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What is BI Vision?

BI Vision Custom Layouts

Purchases

Inventory

Production

Sales

Upload historical Sales Data to BI

Customers

What is BI Vision?

Business Intelligence (BI) Vision's a feature enhanced version of BI Foundation that aims to help business owners further analyze and monitor key KPIs across various departments of their business, offering cross-filtering across dimensions per context, custom dashboards, automated targets and tracking, and more.

To use BI Vision, go to Unleashed's main menu and select Business Intelligence and select the context area you want to review, e.g. Sales. Select the Vision tab or Explore More in a component in the Foundation tab. 

NOTE: BI Vision is a pay-to-use module that can be added to your subscription via the Billing page. For a user to have access to and use BI Vision, after it's been added to your subscription, they must have the appropriate BI Vision context permissions granted for their role. For more details on managing role permissions, see Roles and Role Permissions.

BI Vision contexts

BI Vision is designed to provide a visual, sophisticated analysis of the following five key context areas:

• Purchases
• Inventory
• Production
• Sales
• Customers

Each context page, excluding Inventory, can be filtered for a custom date range using the dropdown menu available in the top right corner of the context's page. 

Context KPI's and dimensions

Each context in BI Vision provides various context specific Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that are generated based on the transaction that have been processed in your account. Below the KPI's you'll find graphs, charts or tables (dimensions) that provide further insight on those KPI's displayed. Select a KPI in the context's Vision tab and the dimensions will update to display further insight and detail on that KPI. 

Tip: Hover over the i icon on each dimension tile for a description of the dimension. For more details, see BI KPIs with explanations and calculations.

Customize how the KPI and dimension results are filtered and displayed using the following actions:

• Select an element or result in a dimension to filter all dimensions by the same result. 
• Click the vertical three-dot icon displayed in each dimension to apply cross-dimension filters and exclusions, or change how many results are being displayed.
• Click on the pie or bar graph icon displayed in each dimension to change how the dimension's data is displayed.
• Click on the nine-dot icon to display the dimension's data as a table. 

Export dimensions

Where available, each context's dimension data can be exported into a PNG, SVG, PDF or CSV format:

1. Click on the vertical three-dot icon in the top right corner of a context's dimension.
2. Click on the Export dropdown button displayed at the bottom of the menu.
3. Select one of the following export options:
   • Export to PNG
   • Export to SVG
   • Export to PDF
   • Export to CSV

Screenshot BI Vision

Use the screenshot function available in each BI Vision context to download the current context's data in a PDF or PNG format. 

To screenshot a BI context, click on the vertical three-dot icon shown in the top right corner of the context's page and use the Screenshot dropdown button to select either:

• Screenshot as PDF
• Screenshot as PNG

BI Vision Custom Layouts

Each BI Vision context will include an Unleashed Default layout, displaying the majority if not all available components for that context. The Unleashed Default layout cannot be edited or removed, but you can create up to three Custom Layouts, per user, per BI Vision context to help you review your business's performance quickly and easily.

Once created, a Custom Layout is available to view from the context's layout dropdown menu, set is as the default layout, shared with other users, edited and deleted at any time. 

Tip: A context's Custom Layout cannot include a component or KPI from another context. Create a Custom Dashboard to display cross-context components in a single view. 

New Custom Layout

To create a new custom layout for a context in BI Vision:

1. From Unleashed's main menu, got to Business Intelligence and select the appropriate context:
   • Purchases
   • Inventory
   • Production
   • Sales
   • Customers
     
     
2. With the Vision tab selected, use the layout dropdown menu displayed in the top right corner of the page to select NEW CUSTOM LAYOUT.
   
   
3. Use the following action icons available at the top of the page to manage the overall layout:
   • Share: Enable the toggle to share the layout with all other users on your Unleashed account.
   • Add Components: Click the plus icon to open the Components display, and choose additional components to include in your layout.
     TIP: When adding component, include KPI's as they control the content of the dimensions.
   • Clear Components: Click on the eraser icon to remove all components from the current layout.
   • Revert to Unleashed layout: Click on the circular arrow icon to revert the layout to it's previously saved state.
     
     
4. Use the X icon in a component's tile to remove it from the layout.
   
   
5. Select and drag the corner icon in the bottom left of each component tile to adjust it's size.
   
   
6. Drag and drop each component tile into a new position by selecting the component's header.
   
   
7. Enter a layout name in the field provided in the top right corner of the page. Layout names have a 20 character limit. 
   
   
8. Select the green Create button in the top right corner to create and save the new custom layout. 

Default Custom Layout

When a Custom Layout's been bookmarked, the chosen layout will be the context's default view. 

