Reports and Analytics

OpenBoxes provides a range of reports to help you analyze inventory performance, track consumption patterns, and make data-driven decisions about your supply chain operations.

Accessing Reports

Navigate to Reporting from the main menu to see all available reports. Each report can be filtered by date range, location, product category, and other criteria before generating.

Consumption Report

The consumption report shows how much of each product was distributed over a given period. This is one of the most frequently used reports for:

  • Forecasting demand — Project future needs based on historical usage
  • Setting reorder levels — Use average monthly consumption to calculate min/max thresholds
  • Identifying trends — Spot seasonal patterns or unexpected consumption changes

Filter by product category, specific products, or destination to focus your analysis. The report displays monthly totals and calculates average monthly consumption (AMC).

Tip: Run the consumption report quarterly to update your reorder levels. Static min/max values become inaccurate as consumption patterns change.

Expired Stock Report

This report lists all products that have expired or will expire within a specified timeframe:

  • Already expired — Items past their expiry date that need disposition
  • Expiring within 30/60/90 days — Items approaching expiry that should be prioritized for use
  • Quantity and value — The financial impact of expired or expiring stock

Use this report to drive action. Expiring items should be redistributed to high-consumption locations or written off if they cannot be used in time.

Tip: Schedule a weekly review of the 30-day expiry report. This gives you enough lead time to redistribute items before they expire.

Electronic Stock Card Report

A printable version of the stock card for one or more products, showing:

  • Opening balance at the start of the period
  • Each transaction during the period (receipts, issues, adjustments)
  • Running balance after each transaction
  • Closing balance at the end of the period

This report is useful for audits, regulatory inspections, and sharing stock history with stakeholders who do not have direct access to OpenBoxes.

Inventory Snapshot

The inventory snapshot captures the state of your entire inventory at a specific point in time:

  • Quantity on hand for every product at your location
  • Lot-level detail including expiry dates
  • Stock value based on unit prices
  • Stock status — In stock, low, out of stock

Snapshots are valuable for:

  • Month-end or year-end reporting
  • Baseline comparisons (compare current inventory to a previous snapshot)
  • Financial reporting of inventory value

Transaction History

The transaction history report provides a detailed log of all inventory transactions:

  • Date and time of each transaction
  • Transaction type — Receipt, issue, adjustment, transfer
  • Product, lot, and quantity affected
  • Source/destination — Where goods came from or went to
  • User who performed the transaction

Filter by transaction type, date range, product, or user to investigate specific activities. This report is essential for auditing and tracing the movement of individual lots through your supply chain.

Stock Movement Report

A summary of all stock movements over a period, showing:

  • Total movements by status (requested, shipped, received)
  • Origin and destination pairs
  • Fulfillment rates (requested vs. shipped quantities)
  • Average processing time from request to receipt

Use this to evaluate how efficiently your warehouse fulfills requests and where bottlenecks occur.

Low Stock Report

Lists all products currently below their minimum or reorder levels:

  • Product name and code
  • Current quantity on hand
  • Minimum level and reorder point
  • Recommended order quantity
  • Months of stock remaining (based on AMC)

This report drives your procurement decisions. Review it before creating purchase orders to ensure you are ordering what is actually needed.

Exporting Data

All reports can be exported for external use:

  • Excel/CSV — For analysis in spreadsheets or import into other systems
  • PDF — For printing and formal distribution

To export:

  1. Generate the report with your desired filters
  2. Click the Export button
  3. Choose your preferred format
  4. Save or open the downloaded file

Tip: Set up a monthly export routine for key reports (consumption, expired stock, inventory snapshot). Maintaining a historical archive outside OpenBoxes gives you long-term trend data and backup documentation.

Custom Reports

Beyond the built-in reports, you can create ad-hoc analyses:

  • Use the product list export to get a full catalog download
  • Combine exported data from multiple reports in a spreadsheet for cross-analysis
  • Use inventory snapshot exports from different dates to calculate stock turnover rates

Best Practices

  • Run reports on a schedule — Weekly for operational reports (low stock, expiring), monthly for strategic reports (consumption, snapshots)
  • Act on what you find — A report is only valuable if it drives a decision or action
  • Share reports with stakeholders — Procurement teams need consumption data, finance needs value reports, management needs summaries
  • Compare across periods — A single snapshot is informative; trends across months reveal whether your supply chain is improving
  • Verify anomalies — If a report shows unexpected numbers, investigate before making decisions; data entry errors can mislead