---
title: "How to read the trend report"
url: "https://support.acendy.com/en/article/new-article-ba4984ba-10e2-4abe-8097-f9a6bb74ac2a"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2026-08-27T11:33:36.613Z"
---

# How to read the trend report

The report has four options that determine what the table is, and a column breakdown that repeats for units, revenue, and profit. Once you have a grasp of the four options, the rest is self-explanatory.

![](https://cdn-assets.productfruits.com/a32db90a-2627-49a6-9208-7e7c7e8eb2d6)

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## The four options at the top

These are in the card above the table. They don't just change the filtering — they change what the row is, and what it's measured against.

### Show: Category or Product

**Category** gives you one row per category. Use it when you want to see which parts of the store are moving.

**Product** gives you one row per product. Use it when you have found the category and want to know which product is behind the change. Product rows have a thumbnail, and the name is a link directly to the product editor.

### Level: Top Level or All Levels

This option is only shown when viewing categories.

| Option | What you get |
| --- | --- |
| Top Level | One row per main category, including all subcategories |
| All Levels | One row per category, including subcategories, each separately |

Start at the top level. Switch to all levels when you want to drill down into a main category that has shifted.

At all levels, the path to the category is below the name. If you have three categories named "Jackets" — one under Women, one under Men, and one under Children — the path is the only thing that distinguishes them, and the search field also searches within it.

### Period

You choose which time frame the table covers:

| Option | Covers |
| --- | --- |
| Year to date | -   January to today |
| This month | From the 1st of the current month |
| Last month | Entire last month |
| Last 30 days | The last 30 days |
| This quarter | From the start of the quarter |
| Last year | Entire last year |
| Custom period | The dates you choose yourself |

If you choose custom, you get **From-date** and **To-date** next to it. Until you have filled in both, the report shows year to date — and states it in a message above the table, so you don't read numbers under a heading that promises something else.

If the period goes further back than we have managed to calculate, the report states that instead of showing empty months as if nothing was sold.

### Compare with

Next to the period, you choose what it should be measured against:

| Option | Compares with |
| --- | --- |
| Against the same period last year | The same dates one year earlier |
| Against the previous period | The period immediately before the one you are viewing |

**Against the same period last year** is standard, and it's the one you want when you ask "is it better than last year?". Season and campaigns are at approximately the same time of year, so the periods are comparable.

**Compared to previous period** answers another question: is it better than last time? It is useful for short windows, where last year is far away and the store may have changed a lot since then.

«Previous period» moves in the period's own unit, not in number of days:

| Period | «Previous period» becomes |
| --- | --- |
| This month / Last month | One month back |
| This quarter | Three months back |
| Last 30 days / Custom period | As many days back as the period is long |
| Year to date / Last year | One year back |

The reason is that days and months are not the same unit. If you are on «This month» on August 27th and we moved the window 27 days back, you would get July 5th–31st versus August 1st–27th. That is not the previous month, and it is not a number you can do anything with.

On **Year to date** and **Last year** the two options end up in the same place: one year back is both «same period last year» and «previous period». There, it makes no difference what you choose.

### Saved periods

If you often use the same custom period — Black Friday week, a campaign period, a fiscal year that does not follow the calendar — you can save it.

**1.** Select **Custom period** and fill in the dates.

**2.** Open **Saved periods** in the toolbar.

**3.** Give the period a name and click **Save this period**

Next time you retrieve it from the same list. You can save up to ten periods, and delete them with the trash can in the list. Saved periods follow your user account, so two people in the same store have their own.

The button is only shown when you are on a custom period. For fixed periods, a click in the list would have switched windows behind your back.

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## The columns

Same pattern three times: this period, the comparison period, the change.

| Column | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Category / Product | The name. Below the name, a clarification is provided when needed, for example, the path to the category or that subcategories are included |
| Units | Number of units sold in each period |
| Unit change | How much the number has moved |
| Revenue | Revenue in each period |
| Revenue change | How much the revenue has moved |
| Profit | Revenue minus purchase price |
| Margin | Profit margin for the period, with the comparison period's in gray text behind it |

The column titles indicate which period they apply to. If you compare with last year, the years are shown there — if you look at «Previous year», those years are shown, not the current one. If you compare with the previous period, the date range is shown instead, as both periods can well be within the same year.

### The change columns have two numbers

A change column shows a badge with the percentage, and below that, the actual change in NOK or units.

Both are needed. 300% growth on a product that went from two to eight units is different news than 4% growth in your largest category — and the percentage alone hides the difference.

### The «New» badge

If it says **New** instead of a percentage, the row had no sales in the comparison period. There is no percentage change from zero, so we don't write one.

### Dash in Profit or Margin

A dash means that we do not know the purchase price for those order lines. In that case, we cannot calculate profit, and we prefer to leave the field empty rather than showing the revenue as if it were profit — that would give you a 100% margin on something we know nothing about.

### Deleted products and categories

If the row is a product or category that has been deleted since the sale occurred, it appears as **Deleted** with its old number in parentheses. The sale is real and should be included; the name just no longer exists.

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## The sorting is not random

The report opens sorted by **Revenue Change, lowest first**. The largest drop is therefore at the top.

This is intentional. The category that has lost the most revenue is the one you want to know about, and it would be at the bottom in a regular sort. If you want to see the growth instead, click the column header to reverse the order.

All columns can be sorted. The search field looks in the name, and at all levels also in the path.

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## The warning above the category table

If you look at categories, it says above the table that category numbers overlap. It's worth noting: a product can be in multiple categories, and then it's counted in each of them. The sum of the category rows is therefore not the store's turnover.

The warning only appears on the category view. A product only exists within itself, so on the product view, it would be an untrue statement about the table below.

This is explained further in the article about why the numbers don't always match other reports.

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## Tips

-   Start with Category / Top level, find the row that moves, and click ","Details", " to see the orders behind it.**Switch to Product when you know which part of the store you are investigating. The product list is long, and the search field is faster than scrolling.**If you are evaluating a campaign, use a custom period and compare it against the previous period. Against last year, you would be measuring the campaign against a week that might not have had one.