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Pivot table report builders on orders, invoices, work in progress and stock, with percent of total, year over year variance, allocated and available quantities, and saved views for yourself or the whole company.
The built in BI in AIMS360 is a set of pivot builders on orders, invoices, work in progress and stock. Pick what to query, run it, drag fields into rows, columns and values, and the table answers. Percent of total, year over year, what is already allocated and what is still free to sell, saved as a view for you or for the whole company. No export, no lookup, no second product.
Four pivot table report builders inside the ERP: Order BI, Invoice BI, WIP BI and Stock BI. Choose the level and the records to query, run it, then drag fields into rows, columns and values until the table says what you need. Switch a value to percent of grand total, add a year over year or month over month variance as a calculated field, collapse to a summary or open one row, and save the layout as a view, private or public.
It exists because the question that matters most on a Monday morning is rarely on a printed report. How much of our business is boutiques now versus department stores? Which customers are down against last year, and by how much? How much of the open order book is already covered by stock, and how much is waiting on production? Those are pivots, and in most apparel companies they are built in Excel from an export every week. In AIMS360 the data is already joined, already live, and the pivot is one drag away.
All four live under reports in the AIMS360 BI group and work the same way. What changes is the data behind them and the extra columns each one carries.
Booked, shipped and open orders by customer, class, season, style, rep or division. Carries allocated stock total, allocated WIP total and allocated total, so an open order shows what is already covered and by what.
What was actually invoiced, by customer, by month, by year. This is where year over year sales by customer lives, and the module the percent difference example is built on.
Cut tickets and production purchase orders in progress, with allocated quantity and available to allocate, so production can see what is promised to orders and what is still free.
Inventory by style, color and size, with allocated stock quantity and available to stock quantity. The number you can still sell, not just the number on the shelf.
The query criteria screen asks what level you want, order header for instance, and which records: all orders, open and hold only, invoices from last year to date. Each level keeps its own saved views.
The data comes back as a field list and three empty zones. Nothing is on the table yet; that is the point.
Class description and customer into rows, year into columns, booked amount into values. The table builds as you drop. Add shipped amount to values and it stacks under booked.
Collapse all for the summary by class. Plus on one row to open only that class. Add complete date as a filter and set on or after a date to drop old years out of view.
Views, save as, a short name, public or not. Tomorrow it is one click and one run, on tomorrow's numbers.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Rows, columns, values | Drag any field from the list into one of the three zones. Class and customer in rows, year in columns, booked amount in values, and the table is built. Drag it back out and it is gone. |
| A second value | Drop another measure into values, shipped amount under booked amount, and the second set of numbers stacks below the first for the same rows. |
| Collapse and expand | Collapse all for the summary, expand all for every line, or the plus sign on one row to open just that one. The boutiques row opens without the department store row moving. |
| Filter on any field | Add a field as a filter, open its dropdown, choose Select Items and set the rule, for instance complete date on or after a date. Nothing changes on screen until the rule is set. |
| Percent of grand total | Open the dropdown on a value and choose percent of grand total. The dollars become shares: what part of the business is boutiques, what part is department stores. |
| Percent difference from previous | Add the same measure a second time, open more calculation options, choose percent difference from, pick the year or month column and choose previous. That is year over year or month over month, per row, with a total at the bottom. |
| Saved views | Views, save as, give it a short name and tick public if the whole company should see it. Each query level keeps its own set of views. Reset default view and clear screen sit in the same menu. |
When you add the month to columns to see monthly variance, change the calculated field from previous year to previous month as well. Leave it on year and the percentages shown against each month are still computed on year totals, which looks like data and is not.
Order BI, class in rows, booked amount in values, switched to percent of grand total. Boutiques against department stores against online, as shares, on live orders. The first view every brand saves.
Invoice BI, customer in rows, year in columns, invoice amount twice: once as dollars, once as percent difference from the previous year. The total at the bottom is the company's own variance.
Order BI with the allocated stock, allocated WIP and allocated total columns beside open quantity. What ships from the shelf, what waits on a cut, and what has nothing against it yet.
Stock BI, style and color in rows, available to stock quantity in values. Not what is on hand, what is on hand and not already promised.
WIP BI, style in rows, allocated quantity and available to allocate in values. The free quantity on a cut ticket, before someone promises it twice.
Order BI, season and rep in rows, booked and shipped amounts stacked in values. Shipped over booked is the fill rate for the window you filter.
Standard printed and list reports on the same subjects are on sales order reports and inventory analysis. BI is for the cross tab those reports do not have.
Every BI table exports. The export is formatted data, a snapshot for a chart or a deck. It is not a live link that refreshes. That is fine for the Monday deck and wrong for the finance workbook, which is why there are three routes and this page is only one of them.
Build the pivot here, export, chart it in Excel. Right for a one off analysis and for anything that goes into a presentation as of a date.
A workbook connected to your AIMS360 data, so the sell through sheet or the finance file updates instead of being rebuilt from an export.
Power BI's standard SQL Server or web connector against your AIMS360 data. Built once, refreshes on its own. No native connector or template pack; the first build is yours or a partner's.
Claude, ChatGPT or Grok connected to AIMS360, for the question you have not built a view for yet. Read only, plain English, answers over live data.
Details on each route: Live Excel, Microsoft Power BI, the AI assistants. How the layers fit together is on dashboards.
The ones someone answers by hand every week. Mix by class, sales by customer against last year, coverage of open orders, what is left to sell, what production can still commit.
