Why did margin drop last week?

last week's gross margin came in well below the weeks before. Before the Monday sales meeting, Rachel wants to know why, and whether it matters.

You are

Rachel Dunmore, Sales Manager at Aurora Components.

last week's gross margin came in well below the weeks before. Before the Monday sales meeting, Rachel wants to know why, and whether it matters.

In most ERP systems the answer needs the Gross Profit report run three ways, by week, by item and by customer, with the right filters. Here you ask.

Each step as it looks in the demo installation, on Aurora Components (Demo).

Open Dynocortex → Home. Under Needs you, read the margin card: last week's gross margin, against the weeks before. Choose Discuss, or open Dynocortex → Chats, and ask
"Why did our margin drop last week?"
Then ask
"Which items and customers caused it?"
Then ask
"Was it worth it?"
Open the report the answers come from: Selling → Gross Profit (or search for "Gross Profit"). Set Group By to Item Code and the dates to last week, and compare it with the week before. In the Ask panel beside the report, ask
"How did last week's gross margin compare with the eight weeks before it?"
The panel knows which report is open, but not the dates you set, so name the week in the question.

Last week's gross margin, and the usual margin of the weeks before it: last week was clearly lower, by several points.
The cause: LED panels (DEMO-LED-40) cleared at cost last week, left over when a project was cut. They went into every order that week, about three times the usual number.
Which customers' orders took the cleared panels.
Whether it was worth it: the clearance turned stock that wasn't moving into cash, at no profit. A one-off, not a trend, if the weeks after go back to normal.
The figures named with their company, currency and period.

The weekly margin check raises an alert on the owner's Home as soon as the week closes, and the owner can hand it to the sales manager in one step.

Answers are worded afresh each time, so yours will read differently. The demo company is made up, and its data goes back to the start every night.