Evolution Platform: Optimising Your Outlet Setup for Success

Jayde Wood

Modified on: Fri, 1 Aug, 2025 at 10:39 AM

This guide explains why it's important to set up separate outlets for retail stores/main hubs, warehouses, and service operations within the Evolution Platform. It will also outline the issues that can arise from only using retail stores/main hubs. Setting up your outlets correctly is crucial for accurate financial reporting, efficient inventory management, and clear operational insights, allowing for better business decisions.

Background

Within the Evolution Platform, an "outlet" refers to a specific location where inventory is managed and sales occur. This could be a retail store, a warehouse, or a service van. Each outlet tracks its inventory and transactions independently.

The platform also uses "tracking categories," which are linked to Xero Tracking Options, to categorise sales from each outlet. This categorisation is vital for generating detailed revenue reports in Xero.

The Best Practice Outlet Setup

The recommended setup involves creating separate outlets for each distinct area of your business:

Retail Stores/Main Hubs: These outlets are specifically for tracking sales and managing inventory related to your retail operations.
Warehouse (if applicable): If your business operates a warehouse, this outlet should be used to manage your bulk inventory storage.
Service Outlet: This outlet is essential for accurately tracking sales, inventory used, and revenue generated by your service operations.

Benefits of This Setup

Maintaining separate outlets is crucial for basic operational control. It ensures the ability to:

Control float amounts within each outlet.
Accurately reconcile cash on hand and payments for each area of the business.
Prevent registers from automatically opening due to the syncing of any invoices or payment updates from Vital.

Using separate outlets and tracking categories ensures that your financial reports accurately reflect the financial performance of each area of your business (retail and service). This allows for a much clearer understanding of where revenue is coming from and where costs are incurred.

Separating inventory tracking by outlet allows for better control over inventory levels and usage within each area. This reduces the risk of errors, such as stock discrepancies, and inefficiencies, such as over or under-stocking.

This setup provides valuable data and insights into the performance of both your retail and service operations. This detailed information empowers you to make informed business decisions based on accurate and specific data.

When payments are separated based on their source (retail or service), the reconciliation and audit trail process becomes much simpler and the risk of errors is significantly reduced.

Why Separate Outlets Are Essential

While it might initially seem simpler to handle all revenue through retail stores or main hubs, this approach has significant drawbacks, particularly for service operations.

Limtations of a Retail-Only Outlet Setup

Loss of Operational Control and Reconciliation:
- Automatic opening of the register due to syncing of any invoices and/or payment updates from Vital. This removes control over the register.
- Loss of the ability to set a float amount due to automatic opening of the register. This can create issues with cash handling and accountability.
- Inability to accurately reconcile cash on hand and payments, and difficulty in identifying discrepancies at the end of day (EOD) register closure in the retail environment. This can lead to financial inaccuracies and make it hard to balance the books.
Loss of Granular Data and Reporting Accuracy:
- If service revenue is combined with retail stores, the ability to track the performance of your service operations as a distinct business activity is lost. This makes it harder to assess the profitability and efficiency of your service department.
- Financial reports become distorted for the true performance of each area of the business. This makes it difficult to make informed decisions about resource allocation and business strategy.
- The ability to analyse sales and stock sell-through rates per channel (retail vs. service) is lost. This data is crucial for understanding client behaviour and optimising sales strategies.
- Insights into field operations (which can be gained from tracking inventory and sales at the field level) are not available. This limits your ability to monitor technician productivity and identify areas for improvement.
Inventory Management Challenges:
- Service operations often involve the use of specific inventory items. Without separate tracking, visibility of under or over sold stock in service operations is lost. This can lead to inventory mismanagement and financial losses.
- The ability to effectively monitor inventory usage and identify discrepancies (e.g., loss or theft) in service operations is compromised.
Payment Reconciliation Issues:
- Combining payments from different sources (retail and service) makes the reconciliation process significantly more complex. This increases the risk of errors and makes it harder to identify and resolve any discrepancies, which can be time-consuming and costly.

What About Van-Level Inventory?

While van-level inventory (where each service van is set up as an individual outlet) offers even more detailed tracking capabilities, it also introduces added complexity. For the time being, it's recommended to prioritise establishing the basic retail/warehouse/service outlet structure. Once inventory management is well-controlled, and the network is comfortable with the Evolution Platform, Poolwerx will reassess the potential benefits and feasibility of moving to van-level inventory.

Next Steps

Review your current outlet setup and compare it to the recommended structure outlined in this guide.
If necessary, request for your outlet setup to be transformed to the recommended structure. Refer to Transforming from Van Level to Service Outlet for more information.

By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your Evolution Platform setup effectively supports viable daily operations, accurate financial reporting, efficient inventory management, and clear operational insights, ultimately contributing to the overall success and profitability of your business.