the report contents.
Invoicing Account Debt
Within the Sales Dashboard is the Invoicing Account Debt widget. This widget summaries the total value of Unpaid Overdue sales allocated to the Invoicing Account.
The widget Drill Down summaries data in a table format with columns including Home Site, Contact ID, Full Name, Home Email, Mobile Telephone, Telephone and the Gross total of debt. Please note, as the report shows all debt regardless of age, it is unable to provide any additional detail regarding the sale(s).
Standard Account Debt
Within the Sales Dashboard is the Standard Account Debt widget. This widget summaries the total value of Unpaid Overdue sales allocated to the Standard Account.
The widget Drill Down summaries data in a table format with columns including Home Site, Contact ID, Full Name, Home Email, Mobile Telephone, Telephone and the Gross total of debt. Please note, as the report shows all debt regardless of age, it is unable to provide any additional detail regarding the sale(s).
Standard Account Booking Debt
Within the Bookings Dashboard is the Standard Account Booking Debt widget. This widget summaries the total value of Unpaid Overdue sales attributed to the Sales Type Bookings within the Standard Account.
The widget Drill Down summaries data in multiple reports including Booking Debt by Cost Centre, Booking Debt by Department, Top 10 Products with Booking Debt. Additionally, there is a table summarising Participation Site, Contact ID, Full Name, Home Email, Product, Activity, Participation Date, User ID, Gross total and more. The filters provided allow users to define specific attributes to modify the report contents.
Invoicing Account Booking Debt
Within the Bookings Dashboard is the Invoicing Account Booking Debt widget. This widget summaries the total value of Unpaid Overdue sales attributed to the Sales Type Bookings within the Invoicing Account.
The widget Drill Down summaries data in multiple reports including Booking Debt by Cost Centre, Booking Debt by Department, Top 10 Products with Booking Debt. Additionally, there is a table summarising Participation Site, Contact ID, Full Name, Home Email, Product, Activity, Participation Date, User ID, Gross total and more. The filters provided allow users to define specific attributes to modify the report contents.
How to I reconcile Invoice payments
When using invoicing with Gladstone Software, sales are often grouped together by Due Date and allocated to an Invoice ID. Customers presented with an Invoice may pay using a variety of methods including over the counter, online or via other methods such as a bank transfer. Where sales are paid by customers outside of the software by methods such as bank transfer, it is vital the Status of these sales be updated to Paid using an appropriate process such as Batch Posting.
Invoice Sales (Last 90 Days)
Within the Sales Dashboard is the Invoice Sales (Last 90 Days) widget. This widget summaries the total value of Paid sales attributed to an Invoice ID within a Status Date of the last 90 days.
The widget Drill Down summaries data in a table format with columns including Printed Invoice ID, Raised Date, Account Type, Contact ID, Full Name, Product, Due Date, Sales Status, Tax Band, Gross total and more. The filters provided allow users to define specific attributes to modify the report contents.