To set a Custom Layout as the default:

1. From Unleashed's main menu, got to Business Intelligence and select the appropriate context:
   • Purchases
   • Inventory
   • Production
   • Sales
   • Customers
     
     
2. With the Vision tab selected, use the layout dropdown menu to select the layout needing to be bookmarked.
   
   
3. Click on the bookmark icon, next to the layout's name. 

Edit a Custom Layout

Once a Custom Layout's been created, it can be edited at any time.

To edit an existing Custom Layout:

1. From Unleashed's main menu, got to Business Intelligence and select the appropriate context:
   • Purchases
   • Inventory
   • Production
   • Sales
   • Customers
2. With the Vision tab selected, use the layout dropdown menu to select the layout needing to be edited.
   
   
3. Click on the pencil icon, next to the layout's name.
   
   
4. After editing a Custom Layout click the green Save button to apply the changes.

Purchases

The KPIs and dimensions available in the Purchases context of BI Vision can help you answer purchasing related questions, such as:

• Who are the top suppliers I place orders with, based on the value of the products purchased?
• Who are my suppliers with the most Open orders and what is the current status of these open orders?
• On average, how long does it take for Purchase Orders (PO) to be delivered, and which suppliers have the longest and shortest lead times?
  Tip: Default Supplier lead times can be set per supplier so that when you create a new PO the number of days will be added by default to the PO's required date.
• For a selected product, who are my suppliers?
• Which supplier has the most supplier returns, and what was the reason for return?

Purchases KPI's

The Purchases context in BI Vision offers 12 KPI's:

• Created PO Value
• Open PO Value
• Completed PO Value
• Order cost
• Average delivery duration
• Supplier return value
• Orders Created
• Open orders
• Orders Completed
• Cost as a % of order value
• Orders Received
• Orders Returned

Click Select in each KPI to populate the dimensions for it. 

Purchases' dimensions

The first dimension displayed under the Purchases context's KPIs, when using the Unleashed Default layout, is a timeline bar chart showing the selected KPI's results over a selected date range. The chart will display each day's total for a date range of up to three months, and monthly totals for longer date ranges. 
NOTE: The elements of timeline bar chart cannot be selected as cross-dimension filters.

The remaining dimensions available in BI Vision's Purchases context, listed in the table below, can be used to cross-filter the context page. By default, each dimension will show up to 25 records and will sort the from high to low, based on the KPI selected.

Inventory

BI Vision's Inventory context provides insight into the current view of your Stock On Hand (SOH), by value. It's the only BI context that cannot be filtered for a specific date range. 

The KPIs and dimensions available in the Inventory context of BI Vision can help you answer stock related questions, such as:

• What is my current Stock On Hand (SOH) value, and which Warehouse holds the most valuable inventory?
• How much stock's been held in inventory the longest?
• Which products sell the quickest, and which take longer to turnover? 
• Which type of product hold the most value in stock?

Inventory KPI's

KPIs displayed on BI Vision's Inventory page, listed below, are calculated based on the current stock holding:

• Stock on hand value, and the total number of units.
• Allocated stock value, and the total number of units allocated to Sales Orders Assemblies or Warehouse Transfers.
• Available stock value, and the total number of units available.
• Annual stock turns.
• Average days to sell.
• Cost of goods sold.
• Open Purchase orders value, and the total number of units on open purchases.
• Stock adjustments value.
• Stock adjustments count.
• Backorders value, and the total number of units on backordered Sales Orders.

Inventory dimensions

The dimensions available in BI Vision's Inventory context, listed in the table below, can be used to cross-filter the context page. By default, each dimension will show up to 25 records and will sort the from high to low, based on the KPI selected, but can be updated to show various alternative subsets of data via the vertical three-dot icon.

Stock Age calculation

The time between the last inbound transaction e.g. Assembly, Stock Adjustment, SOH Import, Receipted Purchase Order and the current date is the stock's age. The Stock Age dimension is segmented in to 3 month periods, so the longer a product's in stock with no new transaction.  

NOTE: The dimension cannot keep track of the age of each bundle of a product receipted in, so the existing "old" products will display in the newer stock age range when a new inbound transaction's processed.

The calculation we use in BI for the values in this dimension is:

	Max_StockTransactionId
		FROM stocktransactions 
		where transactiontype in ('AssemblyIn', 'ProductAdded', 'PurchaseOrderReceipt', 'SOHImport')
		  and entrydate <  p_value_datetime
		  and balancequantity > 0

Production

• Over a selected or specified period, how many assemblies did we complete and what did it cost us?
• Which assembled product cost the most to assemble, should we rather consider buying these in from a Supplier?
• Which of the Products had the most wastage during assemblies?
• Which assemblies have the highest Supplier Cost?
• On average what does it cost to assemble a product?

