About Keeping Statistics

You can keep statistics for:

• Customers
• Customer groups
• National accounts
• Items
• Salespersons

Note: By default, statistics are kept for customers, customer groups, and national accounts. To keep item and salesperson statistics, you must select the corresponding Keep Statistics options on the Processing tab of the A/R Options Screen.

For each set of statistics, you can specify:

• Whether or not statistics are editable
• Whether or not to include tax amounts in statistical totals
• The type of year and period by which to display and report statistics

Customer, Customer Group, and National Account Statistics

Accounts Receivable keeps period statistics for customers, customer groups, and national accounts (if you use them), including the monetary total and number of invoices, receipts, discounts, credit notes, debit notes, adjustments, write-offs, interest charges, returned checks, and paid invoices.

Accounts Receivable also keeps activity statistics for customers and national accounts, including:

• The amount and date of the highest balance in the current and previous years.
• The largest invoice in the current and previous years.
• The last invoice, payment, credit note, debit note, adjustment, write-off, interest charge, and returned check.
• The total invoices paid, total days to pay, and average days to pay.

Use the A/R Customers screen, A/R Customer Groups screen, and A/R National Accounts screen to review the statistics.

Item and Salesperson Statistics

You can choose whether or not to keep item and salesperson statistics.

If you select the Keep Statistics option for items or salespersons, Accounts Receivable keeps the following statistics for the type of year and period you specify on the A/R Options screen:

• Item statistics:

  • Totals of sales, returns, costs, and gross margins.
  • Numbers of items sold and returned.
  • Number of sales of each item.
  • Date of the last invoice posted for each item number.
• Salesperson statistics:
  • Total amount and number of invoices, receipts, credit notes, debit notes, discounts, and write-offs posted to each salesperson.

You can review item statistics on the A/R Items screen and the A/R Item Sales History report. You can review salesperson statistics on the A/R Salespersons screen. If you do not keep item and salesperson statistics, there will be no statistical information on these screens and reports.

If you turn off statistics for items or salespersons, Accounts Receivable stops collecting them, although it retains figures already in the system until you clear them using the A/R Clear Statistics screen.

Note: If you turn the Keep Statistics option off, then turn it on again, statistics from transactions posted while the option was off will not be included in the totals. There will be a gap in the statistical information.

Updating Statistics

Accounts Receivable updates statistics automatically each time you post batches.

If you set up your Accounts Receivable system partway through a fiscal year, you may want to edit statistics so that you can enter figures for previous periods of the current year or for previous years.

Occasionally, you may also want to edit a particular statistic because unusual circumstances have exaggerated the amount. For example, if a single invoice remains unpaid for a long period on an otherwise satisfactory account, you could adjust the figure in the Total Days To Pay field on the Customers screen to more accurately reflect the customer's paying habits.

If you edit a customer's statistics, you should make the same changes to the statistics for the customer groups and national accounts to which the customer belongs.