This article explains Dines' Reporting tools, which offer insights into venue performance, including sales data.
Dines’ Reporting tools offer a comprehensive range of insights which allow you to assess how your venue is performing.
Using this section of the Dines App, you can check your sales figures for any period of time you wish, download Payout statements, and more. This guide will explore each feature in-depth to describe what can be achieved.
Table of Contents
Filters
Before we jump into the various tabs of the Reporting section, let’s review the Filters that are available on the majority of the pages. Using Filters, you can narrow down your data to focus on specific criteria, such as;
- Date: Whether you want to focus on a specific day, or an entire month, this filter allows you to zero in on any timeframe you wish to view.
- Daily Closing Time: This will let you choose if your venue closes before midnight or after midnight. For example, if your venue closes at 4AM, normal reports would typically exclude any sales between 12AM and 4AM, because it would technically be a new day. However, selecting “4AM” as your daily closing time will account for sales that occur after midnight.
- Filter By Time: Maybe you just had a busy lunch hour, and you want to find out how much you made during that period. Here, you can set any desired time range, e.g. 12PM to 1PM. Just remember to combine it with “date” to pinpoint the exact period you are looking for.
- Order Type: This filter gives you three options; Table Service, Collection and Delivery. This is handy for situations where you only want to see how your Delivery orders are performing, or how Table Service and Collection perform together. All you need to do is check or uncheck the relevant options to generate the exact report you need.
- State to Display: Here, you can choose between three states; Order Created, Order Accepted and Order Completed. This is more handy if you are looking for real-time reporting. For example, if you wish to see the total value of orders that have not yet been accepted, select Order Created, and the relevant results will appear.
Beneath the filters, you will be given three options;
- Update: Applies all of your selected filters to the report.
- Reset: Starts you from a clean slate with no filters applied.
- Remember These Filters: You guessed it, this remembers your filters! Even if you navigate away from Reports, these filters will remain applied upon your return.
Summary
When you open the Reports section on the toolbar, the first tab available is Summary. Here, you will find a number of reports for your venue. Please remember to use Filters to set your desired date/time period, so that you are viewing the most accurate data.
- Activity Summary: The Activity Summary compiles six of the most popular sales breakdowns.
- Covers: If you have been tracking Covers, this will tell you the exact number of customers who have visited your restaurant in the selected time period.
- Covers can be activated by navigating to Settings > EPOS > EPOS Settings > Session Covers
- Bills: This is the number of bills that have been given to customers. Please note this may not necessarily match Covers. For example, a family of four may share one bill.
- Sales ex-Service/Tips: Your total sales are found here, minus any service charges or tips that have been received.
- Service: If you charge a mandatory Service Fee, the results of this charge will appear here.
- Trans Fee: Likewise, a total of all Transaction Fees will populate this field.
- Tips: The final row here will total all Tips received by your staff.
- Covers: If you have been tracking Covers, this will tell you the exact number of customers who have visited your restaurant in the selected time period.
- Wet vs. Dry: With the Wet vs. Dry report, you can compare the sales of your Wet items (e.g., drinks) against your Dry items (e.g., food). Two reports are provided here; Quantities and Total Values. Quantities will tell you the exact number of wet and dry items you have sold, whereas Total Value will give you the monetary amount that customers have paid for them.
- Total Activity By Tender: This report displays which type of tender has been used to purchase your items. The three options given are Mobile (for items ordered via Mobile Ordering), Cash (for items paid for with physical coins & notes), and Card (for items paid for by contactless or Chip & PIN). Similar to Wet vs. Dry above, you can view the quantity of these Transactions, and the Total Value.
- VAT Report: In the VAT Report you will find the VAT impact on your sales.
- Net Sales: Your total sales with VAT deducted.
- Sales ex-Service: Your overall sales without any VAT deductions.
- Total VAT: The total VAT that has been deducted.
- Sales By Product: Discover your most popular products! Your best-performing items will appear in this report, giving you valuable insight into your customer’s favourite dishes.
- Sales By Categories: If you have different categories set up on your account (e.g., Burgers, Pizza, Desserts), you can use this report to determine which has the highest sales.
- Tips: All Tips collected during your selected period will appear here, alongside your employee's names, so that you can see who is delivering the best customer experience.
Analytics
In the Analytics section you will find many reports similar to the Summary section we just covered, but presented as graphs as opposed to raw data. At the top of the page, there are helpful displays which show you sales-based figures at a glance.
- Sales Value: The total value of sales made during your selected period.
- Transactions: Total number of orders placed by customers.
- Avg. Transaction: Your average transaction value, which is worked out by dividing Sales Value by Transactions.
- Covers: Total number of patrons.
Below these displays you will see the aforementioned graphs. Hovering over these graphs will reveal more information about the figures, categories and products which they represent. For example, hoving over one of your Top 10 Products will show exactly how much income you gained from it during the selected period.
Reports
Hello from the future! This reporting section received a massive update in September 2024. Click here to find an article that runs through all of the fancy new features. 👀
Payout
The Payout section of Dines Reporting will provide you with statements for any payouts you have received from us. Each statement comes with a reference number and is available for download in PDF format.
On the statements, you will be given a comprehensive breakdown of the payout, including; your total income per day, the value of tips received, Dines fees and the overall amount that has been paid to you.
Be sure to check out our payout schedule below, so that you are aware of when you should be expecting a payout.
Invoices
In the Invoices section, you will find exactly what you’d expect to find: Invoices! Any invoices related to the Dines app can be accessed here in both monthly & weekly formats.
You can download any of these invoices by clicking “Download” on the right-hand side, and if you ever have any questions, you can contact care@dines.co.uk for a member of our Accounts team to help you out.
Please note: When reaching out to us with regards to an invoice, please give the Reference so that we can help with a faster resolution.
Marketing
Last but not least is the Marketing section. This one is fairly straightforward. If you have been collecting customer’s emails for Marketing purposes, everybody who opts in will be compiled into a list for you. You can then download the emails using “Download Marketing Emails,” to use in whatever GDPR-compliant way you wish!
For reference, customers are given the option to opt-in for marketing when placing an online order with your venue. See below.
Thank you for reading our article on Dines Reporting. If you have any questions at all, or if you have suggestions for a Knowledge Base article you’d like to see, please do not hesitate to reach out to our team. You can contact us via email at care@dines.co.uk, use our Live Chat service here, or message us via WhatsApp on 07822 002783.