Inventory reports are essential tools for any retailer looking to stay on top of their stock and business. With accurate insights into your inventory, you can track stock levels, identify slow-moving items, and ensure your shelves are always ready to meet customer demand.
Retail inventory management becomes much easier when the right reports are in place. From monitoring stock across multiple locations to spotting discrepancies before they become costly, these reports give you the visibility needed to reduce stockouts, improve inventory accuracy, and optimize your operations.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through 12 types of inventory reports every retailer should know, so you can improve your overall inventory management.
Types of Inventory Report
Managing inventory without the right insights can result in overstock, missed sales opportunities, and higher operational costs. An inventory reporting system provides a clear view of stock levels, movements, and trends, removing the guesswork from day-to-day operations.
Here are 12 essential inventory reports that every retailer should keep an eye on to stay in control.
Inventory on Hand
Staying aware of your stock levels is a core part of running a retail business. The Inventory on Hand Report gives you a clear snapshot of how many units are available in each store or warehouse, along with the total value of your inventory.
By revealing the value invested in inventory, this report enables more strategic financial planning, accurate forecasting, and informed budgeting. Retailers can leverage these insights to evaluate current inventory positions, plan future purchases, and make data-driven decisions for upcoming seasons.
Managing inventory across multiple sales channels can increase the risk of discrepancies. Using an integrated system that connects your POS, online store, and warehouses ensures accurate, up-to-date data, reduces errors, and minimizes the need for frequent manual stock reconciliations.
Why it matters:
Understanding real-time stock levels and inventory value helps retailers avoid overstocking or shortages, maintain accurate records, and make more informed replenishment decisions.
Low Stock Report
Nothing slows down sales faster than running out of popular products. The Low Stock Report lets you see which items are nearing their minimum levels, so you can act before shelves go empty.
The Low Stock Report identifies items that are nearing their minimum stock levels, highlighting exactly where action is needed. By checking this report regularly, you can plan timely reorders, prevent gaps on shelves, and ensure your stores are always ready to meet demand. Over time, it also reveals trends in product movement—if certain items consistently appear as low stock, it could indicate the need to adjust order quantities.
Why it matters:
Staying on top of low stock helps you keep shelves full, satisfy customers, and maintain consistent sales across all stores and online channels.
Inventory Valuation Report
Every item in your inventory represents both an investment and potential revenue. The Inventory Valuation Report facilitates a thorough insight into the monetary worth of all stock on hand, taking into account purchase costs, production costs, and accounting methods such as FIFO (First In, First Out) or LIFO (Last In, First Out).
This report empowers retailers to assess how much investment is allocated to inventory, identify slow-moving or obsolete stock, and make informed decisions around purchasing, pricing, and markdowns. It also plays a key role in financial reporting by supporting accurate calculations of assets, cost of goods sold, and overall profitability. When integrated with sales and purchase data, inventory valuation becomes a strategic tool for forecasting, cash flow management, and inventory optimisation.
While both the Inventory on Hand and Inventory Valuation reports deliver insights into your current stock, the Inventory Valuation Report emphasizes the monetary value of inventory, whereas the Inventory on Hand Report focuses primarily on quantities.
Why it matters:
The Inventory Valuation Report provides retailers with a clear understanding of the monetary worth of their stock. Highlighting the potential overstock, underutilized items, and overall inventory value helps protect profit margins and strengthen the financial health of the business.
Cost of Good Sold
The Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) Report presents a comprehensive view of the direct expenses incurred to acquire or produce the products your business sells. This includes not only the cost of materials and production but also supplier fees, shipping, and any additional costs directly tied to bringing products to your shelves or online store.
Regularly analyzing COGS monthly, quarterly, or annually allows retailers to assess the profitability of individual products, categories, or entire inventory lines. High COGS relative to sales can highlight inefficiencies in sourcing, manufacturing, or pricing strategies, while identifying low-cost items with strong sales potential can inform promotional campaigns or expansion plans.
Why it matters:
This report helps retailers to optimize pricing strategies, manage profit margins, and plan for seasonal or bulk purchasing. It also supports accurate financial reporting and tax calculations, delivering an accurate assessment of the true cost of your inventory.
Product Performance Report
Do you know which of your products are truly driving revenue and which are slowing down your business? The Product Performance Report gives you a clear picture of each item’s sales and movement over time, helping you see what’s working and what’s not.
This report enables retailers to identify trends, such as which items sell fastest during specific weeks or months, and pinpoint products that may require a sales boost or strategic promotion. It can also reveal when a product hasn’t sold in a while, signaling it might be time to adjust stock levels or marketing efforts.
Why it matters:
Monitoring product performance helps retailers prioritize high-demand items, minimize unsold inventory, and make informed purchasing and marketing decisions that maximize sales and profitability.
Inventory Turnover Report
The Inventory Turnover Report measures how often your inventory is sold and replenished over a specific period, providing insight into product performance and stock efficiency. For example, if a SKU is replenished frequently within a quarter, it may indicate strong demand, prompting you to consider increasing minimum inventory levels or keeping additional safety stock.
Analyzing turnover rates also reveals opportunities to refine your purchasing strategy. High-turnover items may benefit from increasing order quantities or safety stock to meet demand consistently, while slower-moving products might require adjusted order frequency or promotional strategies to free up capital. Additionally, by planning larger, less frequent orders for fast-moving products, retailers can often take advantage of bulk discounts and reduce the cost per unit.
Why it matters:
Inventory turnover shows how efficiently capital is used. High turnover signals fast-selling stock and low capital tie-up, while low turnover highlights slow-moving items and risk of obsolescence.
