I think everyone in business would agree that, for many reasons, it is important to know who your top customers are. Certainly it can affect what kind of concessions you are willing to make when negotiating. But there are other good reasons stay up to date. If you haven’t checked in a while, you may be surprised at who is at the top of the list and who is not. If someone who used to be near the top of your list is sliding down, knowing why could be critical to your future success. Or talking to someone has moved up unexpectedly may help you sell more effectively to others.
Sage 50 provides a couple of ways to get to this information. The method you use will depend on which version of Sage 50 you are using and how much information you want to see.
In Sage 50 Premium you can click on the Business Status tab near the top left corner of the main Sage 50 window, or in Quantum look for My Dashboard. Business Status and My Dashboard both let you control the type information they display. If you don’t see a section for Top Customers: Last 12 Months, click the Customize This Page button to add it. Now you will see a list of your top 10 customers over the last 12 months based on gross profit.
If you want to know about a specific customer, instead of going to Business Status (or My Dashboard), click on Customers & Sales and then the Customer Management tab. Fill in the customer ID at the top of the page. Here, the Top Customers: Last 12 Months section will show your top ten customers, plus the currently selected customer along with their rank. Once again, this view is customizable. So if you don’t see the Top Customers: Last 12 Months section, click the Customize This Page button to add it.
If you are using Sage 50 Pro, you aren’t left out in the cold. In fact, Complete, Premium, and Quantum users may also want to use this last method because it can list all of your customers at once for any time period and it shows more than just gross profit. If you go to the Reports & Forms menu and click on Accounts Receivable you will find the Customer Sales History report. In addition to gross Profit, the Customer Sales History will also show you sales, cost of sales, and gross margin % for each customer.