Production KPI's

BI Vision will provide you with the same five KPIs as Foundation, plus five more for the Production context. These 10 KPIs are related to Completed Assemblies for the period selected. 

The KPI's available for BI Vision's Productions context are:

• Total Assembly Cost
• Completed Assemblies
• Avg. Cost per Assembly
• Units Produced
• Avg. Cost per Unit 
• On-time Assemblies
  NOTE: Calculating the average days between Assemble By Date and Assembly Date for all assemblies completed in the period to determine if assemblies were on average completed Early, On-time, or Late.
• Cost of Wastage
• Wastage as % of Assemblies
• Additional Supplier Costs
• Total Net Assembly Cost, excluding additional supplier costs.

Production dimensions

Sales

Navigate to BI Vision Sales.

The Sales page on BI Vision shows the same KPI tiles as Sales Foundation with an additional Units Sold KPI.
In addition to the easy date filter buttons, you also have the flexibility to define your own custom From and To date ranges.

KPIs displayed on this page are:

• Sales Revenue (Invoiced or Completed Sales orders)
• Gross Profit
• Gross Profit %
• Sales orders (Number of invoiced sales orders for the period selected)
• Average revenue per order
• Units Sold

These Sales KPIs are further elaborated by the dimensions made available on the page. On click of a specific element on these dimensions, the KPIs refresh so values are reflective of the selected dimension element. 

Sales dimensions are:

• Sales Person
• Sales Channel (origin of the sales order transactions)
• Country - drill into State/Region (Derived from the latest Postal/Physical address captured on the Delivery address field of the Sales Orders, If you did not capture a value in the State/Region field but captured the City then the City will display instead of the state/region otherwise it will be grouped under Unspecified.) 
• Sales Groups
• Warehouse
• Transaction Type (Allowing you to filter our charges and credits if you only want to see invoiced revenue.)
• Customer Type
• Customers (Showing you the Top 25 customers ranked by the measure/KPI selected, as the default view. Use the "more options" Task Menu to select and show the top 100 records or customers per segmented group.)
  
• Product Groups
• Products (Showing you the Top 25 Products ranked by the measure/KPI selected above as the default. Use the "more options" Task Menu to select and show the top 100 records or Products per segmented group.)
  

Please Note: The timeline chart below the KPIs will show the comparison between current and prior periods. When selecting a custom date range, say 3/1/2022 to 30/09/2022 fthe prior date will show 3/1/2021 to 30/09/2021, the exact same period just for the previous year. 
This timeline chart also shows a current period trend line.

Dimension

Sales Persons; Sales Channels; Countries -> State/Region.

Note: Drill into the Country dimension eg. The United Kingdom by selecting the bar on the graph will show you the State / Regions under the country. All values now will represent sales under the United Kingdom.

Sales Groups (Sales order groups); Warehouse (Sales order warehouse not shipping warehouse); Transaction Types (Invoices Only, Charges, Credits and Credit Charges).

Customer Types and Customers (showing top 25 customers by default).

Product Groups and Products (showing top 25 Products by default).

Upload Historical Sales Data

BI Vision and AIM allows you to import historical sales data that pre-dates Unleashed. With this feature, you will be able to upload your historical Sales Revenue (Invoiced Sales Orders and Credits) from your previous stock management system to BI. This will only make your historical sale revenue data available on your BI Sales and Customers pages to be used for prior period comparisons and cross-filtering from day one.

WARNING: Transactions older than 2015-01-01 will not be imported. We recommend limiting historical data to five years, with a file size limit of 100MB. 

NOTE: Due to the complexity and other integrations such as integration with accounting software, the historical sales data will only be visible in BI and not in Unleashed core.

Requirements

• Access to the completed sales orders and invoices from your previous system.
• Permission to the feature "Upload historical sales revenue under BI Vision" in your user's role. By default all Superusers will have access.
• All Customers, Sales persons, Customer Types, Sales Groups, Product Groups and Products must exist or be created in Unleashed at least 1 hour prior to uploading historical data. 

Points to note

• The processing time for uploading the historical data could be quick or take a couple of hours depending on the volume of data.
• The failure and success notifications will be visible in Unleashed under the notifications icon, and you will receive an email informing you of any errors found during validating your imported data. 
• There is a limit of 10 upload attempts per day.
• Every upload will replace and overwrite the previous uploaded historical sales data so it should always include all the transactions.
• Once the upload of the historical data was successful, you will see values in the Sales and Customers context pages for the period uploaded.

