Sales Heatmap

The Sales Heatmap shows you when your customers shop. It is a grid with 7 rows (one for each day of the week, Monday to Sunday) and 24 columns (one for each hour of the day). Each cell is colored based on how much activity happened in that time slot. Darker, warmer colors mean more activity. Light or pale cells mean little or none.

Use this report to answer questions like:

• What hours of the day are my busiest?
• Which days of the week bring the most customers?
• When are my quietest windows where a promotion might help?

How to run the report

1. Click Reports in the left menu.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Sales Heatmap card.
3. Set the From and To dates at the top of the page. The default is the last 30 days.
4. Click Run Report. The grid appears within a second or two.

The report does not load automatically when you open the page. You always start it by clicking Run Report.

Choosing what to measure

Above the grid there are three options:

• Revenue: total money collected in each time slot. This is the default.
• Transactions: the number of individual sales. Use this to measure foot traffic.
• Avg Basket: the average amount per sale in that slot. Use this to spot when customers tend to spend more per visit.

After switching to a different option, click Run Report again to refresh the grid.

Reading the grid

Cells are colored on a warm scale from pale amber to deep red:

• Empty or very pale cells: no sales or near-zero activity in that slot.
• Amber or orange cells: moderate activity.
• Dark red cells: the busiest slots.

The single busiest slot across the whole grid gets an orange border. The label above the grid tells you exactly which slot it is and its value, for example: Busiest slot: Saturday 6 pm - $9,234.

Hover over any cell to see the exact figure for that slot. On a phone or tablet, long-press a cell to see its value.

A color scale bar at the bottom of the grid shows the range from low to high.

A worked example

Imagine you run a grocery store and look at the last 3 months. You see two dark bands in the grid: one around 8 am to 9 am on weekdays and another from 5 pm to 7 pm Monday to Friday. Saturday afternoon is also darker than the rest of the week. This tells you:

• The 8 am weekday opening needs enough staff so queues do not build up.
• The after-work rush from 5 pm to 7 pm on weekdays needs enough coverage.
• Saturday afternoon is the busiest retail window of the week.

You can then look at the quietest slots, say Wednesday 2 pm to 4 pm, and consider a targeted promotion to bring in more traffic during those hours.

Picking a date range

• Last 7 days: useful for checking the effect of a recent promotion or staff change.
• Last 30 days: a solid view for general staffing decisions.
• Last 3 months: smooths out one-off events and gives a clearer seasonal picture.

The maximum range is 12 months at a time. To compare two separate periods, run the report twice and note the differences.

Exporting to Excel

Once you have run the report and the grid is visible, an Export button appears next to Run Report. Clicking it prepares a formatted Excel file with two sheets:

• Heatmap sheet: the same color-coded grid you see on screen.
• Summary sheet: key totals including total revenue, total transactions, the peak slot, and when the report was generated.

The file downloads automatically if you stay on the page while it is being prepared, which usually takes a few seconds. If you navigate away before it finishes, go to Exports in the left menu to find and download the file.

Things to watch out for

Public holidays and closures: a range that includes a public holiday shows unusual spikes or quiet patches. For a cleaner view, exclude known holiday weeks or use a range of 3 months or more so outliers average out.

A single large sale in one slot: if one large-ticket item was sold at an unusual hour, that cell lights up on its own. Switch to the Transactions metric to check. A hot-looking cell with very few transactions usually means one large sale, not real foot traffic.

Changed opening hours: sales from before a change in your hours still appear in their original time slots. To see only the new schedule's patterns, set the From date to the day the new hours took effect.

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FAQ

Q: My busiest-slot cell looks the same color as the ones next to it. Why?

A: Colors are graded relative to the busiest slot in the entire grid. If the surrounding slots are nearly as busy, they will look very similar in shade. The label above the grid and the figure that appears when you hover are the ground truth.

Q: I changed my opening hours. Should the old hours still show in the heatmap?

A: Yes. Past sales are part of your history and are not removed. To see only the pattern under your new schedule, set the From date to the day the new hours started.

Q: How does the system decide what day a late-night sale belongs to?

A: By the calendar day the sale was completed in your local time zone. A sale finished at 1:15 am on Sunday morning appears as Sunday at the 1 am slot, not as Saturday.

Q: Can I export the heatmap to Excel?

A: Yes. After you run the report, an Export button appears next to Run Report. The download is a formatted Excel file with a color-coded heatmap sheet and a summary sheet showing key totals.

Q: Why is Sunday dark even though my shop is closed on Sundays?

A: Check your date range. If it covers a day when you opened, such as a public holiday that fell on a Sunday, those sales appear in the Sunday row. Narrow the range to a normal operating period to confirm.

Q: I have multiple branches. Which shop am I seeing?

A: Only the shop you are currently signed into. Switch between branches using the Portfolio page, which is available when your shops are part of a linked organisation.

Q: Do parked (held) sales appear in the heatmap?

A: No. Only completed sales are counted.

Q: Do voided sales appear?

A: No. Voided sales are excluded. The heatmap reflects completed revenue only.

Q: The peak says Saturday 6 pm but I know Sundays are usually bigger overall. What is happening?

A: Saturday 6 pm is the busiest single one-hour slot. Sunday's total may still be higher but spread across more hours. To compare the overall shape of each day, look at how the Sunday row compares to other rows visually, or switch the metric to Transactions to see foot traffic slot by slot.

Q: Can I see more than 12 months at once?

A: No. The maximum range is 12 months. Run two separate reports to compare across longer periods.