Submit

How does the Submit form work?

The Submit form is filled out each quarter and sent in through the CoopMetrics website. The intent of the Submit form is to supplement the trial balance. If the information is in the trial balance then it is not necessary to fill out that column of the Submit. For example, if Sales by department are in the chart of accounts and we have been able to map your Produce Sales to Produce and Packaged Grocery to Packaged Grocery then you don't have to fill out the Sales column. If COGS are parallel to the sales departments so that we can calculate margin by department then there's no need to fill out the actual margin column.

On the other hand, if you use QuickBooks class tracking and the trial balance consolidates all the department sales into a single lump sum Sales account then you will need to fill out the Sales and Margin columns. Also, if you post department Sales to a single lump sum account then you will need to fill out the Sales and Margin columns as well.  

If you track labor hours and labor dollars by the CoopMetrics departments then you can fill in the hours column. You only need to fill in the labor dollars column if you post total labor to a single lump sum account and it isn't divided up by department in the trial balance.  

The same is true for Inventory. If you use a single lump sum account for Inventory then you'll need to fill out the Inventory column.

Volume Discounts are a little different. If you include volume discounts in the COGS accounts on the trial balance then they do not need to be listed on the Submit because they are already taken into consideration in the trial balance. The only volume discounts that need to be listed by department are those that reside in a single lump sum account.

Of course all of this hinges on whether you collect department Sales, Margin, Labor Hours and Dollars, Inventory and Volume Discounts. If you don't, don't worry. And please don't make up any numbers.

We find that it works well if you come up with a plan to implement the changes in a way that the staff and management can absorb and understand why the change is being made. The CoopMetrics graphs and reports will show the progress and changes as you make them. 

If any of this takes you more than a few minutes, please stop and email Kate. We have worked with hundreds of companies and we know a lot of shortcuts and can probably help you figure out a way to move forward in a more streamlined and efficient manner.