Report of the Week - Comparative Analysis with Top N Items

Report of the Week - Comparative Analysis with Top N Items

Previously, we saw how to create a report for Top N Items in Each Category . Now let's see how to do comparative analysis along with top values with the following reports as examples.  

  • Comparing Current and Previous Month Customers' Invoices - This report compares two sets of values and gets the top and bottom N results. 
  • Sales in Percentage against Top Sales - This report gets the percentage of all values in comparison with the top value. 

Report 1: Comparing Current and Previous Month Customers' Invoices

This report ranks the customers whose invoices have grown in comparison with the previous month. This helps you identify customers who tend to purchase more from you and also the customers who will purchase less.


Let's see how to create the above report.

  • Create Aggregate Formulas
  • Create Report

Create Aggregate Formulas

Create the following Aggregate formulas by clicking Add > Aggregate Formula to get the required data.

  • Current Month Sales 
  • Previous Month Sales
  • Difference in Sales between current and Previous Month
  • Rank Sales

Current Month Sales

The following formula gives you the current month sales. 


Current Month Sales

 

sum(if(absmonth( "Sales"."Date" ) = absmonth(today()), "Sales"."Sales ", 0 ))




Previous Month Sales

The following formula gives you the previous month sales. 


Previous Month Sales


 

sum(if(absmonth( "Sales"."Date" ) =  absmonth(add_month(today(), -1)), "Sales"."Sales ", 0 ))




Compare Current and Previous Month Sales

Now compare the current and previous month sales using the following formula, which gives the difference between current and previous month sales.


Sales Diff Previous Month


 

"Sales"."Previous Month Sales" - "Sales"."Current Month Sales"




Rank Sales

Add an aggregate formula to rank the sales in ascending order. From this, you can get the botton N items by sales. 


Rank of Sales Asc: 


 

Rank( "Sales"."Sales Diff Previous Month" ,' asc ')





Have another aggregate formula to rank sales in descending order to get the top N items by sales.


Rank of Sales Desc:

 

Rank( "Sales"."Sales Diff Previous Month" ,' desc ') 



Create Report


Now, the necessary reports can be created using the above aggregate formulas.

  1. Open the Pivot Table designer. 
  2. Drop the columns as given below.
    • Row - Customer Name with Actual
    • Data - Current Month Sales, Previous Month Sales  and Sales Diff Previous Month with Actual
  3. Filter the Top or Bottom 5 Customers by adding the Rank of Sales columns in the Filters tab. 
    • Add Rank of  Sales - Desc and filter Range below 6 to filter top 5 customers. 
    • Add Rank of Sales - Asc and filter Range below 6 to filter bottom 5 customers. 
  4. The report will be generated as below. Hide the Total. 



  5. Open Dashboard designer and add both the reports.



Report 2: Comparing Sales in Percentage against Top Sales

As the second example, let us see how to create a report that compares each value against the top value. For example, comparing each sales person's sales with the top performing sales person's sales. 


Find the Top Sales


Create an aggregate formula to identify the top sales using the below formula.

 

First(Sum( "Store Sales"."Sales" ))





The above formula will calculate sales for the dimension in your report (Region, in this example) and return the top value for each section. 



The above report displays the top sales made by the salespersons in each region.


Calculating Sales in Percentage against Top Sales


Now you can calculate the Sales in Percentage against Top Sales using the Report Formula. To invoke the Report Formula dialog, click the highlighted icon. 


Use the below formula to calculate the Sales in Percentage against Top Sales.  


 

( "1. Sales" / "2. Top Sales" )* 100




A report will be generated. 




Hide the Totals using the Show/Hide button and customize the Theme as needed. 







      • Recent Topics

      • Sync desktop folders instantly with WorkDrive TrueSync (Beta)

        Keeping your important files backed up and accessible has never been easier! With WorkDrive desktop app (TrueSync), you can now automatically sync specific desktop folders to WorkDrive Web, ensuring seamless, real-time updates across devices. Important:

      • How To Insert Data into Zoho CRM Organization

        Hi Team I have this organization - https://crm.zoho.com/crm/org83259xxxx/tab/Leads I want to insert data into this Leads module, what is the correct endpoint for doing so ? Also I have using ZohoCRM.modules.ALL scope and generated necessary tokens.

      • Where can I get Equation Editor por Zoho Writer?

        I need to use Math Formulas in my document. Thank you.

      • Filtering repport for portal users

        Salut, I have a weird problem that I just cannot figure out : When I enter information as administrator on behalf of a "supplier" portal user (in his "inventory" in a shared inventory system), I can see it, "customer" portal users can see it, but the

      • Zoho Inventory. Preventing Negative Stock in Sales Orders – Best Practices?

