Top Tips: Recommended Saved Reports in SalesData & LibraryData

Owned by Hannah Johnston (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Apr 21, 2020
6 min read
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Whether you’re new to SalesData & LibraryData or a veteran user, it can be useful to set up saved reports in your account. The Save/Distribute reports functionality in SalesData & LibraryData has many advantages; it allows you to save time in your work day by setting up reports to deliver straight to your inbox, and enables you to share those reports easily with your colleagues within the site.

Follow the steps below to learn how to set up some of the reports we at BookNet consider essential for SalesData & LibraryData users:

…and of course, the most important step - how to set up a saved report, share it with your colleagues, and schedule the report to deliver via email every week!

Multi-ISBN Report of Key Titles

Step 1: Navigate to the "Multiple ISBN" report from the SalesData Homepage

Step 2: Enter a List of ISBNs

From the Use List of ISBNs tab, use the text box to enter multiple ISBNs that you want to look at. You can copy and paste a list of ISBNs from Excel or type them in. All ISBNs should be separated by either a comma or a line break. This list can be any assortment of ISBNs you are interested in - we recommend you try running a report on your frontlist titles, or on titles that are receiving a marketing push at a particular time.

If you don’t have a list of ISBNs handy, you can also use the Searchable Criteria tab to specify a publisher and pub date range.

Step 3: Select the Over Time Reporting option

Scroll down the page and select the Over Time reporting option.

Step 4: Select your Reporting Period

Reporting period allows you to select which time period you would like to see results for. For this report, we recommend selecting the Consecutive Weeks/Months/Quarters option and choosing the past 13 weeks as your interval. This will allow you to track the performance of frontlist titles over the past 3 months, broken out by week.

Step 5: Run the report!

Scroll down the page and click on the Run Report button - do not change any of the other criteria fields.

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Step 1: Navigate to the "Popular Books" report from the LibraryData Homepage

Step 2: Rank Results by On Order Copies

The default value used to rank the results data is Loans. Click the On Order button to rank the results by highest number of copies on order for the current week.

Step 3: Run the Report!

Scroll down the page and click on the Run Report button - do not change any of the other criteria fields.

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Gap Analysis Report for Sales Meetings

Step 1: Navigate to the "Gap Analysis" report from the SalesData Homepage

Step 2: Select Buying Gaps or Inventory Performance

Both are useful tools to help prepare for sales meetings with retailers.

  • Buying Gaps: Returns titles stocked and sold in the comparison market but not the home market. This report can check for markets that might be missing out on title sales.

  • Inventory Performance: Returns titles sold in the comparison market but not sold in the home market even though they were stocked there. This report can check for under-performing inventory.

Select whichever report will be most useful for your purposes - or run both!

Step 3: Select Home and Comparison Markets

The Home Market is the market where you are looking to identify gaps. The Comparison Market is the market that the Home Market is being compared against to find those gaps. Any additional markets you select will have their data presented to you, but that data is not used in the comparison. 

The Home Market should be a smaller market you're looking to track - if you're a Sales Rep perhaps it's one of your accounts, or maybe a channel-type aggregate like the Independents. 

Your Comp Market should be the market whose bestsellers you want to have returned ranked in the report. The All Markets or Independents aggregates are great options for Comp Markets.

Step 4: Select Reporting Period

  • Buying Gaps: The default setting is Current Week.

    • Other options include:

    • Last 2 Weeks

    • Last 3 Weeks

    • Last 4 Weeks

    • Custom (The default display for Custom Sales Period is the most recent week. To select a different time period, click on the date boxes or calendar icons to enter the starting and ending date of the reporting period.)

For the Buying Gaps report, we recommend selecting on of the longer reporting periods (i.e. last 4 weeks) to get a more holistic view of sales at the comparison market. A special event or bulk order may skew the data for reporting periods of only a single week!

  • Inventory Performance: The default setting is Most Recent Week.

    • Other options include:

    • Last 13 Weeks

    • Last 26 Weeks

    • Last 52 Weeks

    • Year to Date (This will display data for the calendar year from the first week of data for the year.)

    • Custom

Step 5: Run the report!

Scroll down the page and click on the Run Report button.

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Saving, Scheduling, and Sharing your Report

Step 1: Save the Report

Click on the Save/Distribute button above the report results table.

A pop-up window will appear asking you to enter a name for the report and to choose a reporting period. For the reporting period, select most recent 1 week. Name the report something easy to identify (e.g. [Publisher Name]_Top 100 Books). Click Next to save the information and move on to the next window.

 

Step 2: Share the Report

To take advantage of the sharing features, toggle Share report to Yes. Choose who to share the report with by checking the box beside each group member's name.

Click Next to save the information and move onto the next window.

 

 

 

 

Step 3: Schedule the Report

In this window, you can specify the file format (Excel or CSV) and size for the report that will be sent out. You can also select a date to start sending the report and when you want it to end. If you leave the end date blank, the report will be sent every week until you delete the saved report or enter an end date.

Scroll down to find the Send report to section. Here you can indicate who you want to automatically receive the report according to the schedule you just set up.

Click Save to finish the process and you will be able to find this report under My Reports, which is accessible from the left sidebar on every page in SalesData & LibraryData.

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Tutorial Videos

Watch our tutorial video to learn more about the Save/Distribute option in SalesData & LibraryData.

Learn more about Multiple ISBN Report, Popular Books Report, and Gap Analysis Report.