# Executive reporting guide

## Start with the management decision
Use the commercial view to ask where sales growth and product-cost contribution differ. Use the inventory view to identify product-key positions that need investigation. Agree on the reporting period and metric definition before discussing a change.

## Reading the dashboard
1. Select a reporting year, quarter, sales channel, country and product category.
2. Read the sales and contribution cards together. Gross contribution excludes operating expenses and is not net profit.
3. Check the management brief against the matching prior-year period. No comparison is shown for 2011 because the complete preceding year is unavailable. Comparisons for full-year or Q4 2013 involving reseller sales are also suppressed because that channel ends on 29 November 2013.
4. Inspect channel and category economics. Review mix, discounts and cost attribution before making a pricing or channel decision.
5. Review the year-end inventory exceptions. Only category filters apply to stock. Quarter, channel and country do not identify a stock location in this model.
6. Download the selected monthly data or print the reporting view. Document an owner and review date for each proposed investigation.

## Reporting cadence for a future live implementation
Weekly: confirm freshness, inspect newly flagged issues, assign owners and review unresolved actions.
Monthly: compare equivalent periods, investigate contribution changes, reconcile the totals and review the effect of completed actions.
Quarterly: revise thresholds, retire unused measures and confirm that metrics still support management decisions.

The sample is historical. This cadence is a design recommendation, not a claim that these actions were implemented at a client.

## Exception rules
- Channel margin below the editable review threshold. Default 20% is illustrative, not a corporate target or benchmark.
- Last year-end product balance below its source reorder point. This is a review flag, not proof of a stockout or a purchase instruction.
- Missing comparable prior-year data: show the comparison as unavailable.
- No selected sales records: show an explicit empty state, not an invented result.

## Example management action log
| Issue | Proposed owner | Evidence to review | Decision | Review date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reseller contribution below product cost | Commercial lead and finance | Product mix, discounts and cost allocation | Decide whether further pricing or mix analysis is required | Set during review |
| Product position below reorder point | Operations or procurement | Product version, incoming supply, demand and lead time | Confirm whether intervention is justified | Set during review |

## Important definitions
Country is the sales-territory country. Distinct orders use channel plus sales-order number. Category order counts may overlap. ProductKey may describe a historical product version, so source stock positions are not automatically distinct physical SKUs.