        Dear Zoho Inventory Community, We’re a small business using Zoho Inventory with a team of sales managers. Unfortunately, some employees occasionally overlook stock levels during order processing, leading to negative inventory issues. Is there a way to

      • BUTTONS SHOWN AS AN ICON ON A REPORT

        Hi Is there any way to create an action button but show it as an icon on a report please? As per the attached example? So if the user clicks the icon, it triggers an action?

      • Dropshipping Address - Does Not Show on Invoice Correctly

        When a dropshipping address is used for a customer, the correct ship-to address does not seem to show on the Invoice. It shows correctly on the Sales Order, Shipment Order, and Package, just not the Invoice. This is a problem, because the company being

      • RFQ MODEL

        A Request for quotation model is used for Purchase Inquiries to multiple vendors. The Item is Created and then selected to send it to various vendors , once the Prices are received , a comparative chart is made for the user. this will help Zoho books

      • Will zoho thrive be integrated with Zoho Books?

        title

      • Product Updates in Zoho Workplace applications | August 2025

        Hello Workplace Community, Let’s take a look at the new features and enhancements that went live across all Workplace applications this August. Zoho Mail Delegate Email Alias Now you can let other users send emails on your behalf—not just from your primary

      • Notebook audio recordings disappearing

        I have recently been experiencing issues where some of my attached audio recordings are disappearing. I am referring specifically to ones made within a Note card in Notebook on mobile, made by pressing the "+" button and choosing "Record audio" (or similar),

      • Unable to send message; Reason:554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked

        Hi, I sent few emails and got this: Unable to send message; Reason:554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked And now I have few days since I cant send any email. Is there something wrong I did? Also can someone fix this please

      • Want to use Zoho Books in Switzerland. CHF support planned?

        Hi, We're a Swiss company using other Zoho suite software and I discovered Zoho Books and other accounting SaaS when looking for an accounting tool. Do you intend to cover Switzerland and CHF based accounting anytime soon? Roy

      • Weekly Tips : Teamwork made easy with Multiple Assignees

        Let's say you are working on a big project where different parts of a single task need attention from several people at the same time—like reviewing a proposal that requires input from sales, legal, and finance teams. Instead of sending separate reminders

      • Best way to share/download presentation files in Zoho without losing formatting?

        Hello Zoho Community, I often work with PPT/PDF files in Zoho Docs and share them with colleagues. While PDFs usually give a direct download option, I’ve noticed that PPT/PPTX files sometimes only open in the viewer without a clear download link. Is there

      • Celebrating Connections with Zoho Desk

        September 27 is a special day marking two great occasions: World Tourism Day and Google’s birthday. What do these two events have in common (besides the date)? It's something that Zoho Desk celebrates, too: making connections. The connect through tourism

      • What is Resolution Time in Business Hours

        HI, What is the formula used to find the total time spent by an agent on a particular ticket? How is Resolution Time in Business Hours calculated in Zohodesk? As we need to find out the time spent on the ticket's solution by an agent we seek your assistance

      • How use

        Good morning sir I tried Zoho Mail

      • Adding Overlays to Live Stream

        Hello folks, The company I work for will host an online event through Zoho Webinar. I want to add an overlay (an image) at the bottom of the screen with all the sponsors' logos. Is it possible to add an image as an overlay during the live stream? If so,

      • Email Sending Failed - SMTP Error: data not accepted. - WHMCS Not sending emails due to this error

        I have been trying to figure out a fix for about a week now and I haven't found one on my own so I am going to ask for help on here.  After checking all the settings and even resetting my password for the email used for WHMCS it still says: Email Sending Failed - SMTP Error: data not accepted.  I have no clue how to fix it at this point. Any insight would be lovely. 

      • Does Zoho Learn integrate with Zoho Connect,People,Workdrive,Project,Desk?

        Can we propose Zoho LEarn as a centralised Knowledge Portal tool that can get synched with the other Zoho products and serve as a central Knowledge repository?

