How to Read a POS Sales Report: A Guide for Philippine Shops and Cafés

To read a POS sales report, first confirm the branch, period and definitions. Then work from gross sales through discounts and sales adjustments to net sales, check how many completed sales produced that amount, and investigate what changed. Compare collections and costs separately before drawing conclusions about cash or profit.

For a Philippine shop or café accepting cash and merchant QR payments, those distinctions matter: the value sold, the money in the drawer and the amount credited to the bank can describe different events. A useful weekly review explains the differences instead of choosing whichever total looks most encouraging.

The worked report below shows a business whose net sales rose while its net sales per completed sale fell. Use the review record to turn that finding into a specific check. All figures are hypothetical Philippine-peso examples, not Sentra merchant data or industry benchmarks.

What should you check before comparing sales?

Save the report with a short scope note. It should answer five questions:

1. Which branch or branches? A new branch can increase company sales while an existing shop loses business. Compare the same locations first.
2. Which dates and hours? Use completed periods and record the time zone. Sunday morning is not a complete Sunday; a UTC export can cut across a Philippine trading day.
3. Which transaction statuses? Establish whether pending orders, cancelled sales, refunds and test transactions appear in the number.
4. Which monetary basis? Check whether the figure includes taxes, delivery charges or other amounts collected from customers. Use a consistent basis across periods and with the costs you compare.
5. When was it generated? A later correction can change a report. Retain the saved version and the reason for any revision.

These checks prevent a common mistake: comparing two numbers with the same label but different contents. For example, Shopify documents that its sales reports include some pending, unpaid and cancelled orders; its average order value also excludes certain later adjustments. Those are Shopify-specific definitions, not definitions to assume in every POS.

In Sentra, start with the Dashboard’s branch and date filters, then open Transactions to inspect a sale. The sales and SIA support guide explains the available periods and scope checks. An unexpected total should prompt a transaction check before another sale is entered.

What do the main sales figures mean?

Use the following definitions for the worked example. Map your software’s fields to them before applying the formulas.

The last measure is sometimes loosely called average basket value. Here it is explicitly net sales per completed sale. A POS may calculate its displayed average basket or average order value differently. Match both numerator and denominator before comparing.

When a return relates to a purchase from an earlier week, the period’s net-sales ratio mixes current sales with an older adjustment. Keep the adjustment in the appropriate report, but inspect current purchases separately before concluding that today’s customers are buying smaller baskets.

Also check signs. A report may display reductions as negative numbers. If it already shows a negative ₱1,200 adjustment, adding that signed number to the subtotal subtracts it once. Subtracting a negative number would increase sales incorrectly.

A worked weekly POS sales report

Suppose one shop compares two complete Monday-to-Sunday periods, using Philippine time and the same opening hours. For this hypothetical worksheet, merchandise values are on a consistent basis excluding any separately accounted-for tax, delivery or service charges. It is an operational comparison, not a tax computation.

Only completed sales enter gross sales and the sale count. Voids are excluded from both. The reductions shown concern sales from their respective weeks and are net of the discounts already applied. There are no other adjustments in this example.

The second week’s arithmetic is:

Net merchandise sales = ₱69,300 − ₱3,300 − ₱1,200 = ₱64,800.

Net sales per completed sale = ₱64,800 ÷ 360 = ₱180.

Use the earlier period as the denominator when calculating growth:

• Net sales changed by (₱64,800 − ₱60,000) ÷ ₱60,000 × 100 = 8%.
• Completed sales changed by (360 − 300) ÷ 300 × 100 = 20%.
• Net sales per completed sale changed by (₱180 − ₱200) ÷ ₱200 × 100 = −10%.

The business processed more sales, but each completed sale contributed less net merchandise value on this basis. The report does not yet establish why. Possible explanations include a different product mix, smaller purchases, more discounting or more adjustments.

Checkout discounts were ₱2,100 ÷ ₱63,000 = 3.33% of gross merchandise sales in the first week and ₱3,300 ÷ ₱69,300 = 4.76% in the second. That is an increase of approximately 1.43 percentage points. It identifies a change worth investigating; it does not prove the discounts were a bad decision.

If the earlier period’s sales were zero, percentage growth on that denominator is undefined. Report the peso change and explain the starting point. Do not replace the undefined result with 0% or an invented growth percentage.

How do you turn the figures into an operating decision?

Start with a question the underlying records can answer. Avoid changing prices, staffing and promotions simultaneously in response to a single weekly total.

For a Philippine merchant, avoid treating every discount as a discretionary promotion. Identify the actual discount type and applicable rules before proposing a change. This guide does not calculate statutory customer discounts.

For example, if transaction inspection shows many extra purchases of a low-priced item, a smaller average basket may be consistent with a successful customer-acquisition offer. You still need the item’s costs, promotional spending and repeat-purchase evidence to assess the offer. A higher transaction count alone cannot establish profitability.

Check stock availability too. A shop may sell more low-priced substitutes because its usual product was unavailable. Use the inventory movement and count worksheets to investigate the stock record, or the low-stock and purchasing guide to review replenishment decisions.

Why are net sales different from money received?

Net sales describe sales value on a stated basis. Collections describe payments received, and settlements describe funds paid out by a payment provider. Their dates and included amounts can differ.

As one Philippine provider example, GCash for Business’s In-store QR guidance describes separate transaction and settlement reports. Use the reports for your actual merchant product and match them to the receiving account; a POS payment label alone does not verify receipt of funds.

Cash removed from a drawer for deposit does not create another sale. Nor does a provider payout automatically equal the merchandise sales for that date: the payout may relate to a different batch or include documented adjustments. Keep the sales review separate from the daily cash, QR and settlement reconciliation.

If the totals do not match, record which two measures differ and their scopes. “The bank credit differs from yesterday’s net merchandise sales” is a starting observation, not evidence that sales disappeared.

Can a sales report tell you your profit?

Only when you have the relevant cost records as well. For a simple illustration, assume the same ₱64,800 of net merchandise sales has ₱28,800 of complete, correctly matched cost of goods sold. Gross profit would be ₱64,800 − ₱28,800 = ₱36,000, a gross margin of ₱36,000 ÷ ₱64,800 × 100 = 55.56%.

That is a hypothetical calculation, not a recommended Philippine retail margin. It also depends on the cost figure being complete. A blank item cost is unknown, not zero.

Supplier payments made this week are not automatically this week’s cost of goods sold. Some purchases remain in stock. The IFRS Foundation’s IAS 2 summary explains the recognition of inventory carrying amounts as an expense when the related revenue is recognized. Have your accountant apply the accounting framework appropriate to your business; this is not a claim that every Philippine microbusiness reports directly under IAS 2.

Gross profit still needs to cover other applicable expenses. Payroll, rent, payment fees and other costs may sit outside the product-cost figure, depending on your accounting treatment. Do not deduct a cost twice if it is already included. Net profit requires the full accounts, not just a dashboard sales total.

Keep a weekly review record

Copy these fields into your operating notes:

If you use SIA, ask a focused question with the branch and period, then check the scope and supporting records. The SIA instructions explain how to refine a question. An answer is a useful lead for investigation; the review should retain the records supporting the decision.

Source and product-documentation review: September 20, 2026. The worksheets, figures and decisions in this guide are illustrative; no merchant results or independent accountant review are claimed.