Northwood / Reporting automation case study
From scattered exports to a clearer view of the business.
Meet Northwood Supply Co., an Ontario apparel retailer selling online and in store. See how a recurring spreadsheet routine becomes a guided, repeatable reporting workflow.
The problem
Every report starts with the same spreadsheet work.
Operations staff pull Shopify and accounting exports, update workbooks, and rebuild the monthly view. The work is familiar, but it repeats every reporting cycle.
A differently formatted SKU can break a lookup. A refund can change a total. A formula copied inconsistently can leave two reports telling different stories.
Gather the exports
Download Shopify orders, products and stock, customer records, and accounting expenses.
Repair the reporting workbook
Paste fresh records, tidy SKU formats, match product costs, and standardize expense names and categories.
Recalculate and review
Account for refunds and cancellations, refresh sales and margin formulas, update pivots and charts, then prepare management reporting.
Four ordinary inputs. One recurring reporting task.
Orders
orders.csv
Shopify-style export
Products & inventory
products_inventory.csv
Shopify-style export
Customers
customers.csv
Shopify-style export
Expenses
expenses.csv
Accounting-style export
The expense file is an operational sample, not a complete accounting ledger. It supports cleanup demonstrations, not a net-profit claim.
The solution
Make the process repeatable. Keep the review visible.
The exports become the starting point for a defined workflow: validate, normalize, apply consistent calculations, review exceptions, and report. The dashboard is the useful end result of that process.
Raw exports
Inspect the orders, products, customers, and expenses exactly as they arrive.
Raw DataProcessing & validation
Check the files, standardize obvious differences, apply the reporting rules, and surface exceptions for review.
Process & ValidateReporting dashboard
Explore consistent sales, category, inventory, and customer measures from the prepared records.
Dashboard
Automation still leaves room for judgment.
The demo flags 6 lines with missing SKUs for review, rather than guessing a product match. Guest orders stay visible, and refund and cancellation rules stay consistent.
Example insights
Less time assembling the report. More room to ask useful questions.
These findings come from the same prepared data as the interactive dashboard. Full-year 2025, all sales channels, with amounts in Canadian dollars.
01 / Seasonal demand
The holiday quarter stands out
$515.1K
Q4 order-level net sales · CAD
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q4 sales were 64.47% higher than Q3 of 2025, contributing 35.47% of the year’s net sales. A useful signal for seasonal planning, without attributing the change to a particular campaign.
Explore monthly sales02 / Product economics
Outerwear earns attention
$514.6K
Outerwear merchandise revenue · CAD
Outerwear contributes 40.94% of merchandise revenue, with a 56.79% gross margin. Compare sales and profit together when deciding where to focus.
6 unmatched lines ($680.96) remain in the totals and exception review, outside these category bars.
Compare categories03 / Stock planning
Strong sellers need a stock check
1.1 mo
Insulated Jacket · Estimated stock coverage
- Insulated Jacket1.1 mo
$167.3K sales · 122 units in stock
- Field Jacket1.7 mo
$137.2K sales · 172 units in stock
- Rain Shell2.1 mo
$112.8K sales · 192 units in stock
Current stock divided by average monthly units sold in October–December 2025. Amber flags less than two months for review.
A shared inventory snapshot and recorded sales quantities, not a demand forecast. Refunds do not identify returned-unit counts.
Review product coverageBusiness value
A reporting routine the team can repeat.
The value is in replacing recurring preparation work with a consistent process, while keeping the numbers and unresolved issues open to review.
Repeatable reporting
Follow the same preparation and review steps each cycle, rather than rebuilding the workbook.
Consistent calculations
Keep one definition of net sales, refunds, and margins across the reporting views.
Visible exceptions
See records that need attention before treating the report as settled.
Less manual preparation
Reduce repeated cleanup, product lookups, and formula updates so staff can focus on reviewing the business.
See the whole workflow
What could your next reporting cycle look like?
Start with the exports. Watch the preparation and validation. Explore the results. Use this example as a starting point for a conversation about automating your own reporting routine.