New ScanPower Unity Data Report

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ScanPower Unity Data Report – Step-by-Step™

The new ScanPower Unity program provides many more benefits than its previous version – but not all of them are obvious. This Step-by-

Step™ will show you where to find the new data report that comes free with ScanPower List and how to use it. I have asked ScanPower to put

this report under its own tab at the top of the page and received feedback that this was a good idea. Depending on when you are reading this,

you may click on a “Reports” tab to get to this report. In this Step-by-Step I will also cover how to sort the report in Excel and use it to gather

data for your bookkeeping, CPA, etc. To get started, go to: https://unity.scanpower.com and sign in to your account.

You will see a mostly blank screen with tabs at the top. Choose “Settings” and “List”

If you are interested in knowing more about the other settings on this page, see my previous Step-by-Step on the new Unity HERE. For this

Step-by-Step we are focusing on the data report.

With the settings open, scroll down to “Inventory.” The picture is on the next page. First, make sure your inventory has been recently synched

with Amazon. Click on “Sync Now.” Next, click on “View My Inventory.” See next page for image.

http://www.fbastepbystep.com/

https://unity.scanpower.com/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/162230737/New-ScanPower-Step-by-Step-for-Amazon-FBA-Sellers



All your inventory will show up – active and inactive – along with all your notes, prices, MSKU, FNSKU and much more. This raw data is

unsorted. You will need to download it to sort it. We’ll cover that next. I have over 11,000 MSKUs right now but less than 4,000 are active.




As of the date of this report (Jan 2014), there is no way to sort the data onscreen. That may change in the future. In the meantime, you can

download the report and use Excel or some other spreadsheet program to open it. Go to the very bottom of the page of your report. On the far

right-hand side you will see a tiny link that says “Download.” Click on it.

You will now see a pop up screen and be given the option to open the file or save it. Excel is the default for my computer. If you don’t have

Excel, you may see something different or no “Open with” option at all. You can choose to save the file and then open it later from inside your

chosen spreadsheet program. The file is a “.CSV” file which means it can be opened by pretty much any spreadsheet program. The data is

separated by commas (CSV=”comma separated values”). See the picture below:




Save the file right now in a place that you’ll be able to find again in the future. Once your file is open in your spreadsheet, you will see a lot of

data squished together. The first thing I do is sort the data so it is easier to read.




Click on the upper far left corner to select all the data. Your screen will change color to indicate that the data is selected. Next, choose “Sort &

Filter” on the upper right-hand corner of your screen. You want to select “Custom Sort.”




On this pop-up screen, you have many options for how to sort your data. First, select the “My data has headers” box. Next, choose the column

by which you want to search first – “total-qty.” Next, choose “largest to smallest”:




Next, click on “Add Level” to add an additional search to your first one. It will be performed sequentially. In my case, I chose to also search by

MSKU. You can add more levels to your search if you want. For me this is all I need for now. Click “OK.”

The data will be sorted but still hard to read at this point. I select all the data again (upper left-hand corner) and choose “format” and then

“auto-fit column width.” This will make it much easier to see the data (see picture on next page). At this point, you may wish to delete columns

you don’t need right now like your notes, the URL for the page, the FNSKU, the UPC and Updated. It is totally optional, but it makes it easier to

view your spreadsheet without needing to scroll from side-to-side to view information. Select the column from the top and then “right-click”

with your mouse. You will get another pop-up screen (see below). After you finish sorting, resizing your columns and (optionally), deleting

columns, save your spreadsheet with a different file name (a “save as”). This will make sure you always have the original data and the modified

data in case you need it in the future.




:

Adjust the width of all your columns Delete unneeded columns and/or adjust individual columns

On the next page, you will see my cleaned up spreadsheet. Before we go further, a short glossary of terms:

MSKU – “Merchant Stock Keeping Unit.” This the name you give your individual items of merchandise.

ASIN – “Amazon’s Stock Indentification Number”. Each item on the Amazon catalog has its own unique web page and matching ASIN.




Total Quantity – The total number of units you sent in to Amazon over time.

Cost – What you paid for an item. If you’ve been typing in your cost as you’ve priced items with ScanPower, you will see a number here.

Price - This is the price you’ve listed for the item on Amazon.com

Last Quantity – This is the amount you sent in the last time.

If you look at my “100% Natural Microwave” product, you will see that I’ve sent in 104 of them. The last shipment I sent in had 11 units. The cost

and price look weird, right? That is because when the data transferred, it did not include the decimal point. Looking at the same product and

adding in the decimal point, you can see that I spent $3.89 and I priced it at $19.98 most recently. I’m assuming I’m matching someone since I’m

normally a “.99” kind of gal.

