Monitor sales results

Franchisers can benefit from monitoring sales entries for the level of unbilled sales revenue, unsatisfactory results, or inaccuracies. The phased entry of sales data for a business cycle and the associated reports provide a way to monitor sales results for the cycle. For example, a review of sales results may indicate that franchisees require help to improve sales.

During a cycle, you can add these types of sales entries at different phases of the cycle:

  • Add estimates after sales are created
  • Add call-in estimates at mid-cycle
  • Add actual invoice data at the end of the cycle

Using estimates and call-in estimates, you can record preliminary sales amounts and related charges for customer contracts.

You can verify customer contract sales by using actual invoice sales entries.

Estimates

Estimates show what sales would look like if sales for the actual cycle matched the level in the previous cycle. Estimates are based solely on previous sales results, By creating estimates early in the cycle, you can predict cycle revenue amounts, which you can later refine by creating call-in estimates.

Estimates work best when charges and net sales are virtually the same from cycle to cycle. If the current contract cycle includes different charges and significantly different net sales amounts than the previous contract cycle, estimate amounts will have less meaning.

The existence of open (released) estimates in the application has another value by indicating uninvoiced sales for the cycle.

Call-in Estimates

In a franchise organization, sales representatives often call in or send preliminary sales results for a cycle. You can use Franchise Billing to capture these results, which are referred to as call-in estimates.

The purpose of call-in estimates is to provide preliminary data that is a more reliable indicator of actual sales and invoicing trends for the current cycle than estimates. Estimates are based strictly on previous cycle results. This data can be used to forecast sales results for the cycle.

Preliminary Results

When you post accrued estimates and call-in estimates to Global Ledger, you store the preliminary sales data for a cycle. By running reports in Global Ledger, you can review your estimated and verified mid-cycle sales results.

Organizational Considerations

Monitoring sales results based on estimates and call-in estimates can help your organization improve its:

  • Cash flow by contacting franchisees who show unsatisfactory sales results before invoicing at the end of the cycle
  • Ability to make important and more timely business decisions by reaching conclusions based on preliminary evidence

For example, you can better identify uninvoiced sales through a report of outstanding estimates and call-in estimates. By identifying uninvoiced sales, your sales representatives can contact customers to speed the reporting of actual sales results.

This monitoring capability can result in faster confirmation of sales, which could mean faster invoicing and payment, which improves cash flow.

You must decide whether there is the potential in your business for improved cash flow and whether the possible reward is worth the time to create estimates and call-in estimates.

If your business can show a history of reliable estimates, then your business can make decisions based on that capability and history.