What Do I Get In Report Toaster (that I don't get in Shopify?)

What do I get out of Report Toaster that I don't get in Shopify? 
I already get reports in Shopify - why do I need Report Toaster?
Why should I upgrade my Report Toaster Account?

In fact, questions like this are so commonplace that we have an entire series talking about this over on our blog. So if you find yourself reading the above and having similar thoughts, then this is the article for you!  :)

Really the topic is quite broad, so what we'll try and do is break it down into 4 areas: New Data, Custom Reports, Advanced Capabilities, and Better Support

New Data

One of the important things to cover right from the start is that Shopify offers very different reporting capabilities based off your plan type. 

Therefore for Basic and Shopify customers, Report Toaster is an easy choice as they have very limited access to reports in the first place.

But the key thing to note here is that no matter what your plan type, Report Toaster has a number of unique fields that are either difficult to access in Shopify or just plain don't exist at all. This includes all of the following: 

1. Product Cost (Cost of Goods Sold). 
   
2. Profit (Gross/Net Profit, Gross/Net Profit Margins). 
   
3. Transaction Fees (for Paypal/Shopify Payments gateways)  
   
4. Payout Reconciliation data (adjustable by Timezone) 
   
5. Products Not Sold (Dead Inventory)
   
6. Shipping Costs (for Shopify Shipping)
   
7. Device ID (for identifying sales from a specific POS terminal).
   
8. Shipment Status (and tracking links, where available)
   
9. Inventory Location (and History, via Scheduled Reports) 
   
10. Returns by Line Item (with Return Locations and Return Notes) 

And that's just for starters. We're constantly adding new fields to our reports all the time, so this list can only get larger as we add more critical data to our app. 

In other cases, the data does exist in Shopify, but it isn't very useable when it comes to making reports.

For example, you can see the tags on an individual product or order, but filtering a custom report based on tags isn't an option. There's also no way to filter data based on when a tag does not exist (e.g. show me all orders NOT tagged as VIP):

Some of this is surprisingly simple stuff - for example, the Customer Addresses are clearly tracked in the system, but there's actually no way to see this information other than on the Customer Detail, Order Detail, or Order CSV export pages (with the first 2 only being available on an individual basis, and the latter being an export).

What all of this means is that there is essentially a world of difference between the raw data being there and actually being able to access it in a useful, comparable and user-friendly format.

Report Toaster aims to bridge that gap by pulling data from all the different places in Shopify and consolidating it into easy to use reports.

This brings us nicely to...   

Custom Reports

We already started alluding to this above, but in short, a lot of the data that does exist somewhere in Shopify isn't always readily available for reporting purposes. Often some of the key fields are tucked away in obscure places, like the Sales or Payments section, or aren't necessarily an option for your different columns and filters. Even if you do find the key piece of information that you need, sometimes Shopify is quite limiting in terms of how that data can be used. 

In Contrast, Report Toaster is designed to make this process easy. You can pick any of our template reports from the left hand report and even search for whatever you need. 

Once you find a report, you can adjust: 

1. Dates - To run the report in the timeframe you select. 
   
2. Filters - Introduce a filter to narrow down the data to very specific results. 
   
3. Columns - Add, remove, and change the order of any Column s on a report. 
   
4. Sort - Change to sort by any column, both ascending and descending. 

You can also check out our basic guides for more information on customizing a report. 

Advanced Capabilities

Once you find the data that you need and you have it displayed the way you want, then you can start looking into our advanced capabilities. After all - having the most comprehensive and specific dataset in the world won't do you any good  if it doesn't get to where it's needed most.

In Shopify you're limited to exporting data via CSV (and even then, not everything is available for Export!)

In Report Toaster, you export your data into CSV, JSON, or PDF. These extra formats really help when trying to access your data elsewhere, such as importing into 3rd party applications. 

Moreover, paid plans of Report Toaster also come with a number of other advanced capabilities and additional features. See here for more information. 

All of this means that Report Toaster essentially gets you exactly the data you want, however you want it, and gets it to wherever it's needed most. 

Oh and one more thing (and arguably the most important...)

Better Support 

Yes, clearly one of the best reasons to use Report Toaster app is the help you get from our Support!

Whether it's via Chat, Email, or the resources in our Knowledge Base, our team is committed to helping our customers make the most out of the app. Not only are we there to help with difficult technical issues, but we're more than happy to work with you directly to get the right reports to suit your business. :)

But hey, don't just take our word for it. Check out some of the reviews from some of the people we've helped over at the app store! 

Hopefully this gives you a hint of some of the powerful capabilities you gain using Report Toaster that you'd don't get from Shopify. But if you have any further questions about using the app or want to make the most out of your subscription, feel free to let us know!

 

 

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