Historical Data templates

There are three templates available for uploading historical data via BI Vision:

• Historical Data Sales Order template field definitions
• Historical Data Sales Invoice template field definitions
• Historical Data Credit Note template field definitions

NOTE: You cannot upload Historical Credit Notes on its own, and both Historical Sales Orders and Sales Invoice files are required.

Tip: Preferably you should attempt the upload of historical Sales data after hours as it could impact response times of the application, depending on the volume of transactions imported.

Import Historical Sales Data

To import historical sales data for BI and AIM:

1. From Unleashed's main menu, go to Business Intelligence and select Sales.
2. Go to the Vision tab, and an the top right corner click on the vertical three-dot icon. 
3. Select Upload Historical Sales Data.
4. Select Download templates.
5. Enter your historical data on the Sales Order, Sales Invoice and Credit Note templates downloaded.
6. Upload each template into it's appropriate upload space in Unleashed's Import Historical Sales Data page.
7. Select Submit.

Customers

BI Vision Customers display the same 6 tiles as in BI Foundation.

On this page subscriber can also filter on dimensions (Country/Region(linked to customer record for the first 2 KPIs or sales orders for the rest), Warehouse (default warehouse, linked to customer record for the first 2 KPIs or sales orders for the rest), Customer Type (linked to customer record), Customers(Grid view, by default showing the first 1000 records, use the Task Menu to select and view all the records.), Sales Person assigned to customers (the default salesperson linked to the customer record for the first 2 KPIs or from the sales orders for the rest), Product Groups (linked to sales orders), Products (linked to sales orders) and Sales Channel (linked to sales orders).

With these dimensions and KPIs available to you it will enable you to answer questions such as: 

• How many customers do I have by Country/State/Region, Warehouse, Customer Type, and Sales Person?
  - Total Customers and New customers KPIs uses the default Warehouse specified on the customer records.
  - Active Customers, Avg. Orders per Customer, Avg. Revenue per Customer and Avg. Gross Profit per Customer KPIs uses the Warehouse specified on the Invoiced Sales Orders.
• How many new customers did I acquire over the specific period by Country/State/Region, Warehouse, Customer Type or per Sales Person?
• How many of my total customers were active (Sales orders which were Invoiced) over the date range selected, in which Country/State/Region, per Warehouse, per Customer Type, per Sales Person, Products and Sales Channel used?
• What was the average orders and revenue per active customer over the date range selected, in which Country/State/Region, per Warehouse, per Customer Type, per Sales Person, Products, and Sales Channel used?
• What was my average gross profit per customer over the date range selected, in which Country/State/Region, per Warehouse, per Customer Type, per Sales Person, Products, and Sales Channel used?

All dimensions only display Current Period values:

• Country - drill into - State/Region (Derived from the latest Postal/Physical address captured on the Customers account when selecting the Total and New Customers KPIs. When selecting Active Customers, Avg. Orders per Customer, and Avg. Revenue per Customer we use the Country - drill into - State/Region captured on the Sales Orders for the period selected. If no State/Region was captured but City, we will use the City field otherwise it will be grouped under Unspecified.) 
• Warehouse (The default warehouse as indicated on the Customer record or the order Warehouse as indicated on the Sales Orders when selecting the last 3 KPIs.)
• Customer Type
• Customers (When selecting the Total, New, and Active Customers KPIs, the dimension will display a grid view showing the first, up to 1000 customers alphabetically. When selecting Avg. Orders per Customer, the grid will display customers ordered on the number of invoiced Sales orders for the period selected. When selecting Avg. Revenue per Customer the grid will display customers ordered on the total Revenue column.) 
• Sales Person
• Product Groups
• Products (Showing the top 25 as default. Use more options Task Menu to view products grouped into 5 categories.)
• Sales Channel (origin of the sales order transactions)

Please take note: The Product Group, Product and Sales Channel dimensions are linked to Sales Orders only. Selecting KPI tiles for Total Customers or New Customers could display "No Record Found" as these dimensions are linked to sales orders which could be "not applicable" to the selection.

The same cross-filtering and zoom-on chart functionality are available for Customers as for Inventory and Sales in BI Vision.

Using the more options Task Menu on the Customer grid, you can search for or select/multi-select customers.

You also have the option and Export this grid to PDF or Excel. Just clicking the export will use the default export type which is Excel.

Search and multi-select, as well as export options, are available on most of the charts on BI Vision pages.