See why sales moved, and where to look next

FlightDeck now tells you why your sales moved and where to look next, not just how much you sold. Five new insight panels sit just below the top tiles: why sales changed, where the month will land, demand you turned away, margin left on the table, and the health of your customer base. For managers, an optional weekly brief sums up the week in a few plain sentences every Monday.

Everything is worked out from the data CP2 already imports from Counterpoint. There is nothing new to set up, and every panel follows the date, branch, rep and account filters you already use on FlightDeck.

Why it matters

It answers the questions people used to export to a spreadsheet for: what changed, is it a problem, and who or what is behind it.

Five new panels

The panels appear on FlightDeck right under Quick Account Stats. Hover the ? on any panel for a short explanation of how it's worked out.

Why Sales Changed

Net sales for the period, the change against your comparison period, and what drove it. CP2 splits the change into four parts, each in dollars, and the four always add up to the total change:

• Customers buying: more or fewer accounts bought.
• How often they bought: invoices per customer.
• Lines per invoice: how much went on each invoice.
• Value per line: the price and mix of what was sold.

For example, "Sales up $4,000: $9,800 from customers buying more often, less $3,600 from smaller invoices and $2,200 from fewer customers." Below that, the same change by account: accounts that bought in both periods, new or returning accounts, and accounts that stopped buying.

Month Pace

Where this month will land if the rest of it sells like the last eight weeks. Each remaining day counts for what that day of the week usually sells, so a closed Sunday adds nothing and a Saturday counts for what Saturdays really bring in. You see:

• month to date, and the projection for the month;
• the same month last year, and how the projection compares;
• the selling days left;
• your sales goals for the month, if you've set any, with what's needed per selling day to reach each one.

Month Pace always shows the current month. It follows your branch, rep and account filters, but not your dates.

Demand Turned Away

The sales your branches couldn't fill, from the lost sales recorded at the counter and on the web, priced at their selling price. Your fill rate is sales as a share of sales plus lost sales, compared with the previous period. The panel lists the main reasons and categories, so you can see whether stock, price or something else is costing you business.

Margin Below Target

The sales lines sold below their category's minimum GP% in Counterpoint, and the profit given up against that minimum. It's broken down by category and by clerk, and compared with the previous period, so discounting habits show up quickly.

Customer Health

The accounts Account Watch has flagged for a call, the sales at risk on them, and what calls and visits have brought back in the last 90 days. Click the number of accounts to go straight to the Call List. The panel also shows returns and credits as a share of gross sales, and the categories with the most returned.

The weekly brief for managers

Every Monday morning, managers can get a This Week brief at the top of FlightDeck and in their inbox: a one-line headline and a few short points on what changed last week and what matters. For example: "Sales were up 6.2% on the same week last year, but Brakes fell $3,280 and lost sales doubled at the North branch."

The brief is written by AI, but the AI never works out a number. CP2 calculates every figure first, the same ones the panels show, for the whole company. The AI only picks what matters most and puts it into words. Before a brief is shown, CP2 checks every figure in it against the figures it worked out, and any point with a number CP2 didn't supply is removed.

It's one request a week for your whole company, so the cost stays small and predictable. The brief is off until your company opts in, and only managers see it, because it covers the whole company.

More accurate numbers

While reviewing FlightDeck we corrected four figures, so some will look different after the update. The new numbers are the right ones.

The Home page's Targeted Customers tile is now Call List, showing the calls and visits due today. Click it to open the Call List.

Getting started

FlightDeck Insights is part of CP2 1.4.6 and works for anyone with access to FlightDeck. The panels need no setup:

1. Open FlightDeck. The five panels sit under Quick Account Stats and update with the filters at the top of the page.
2. Check your category minimums. Margin Below Target uses the minimum GP% set on each category in Counterpoint. Categories without one are left out.
3. Set monthly goals, if you use them. Month Pace shows any sales goals set for the month on CP2's Goals page.
4. Turn on the weekly brief, if you want it. It's off until your company opts in through CP2's settings. Both the AI data sharing setting and the FlightDeck brief setting must be on. The settings explain exactly what is and isn't sent, and that the AI provider may use what's sent to improve its models.
5. Add it to the managers' email. In CPMailer, add the Weekly Brief report to a weekly report for managers.

Reps who sign in with their own rep code see the panels for their own sales. The weekly brief is shown to managers only.