This decimal point problem is a known issue and it may be fixed by the time you go to pull down your data. If not – and if you really want to see

those decimal points – here is the workaround. If you don’t care or the problem is fixed, skip down to where we start using the information to

make decisions:




Decimal Point Workaround:

1. Insert new columns after “cost” and “price.” Select the column to the right of the desired column. Right click and choose “insert.”

2. Select the top square of the new column after “price.”

3. Type in equal sign and the word “sum” and an open parenthesis =SUM(




4. Click on the first square under “price.” Then add the asterisk sign “*” and “.01.” Next, close the parenthesis. Your formula will look like

this: =SUM(H2*.01) Hit the “enter” button on your keyboard. H2 = column H, row 2. Depending on the columns you deleted, your

formula may start with a different letter.

5. You should see the correct number in the square now. To extend this fix to the rest of your inventory, grab the lower right-hand corner

of that correct square and pull your cursor down to the end of your spreadsheet. When you stop scrolling down, the corrected numbers

should show up all the way down the column.

6. Repeat this process for the “cost” column.

7. Now you have two columns each that say “cost” and two that say “price.” To hide the ones with the non-fixed numbers, highlight the

column, right-click and then choose “hide.” This will hide the columns you don’t want to see, but keep your formulas functioning. See

the picture on the next page.




I know what you are thinking…this is a pain! And it is. I’m hopeful that ScanPower will fix this problem soon so advanced Excel skills are not

necessary to review the data!

Reviewing the Data:

Now for the fun part – using the data. One of the benefits of this report is that it will keep track of your inventory costs for you. You can enter

your cost while pricing with ScanPower List and then later use that data for reporting to your CPA or determining how you are doing. For

example, since it is real-time data, you can see your current prices vs. your cost. How much did you have to discount? What is your margin? Did

you make your money off a particular item? This report will help you determine that. Since I HAD been entering my cost data all year, the first

thing I did was create a report for my CPA of all the inventory I had up at the Amazon warehouse on 12/31 and what it was worth. I combined




the data from the Amazon reports I recommend you print off at the end of each year with this report and could tell her to the penny what my

inventory was worth. Wow!

If you only have 1 of each item up at the warehouse, you can simply total up your “Cost” column. Go to the bottom of your spreadsheet and for

the empty box under “cost,” select it and key in the following formula – with modifications for your actual numbers - =SUM(G1:G3603). Your

formula will be different as “G” is my cost column and yours might be a different letter. Also, “3603” is how many active items I have at the

warehouse. It is the end of my spreadsheet. Yours will be different, depending on how many active items are at the warehouse.

Now the sum will fill in for you. Obviously I have multiples and more advanced Excel spreadsheet work was required before my accurate total,

but I’m trying to keep this simple and not write the Step-by-Step guide to Excel. It works the same way as fixing the decimal points, but you are

now multiplying the cost by the number of units at the warehouse and then adding up the sum of that.

In addition, besides not taking into account my multiples, this report – done for example purposes – does not include leftover inventory from

2012 and 2011 that has no cost entered yet. Since ScanPower didn’t have that feature back then, I didn’t record it that way. I’m currently adding

older inventory costs from last year’s spreadsheet so I can provide my CPA with a final report by the end of the month.

You will notice several other things about this report. For example, many items do not have a title – just my newer items. I don’t know why that

is, but I assume it has something to do with the transition to Unity in 2013.




If you have inactive MSKUs as I do, you will also notice they are all at the end of the spreadsheet. This is why we sorted by “total-qty” first.

Anything without a quantity is stuck at the end. In my case, I simply deleted those nearly 8,000 inactive listings and focused on the active ones.

This report also tells me which items require my attention the most. If I have 104 microwave bags to sell, then I’m going to spend more of my

time watching them than a textbook where I only have one copy. I currently have 185 items with more than one unit at the warehouse. It is

easier to spend my time repricing 185 items rather than 3,603. This is not to say I never reprice my books but rather that I spend more time on

my multiples.

If I had wanted to, I could have sorted by condition, price, MSKU…anything.

If you don’t delete the column with the URL, you can click directly from your spreadsheet to the Amazon page and look at who else is selling

that product and for what prices.

Because the data opens up into a spreadsheet, it is easy for me to combine with data from Amazon.com. I can also pull data into my

Quickbooks (most bookkeeping programs have the ability to pull in data from a spreadsheet) if I want to.

Enjoy your new report!

Please be sure to send praise, suggestions or questions relating to the software to ScanPower at: [email protected].


New ScanPower Unity Data Report

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