Order header, all orders, run. Class into rows, booked into values, percent of grand total. Filter complete date to this year. Collapse all. That is the mix.
Views, save as, a short name, public ticked. Now it is on the list for everyone with the rights to see orders.
Last year to date, run. Customer into rows, year into columns, invoice amount twice, the second one as percent difference from previous year. Save it.
Anything that should refresh on a wall screen goes to Power BI. Anything finance already keeps in a workbook goes to Live Excel. Everything else stays here, one run away.
BI gives you the table. Charts come from the export in Excel, or from Power BI and Live Excel on a live connection. If the ask is a designed dashboard with gauges and a logo, that is a Power BI build on top of this data.
Formatted data, not a connection. Nothing in an exported file refreshes. The live routes are Live Excel and Power BI, and the AI assistants for a question asked once.
A view saved at order header level is not offered at line level, and the other way round. Decide the level first, then build and save. Keep view names short so the list stays readable.
The BI icons on the default home screen are convenient and not permanent; the product adds and rearranges them over time. Reports is where the modules always are.
A set of pivot table report builders inside the ERP, one each for orders, invoices, work in progress and stock. You choose what to query, run it, then drag fields into rows, columns and values until the table answers the question. The layout can be saved as a view for yourself or for everyone. It is the fastest way to answer a question like how much of our business is boutiques, without exporting anything.
Four, all under reports. Order BI for booked, shipped and open orders. Invoice BI for what was actually billed. WIP BI for cut tickets and production purchase orders in progress. Stock BI for on hand inventory. The order, WIP and stock modules also carry allocation columns, so open orders show what is already covered by stock or production, and stock and WIP show what is still free to allocate.
Not for this kind of question. The BI modules cover the pivot style analysis most mid sized apparel brands run in Excel today: sales by class, by customer, by season, by rep, year over year, share of total. What they do not do is a live wall screen dashboard or a designed chart pack. For that, the same data feeds Microsoft Power BI or Live Excel, and there is no separate analytics product in between.
Close enough that anyone who has built a pivot in Excel will be at home. Same three zones, rows, columns and values, same collapse and expand, same filters, same percent of total. The difference is the data is already there and already joined: a customer's class, rep, division and terms sit next to the order without a lookup, and every run is on live numbers.
The ones they get asked every week. Booked against shipped by customer class or season. Sales by customer year over year with the variance as a percent. Which styles or classes are gaining share. How much of open orders is covered by stock versus production. What is still available to sell from stock, and what is still free to allocate from work in progress. Invoiced dollars by month against last year.
Yes, with a calculated field. Add the measure a second time, open more calculation options, pick percent difference from, choose the year or month column and select previous. The second block shows the variance per row and a total at the bottom. To go monthly, add the month to columns and switch the calculation from year to month, otherwise the percentages stay on year totals.
Yes. Open the dropdown on any value and choose percent of grand total. Booked dollars by class become the share each class is of the whole. Keep the dollar value alongside if you want both, since values stack.
Views, then save as. Give it a short name, a couple of words, so it fits in the list, and tick public if the rest of the company should see it. Leave that unticked and it is yours alone. Each query level keeps its own saved views, so a view built at order header level does not appear at the line level.
Yes, by saving it as a public view. It then appears for every user of your AIMS360 system, filtered by what each of them is allowed to see. A view saved without the public flag stays private to the person who built it.
They show what is already spoken for. In Order BI, allocated stock total, allocated WIP total and allocated total tell you how much of an open order is covered by inventory, by production, and in all. In WIP BI, allocated quantity and available to allocate split a cut into the part promised to orders and the part still free. In Stock BI, allocated stock quantity and available to stock quantity do the same for what is on the shelf.
Yes, and it is worth knowing what you get. The export is formatted data, a snapshot, which is right for building a chart or pasting into a deck. It is not a live connection that refreshes. For a workbook that updates itself, use Live Excel; for a standing dashboard, Power BI. Both read the same data the BI modules do.
Every run of the query reads the current database, so the table you are looking at is as of now. Save the view and run it tomorrow and it is as of tomorrow. Only the export is frozen at the moment you export it.
Two ways. The query criteria screen has presets such as last year to date, and lets you pick which orders or invoices to pull before you run. Once the table is built, any date field can be added as a filter with a rule like on or after a date. The first narrows what is queried, the second narrows what is shown.
Yes. A field you named on styles or customers, a buying group, a program, a category of your own, is available to drag into rows, columns or filters like any other. That is how a brand groups by something the standard reports never heard of.
Different job. The grids are the working lists, filtered and saved by role, with pivots for the list in front of you. The report editor changes what the standard printed reports show. BI is where you cross two or three dimensions and a measure to see a pattern, and where percent of total and year over year live.
Any user whose role includes the BI modules. Permissions follow the rest of the system, so a rep who cannot see margin in the ERP cannot see it in BI either, and a public view is still filtered by what each viewer is allowed to see.
Minutes for the first table, an afternoon to get the recurring questions saved as views. Pick the level, run the query, drag three fields, collapse, save. The example every brand builds first is booked and shipped by customer class, and it takes about as long as reading this answer.
Under reports, in the AIMS360 BI group. There are usually icons on the default home screen as well, but icons on that screen move as the product develops, so reports is the reliable route.
Tell us the question it answers. We will build it in BI while you watch, save it as a view, and show you which of the other questions on your list belong here and which belong in Power BI or Live Excel.