      • Zoho Flow - Update record in Trackvia

        Hello, I have a Flow that executes correctly but I only want it to execute once when a particular field on a record is updated in TrackVia. I have the trigger filters setup correctly and I want to add an "update record" action at the end of the flow to

      • Add Comprehensive Accessibility Features to Zoho Desk Help Center for End Users

        Hello Zoho Desk Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to submit a feature request to enhance the client-facing Help Center in Zoho Desk with comprehensive accessibility features, similar to those already available on the agent interface. 🎯 Current

      • Rename Record Summary PDF in SendMail task

        So I've been tasked with renaming a record summary PDF to be sent as part of a sendmail task. Normally I would offer the manual solution, a user exports the PDF and uploads it to a file upload field, however this is not acceptable to the client in this

      • in zoho creator Sales Returns form has sub form Line Items return quantity when i upate the or enter any values in the sub form that want to reflect in the Sales Order form item deail sub form field Q

        in zoho creator Sales Returns form has sub form Line Items return quantity when i upate the or enter any values in the sub form that want to reflect in the Sales Order form item deail sub form field Quantity Returned\ pls check the recording fetch_salesorder

      • Estimates with options and sub-totals

        Hi It seems it would be great to be able to show multiple options in an estimate. For instance I have a core product to which I can add options, and maybe sub-options... It would be great to have subtotals and isolate the core from the not compulsory items. Thanks

      • Optional Items Estimate

        How do you handle optional items within an estimate? In our case we have only options to choose with. (Like your software pricing, ...standard, professional, enterprise) How can we disable the total price? Working with Qty = 0 is unprofessional....

      • Important Update : Zendesk Sell announced End of Life

        Hello Zendesk users, Zendesk has officially announced that Zendesk Sell will reach its End of Life (EOL) on August 31, 2027 (Learn more). In line with this deprecation, Zoho Analytics will retire its native Zendesk Sell connector effective October 1,

      • Zoho Sheets

        Hi, I am trying to transition into Zoho sheets, I have attached the issues encountered. Server issues, file trying to upload for more than 30 mins, even once uploaded my data aren't loaded. Simple calculations are not working I have attached the sample.

      • Zoho CRM + Zoho FSM : alignez vos équipes commerciales et techniques

        La vente est finalisée, mais le parcours client ne fait que commencer ! Dans les entreprises orientées service, conclure une vente représente seulement la première étape. Ce qui suit — installation, réparation ou maintenance régulière — influence grandement

      • Top Bar Shifting issue still not fixed yet

        I mentioned in a previous ticket that on Android, the top bar shifts up when you view collections or when you're in the settings. That issue still hasn't been fixed yet. I don't wanna have to reinstall the app as I've noticed for some reason, reinstalling

      • Power of Automation:: Automate the process of updating project status based on a specific task status.

        Hello Everyone, Today, I am pleased to showcase the capabilities of a custom function that is available in our Gallery. To explore the custom functions within the Gallery, please follow the steps below. Click Setup in the top right corner > Developer

      • Attention API Users: Upcoming Support for Renaming System Fields

        Hello all! We are excited to announce an upcoming enhancement in Zoho CRM: support for renaming system-defined fields! Current Behavior Currently, system-defined fields returned by the GET - Fields Metadata API have display_label and field_label properties

      • Billing Management: #3 Billing Unbilled Charges Periodically

        We had a smooth sail into Prorated Billing, a practice that ensures fairness when customers join, upgrade, or downgrade a service at any point during the billing cycle. But what happens when a customer requests additional limits or features during the

      • No bank feeds from First National Bank South Africa since 12 September

        I do not know how Zoho Books expects its customers to run a business like this. I have contacted Zoho books numerous times about this and the say it is solved - on email NO ONE ANSWERS THE SOUTH AFRICAN HELP LINE Come on Zoho Books, you cannot expect

      • Citation Problem

        I had an previous ticket (#116148702) on this subject. The basic problem is this; the "Fetch Details" feature works fine on the first attempt but fails on every subsequent attempt, Back in July after having submitted information electronically and was

      • Open Sans Font in Zoho Books is not Open Sans.

        Font choice in customising PDF Templates is very limited, we cannot upload custom fonts, and to make things worse, the font names are not accurate. I selected Open Sans, and thought the system was bugging, but no, Open Sans is not Open Sans. The real

      • Failing to generate Access and Refresh Token

        Hello.  I have two problems: First one when generating Access and Refresh Token I get this response:  As per the guide here : https://www.zoho.com/books/api/v3/#oauth (using server based application) I'm following all the steps. I have managed to get

      • Zeptomail 136.143.188.150 blocked by SpamCop

        Hi - it looks like this IP is being blocked, resulting in hard bounces unfortunately :( "Reason: uncategorized-bounceMessage: 5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host [136.143.188.150] blocked using bl.spamcop.net; Blocked - see https://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml?136.143.188.150

      • Apply transaction rules to multiple banks

        Is there any way to make transaction rules for one bank apply to other banks? It seems cumbersome to have to re-enter the same date for every account.

      • Next Page