Stock Reorders Report
The Stock Reorders Report gives retailers a complete view of products that have reached or fallen below their reorder points, consolidating data on current stock, pending purchase orders, and outstanding sales orders. Comparing stock on hand with incoming and committed inventory, it helps determine the exact quantity needed for replenishment.
Regularly reviewing this report allows retailers to plan purchases proactively, maintain optimal inventory levels across all stores and sales channels, prevent stockouts, and respond to demand patterns efficiently. It also supports better coordination with suppliers to ensure timely deliveries and uninterrupted product availability.
You may notice that the Stock Reorders Report and the Low Stock Report appear similar, as both address items requiring replenishment. However, the Low Stock Report primarily flags products that have fallen below a set threshold, while the Stock Reorders Report goes further by suggesting reorder quantities and timing to ensure inventory is consistently balanced and available.
Why it matters:
It ensures retailers are always invested in the right inventory, maximizing sales while minimizing storage costs.
Inventory Aging Report
The Inventory Aging Report categorizes stock based on how long items have been in your inventory, helping retailers identify slow-moving, stagnant, or potentially obsolete products. By showing the age of each SKU, this report highlights items that may need discounts, promotions, or other strategies to optimize storage space and reduce holding costs.
Both the Inventory Aging Report and the Inventory Turnover Report track inventory movement, but from different perspectives. The Aging Report focuses on how long items remain in stock, highlighting slow-moving or stagnant products, while the Turnover Report measures how quickly inventory is sold and replenished, providing insight into overall sales efficiency.
Why it matters:
Identifying slow-moving or aging inventory empowers retailers to act proactively, recover tied-up capital, and minimize losses from product obsolescence or depreciation.
Purchase Order Report
Keeping track of incoming stock is crucial for smooth retail operations, and the Purchase Order (PO) Report presents a detailed view of all purchase orders placed with suppliers. This report includes information such as order dates, quantities, expected delivery dates, and the status of each order, giving retailers full visibility over their supply chain rather than reacting to stock shortages.
Purchase Order (PO) reports allow retailers to ensure timely replenishment, avoid stockouts, and prevent overstocking. These reports facilitate insight into supplier performance, fulfillment accuracy, and historical purchasing patterns, helping businesses plan future orders with precision. When combined with sales trends and supplier lead times, PO reports enable retailers to forecast demand accurately, adjust order quantities, and balance stock across all locations, ensuring inventory aligns with customer demand and seasonal fluctuations.
Why it matters:
This report helps retailers keep inventory at ideal levels, reduce ordering errors, and make strategic purchasing decisions aligned with demand and market trends.
Shrinkage Report
Inventory shrinkage occurs when the physical stock on hand is lower than what is recorded in the system, often due to theft, damage, process gaps, or administrative errors. The Shrinkage Report highlights these discrepancies by comparing expected inventory levels with actual counts, enabling retailers to pinpoint discrepancies and take corrective actions.
This report helps you understand where and how inventory loss is happening across your stores, products, or time periods. It allows you to spot recurring issues early, evaluate the effectiveness of existing controls, and take targeted action to reduce shrinkage before it erodes profitability.
Why it matters:
Shrinkage directly impacts profitability and inventory accuracy. Monitoring shrinkage consistently helps retailers detect issues early, minimize financial losses, and implement effective loss-prevention strategies.
Inventory Profitability Report
Not all products contribute equally to your bottom line. The Inventory Profitability Report reveals how much profit each product, category, or brand generates after factoring in costs such as purchase price, handling, and operational expenses. It also highlights sell-through rates, showing how quickly items move and how efficiently capital is being utilised.
At the same time, the report brings visibility to low-turnover or stagnant inventory that ties up cash and storage space, as well as frequently out-of-stock items that may indicate missed revenue opportunities on high-demand products. By comparing revenue against costs, retailers can identify high-margin items to prioritise and take action on underperforming stock through repricing, promotions, or assortment adjustments.
The Product Performance Report and Inventory Profitability Report each shows insights at the product level. Product Performance measures sales volume and velocity, highlighting which items are selling the most, whereas Inventory Profitability evaluates the actual profit contribution of each product, considering costs and margins.
Why it matters:
Understanding inventory profitability empowers retailers to focus on high-return products, address underperforming stock, and balance availability with demand.
Inventory Backorders Report
The Inventory Backorders Report tracks products that have been ordered by customers but are not currently in stock. It provides visibility into which items are delayed, how long customers have been waiting, and the quantity of outstanding orders, helping retailers manage unmet demand effectively.
You can use these insights to prioritise replenishment for high-demand products, communicate accurate timelines to customers, and plan inventory purchases more strategically. Backorder trends also reveal recurring stock gaps, helping you adjust safety stock levels, supplier lead times, or ordering patterns to prevent future shortages.
Why it matters:
Tracking backorders helps you identify stock shortages that could lead to lost sales or dissatisfied customers. It enables proactive replenishment, better inventory planning, and ensures high-demand products are available when needed, protecting revenue and maintaining customer trust.
Maximizing Inventory Insights to Drive Profitability
As your business grows, you’ll need a POS system that can scale with you. Inventory reports from a modern POS offer real-time visibility into stock levels, product performance, profitability, turnover, and shrinkage. They help you decide what to reorder, which promotions to run, and how to optimise inventory to keep both your business profitable and your customers satisfied.
When used together, these insights help reduce the financial impact of overstocking and stockouts while turning inventory from a static resource into a strategic driver of sustainable growth and profitability.
