How to Analyse Sales by Product or Product Group
For many SMEs, understanding which products are driving growth and profitability is essential. Businesses want to know which products are performing well, which product groups are declining and where margins may be under pressure.
This type of analysis helps management teams make better decisions around pricing, purchasing, stock control and sales strategy.
However, many organisations struggle to access this information quickly and reliably.
Businesses using systems such as Sage 50, Sage 200, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, SAP Business One, Xero, QuickBooks and other ERP or accounting systems often hold large amounts of valuable sales data, but producing meaningful product analysis can still be difficult.
In many SMEs, product reporting still relies heavily on spreadsheets.
Sales data is exported from multiple systems before being manually analysed in Excel. Finance or sales teams often spend hours preparing pivot tables and formulas to compare product performance across different customers, regions and time periods.
While this process may work initially, it often becomes increasingly difficult to maintain as the business grows.
As product ranges expand and reporting requirements become more detailed, spreadsheets become larger, more complex and more time-consuming to manage. Reports frequently need to be rebuilt manually every month, and small changes in reporting requirements can create significant additional work.
This means management teams often struggle to access up-to-date product performance information quickly enough to react.
One managing director explained that before working with Illuminis Insight Software, the business found it difficult to understand which products and product groups were driving profitability across different customer sectors.
The company relied on multiple spreadsheets and manual analysis to compare product sales month-on-month and year-on-year. Preparing reports took significant time, and management often lacked confidence that they were reviewing the latest information.
After implementing Octelas by Illuminis Insight Software, the business automated its product reporting and gained real-time visibility across its sales operation.
Management teams could instantly analyse:
- product sales by customer
- product group trends over time
- gross profit and margin by product
- seasonal buying patterns
- fast-growing and declining product lines
- regional product performance
Instead of manually preparing reports every month, the information became instantly available through automated dashboards and management reports.
The business significantly reduced reporting time while improving decision making across sales, purchasing and finance teams.
Another finance director described how Octelas helped the company identify low-margin product groups that were previously hidden within larger spreadsheet reports. By gaining clearer visibility into product profitability, the business was able to improve pricing decisions and focus more effectively on higher-performing product lines.
Many SMEs initially explore tools such as Microsoft Power BI when looking to improve product reporting. While dashboards can present data visually, businesses often underestimate the ongoing effort required to maintain the underlying reporting logic and data models.
In many cases, spreadsheets continue to exist behind the scenes, with teams still manually preparing and validating data before it reaches the dashboards.
Illuminis Insight Software provides a different approach through the Octelas business reporting platform.
Octelas is a fully managed reporting solution developed specifically for SMEs that need reliable reporting without the burden of managing dashboards internally.
Rather than simply supplying software, Illuminis Insight Software acts as a long-term reporting and data partner. Existing spreadsheets, calculations and reporting logic are reviewed, interpreted and recreated within a structured reporting environment tailored to how the business actually operates.
Once implemented, product and product group analysis becomes automated.
Reports update continuously as new transactions are recorded, allowing management teams to monitor sales trends, profitability and performance across any product category in real time.
Because Illuminis Insight Software manages the reporting environment on an ongoing basis, businesses do not need internal BI expertise or dedicated reporting specialists. Updates, changes and support are handled as part of the service.
For SMEs, analysing product performance is not simply about producing charts — it is about understanding where profit is generated, identifying trends early and making better commercial decisions.
By automating product reporting, reducing manual spreadsheet work and delivering reliable insight, Octelas by Illuminis Insight Software helps businesses save time, improve visibility and achieve strong long-term ROI from their reporting systems.