V9 - Purchases by category - summary report
Use case
The Purchases by category – summary report (Operations > Reports > Purchasing > Purchases by category — summary) provides a list of categories and subcategories, along with quantities of items purchased in each, during the reporting period. For subcategories, this report shows the lowest-level category name—without including its parent category or subcategory.
While the basics for running any report in SOS Inventory are covered in Reporting introduction and Running a report, the filters, options, and columns specific to the Purchases by category – summary report are explained below.
Filters
From date and To date.
- Relative/Absolute toggle. Used for customized and scheduled reports.
- Relative automatically recalculates the date whenever the report is reopened or run. It must be used in tandem with the Quick date selector, which assigns a general time frame (e.g., Today, Yesterday, Start of last week, End of last month, etc.) instead of a specific date.
- Absolute, the default, keeps the exact date.
- The system automatically populates the current date in the date field by default. You can change specific dates manually according to the Date format established in your User settings (either MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY), or by using the Calendar (event).
- Even if you are not creating or running a customized or scheduled report, you may find it more convenient to use the Quick date selector, which assigns a general time frame (e.g., Today, Yesterday, Start of last week, End of last month, etc.) instead of a specific date.
Categories. Select All or individual categories. All is the default. Multiple individual categories can be selected. To use this filter, categories must be defined in SOS Inventory.
Options
Hide rows with no purchases. If you have categories that do not have any items received during the reporting period, those categories will not be displayed on the report. This option is checked by default.
Include archived categories. SOS Inventory does not include archived categories in reports by default. Check this option if you want archived categories to be included when you run the report.
Show "from" and "to" dates. If checked, shows a date range at the top of the report, based on your From date and To date filters. The date range appears when Display is selected under Retrieve your report. If the report is retrieved by Email or Download, the header will appear only if you print your spreadsheet. If a header is also entered for the report, the date range will be displayed below the header.
Header. Enter header text for the report, if desired. The header appears when Display is selected under Retrieve your report. If the report is retrieved by Email or Download, the header will appear only if you print your spreadsheet.
Footer. Enter footer text for the report, if desired. The footer appears when Display is selected under Retrieve your report. If the report is retrieved by Email or Download, the footer will appear only if you print your spreadsheet and will show above the system-generated text, Report Generated [date] [timestamp].
Columns
The Purchases by category – summary report does not give users the ability to choose columns. However, columns with the category Name, Units received, % Total Units Received, Cost, and % Total Cost are built into the report. The values displayed in the Cost column are in the home currency.
The category name is a clickable link that goes to its record on the Items list. Columns on the report are sortable.
Sample Purchases by category – summary report
The sample Purchases by category – summary report below is filtered for a date range from Start of this year to End of last quarter. It shows the standard columns built into the report, as well as a Totals line with the sum of each column.
