Reports > Products > Broker Action Tracker
The Broker Action Tracker helps you and your brokers see which stores are carrying your products, where orders have slowed, and where there is an opportunity to add distribution. View the report in TurnLink, download a color-coded Excel workbook, or email it directly from the report.
Go to Reports > Products > Broker Action Tracker.
Each report is for one Outside Sales company. Each Regional or Tag you select becomes a separate worksheet in the Excel workbook.
Product names, identifying company references, and email addresses are blurred in these example screenshots.
Choose your broker and worksheets
- On the Options tab, select an Outside Sales company.
- Select the Regional worksheets, Tag worksheets, or both that you want to include. At least one Regional or Tag is required. You can search the lists and use their Select All/Clear All controls.
- Set the As of date for the order and audit history you want to include.
Regional choices are based on the selected broker's active rep assignments. Tag choices are based on tagged stores assigned to that broker. A Regional worksheet contains its child stores; a Tag worksheet groups the broker's stores with that tag, even when they do not share a Regional.
Choose what to include
Store Information
Company Name is always included. Add the address, contact, rep, distributor, or last-order/audit fields you need. If a store has no broker rep assigned, the report can use its Regional's assigned broker rep.
Highlight stores adds shading to the store information: red for stores carrying none of the worksheet's products, gray for partial distribution, and green for stores carrying all of them. Green shades also reflect order recency. Turn this off if you prefer an unshaded store list.
Products
- Product Header: choose any combination of Brand, Folder, Product Name, and UPC.
- Products to include: leave All Approved Products selected for the full eligible assortment, or choose Selected Subset of Approved Products to display the product tree and select folders or products.
- Unit preference: choose the unit used for sales and opportunity quantities, such as Cases or Each.
- Include Audits: use positive audit evidence when there is no order history for that store/product combination. Audit-based dates are marked with ~.
Each worksheet has its own eligible products. Regional worksheets use the Regional's active Approved Product List (APL), plus products found in store order history or included audit history. Tag worksheets use products found in their stores' order or included audit history. A selected subset narrows that assortment; it does not force unrelated products into every worksheet. Product columns follow the folder-tree order.
Only active, non-competitive products and eligible active stores are included. Stores with - CLOSED in their names are excluded.
Add sales and opportunities
Turn on Opportunities to add sales information beneath the month or VOID in each cell. Choose Trailing months from 1–12, and show dollars, units, or both.
- Carried cells show that store's actual average monthly sales for the product.
- VOID cells show estimated monthly opportunity, based on average sales per ordering store for that product within that worksheet.
The calculation uses complete calendar months through your As of date. For example, an October 1 report with three trailing months uses July–September. The same sales window is used throughout the worksheet; it does not move backward to each store's last order. A product with an old last-order date can therefore have no recent sales.
Example: if a product averages $60 per month in the stores ordering it, five VOID stores represent an estimated $300 in monthly opportunity. This is an estimate, not booked sales or a sales forecast.
If unit setup needs attention, review the pack-setup warning on Options and correct the distributor code's pack quantity/unit before rebuilding the report. Missing conversions may otherwise appear as n/a.
Read the report
Click View Report. The progress area shows the report's preparation steps. On the Report tab, use the worksheet selector to switch between Regionals and Tags. Search the table to find stores, and scroll across products while keeping Company Name visible.
The blues fade from darkest to lightest for the most recent four months. Last month means the calendar month immediately before the report was generated—for example, September for a report generated in October. The As of date limits included history; it does not move the color clock backward.
| Cell appearance | What it means |
|---|---|
| Darkest blue | Last month. |
| Lighter blues | Two, three, or four months ago, as identified in the worksheet legend. |
| Yellow month name | Approved product with history 5–12 months ago. It still counts as carrying, not as a VOID. |
| VOID / VOID* | Approved opportunity with no order/included audit history, or history more than 12 months old (*). |
| White | Not approved at the Regional. A month can show older history; * means more than 12 months ago; a blank means no order/included audit evidence. |
| ~ after a month | Audit evidence rather than order data. An existing order takes priority over audit evidence. |
For Tag worksheets: there is no Regional APL. Products found in the group's order or included audit history establish the assortment, and stores missing those products are treated as yellow VOID opportunities.
The legend only includes statuses present in that worksheet. Regional approval uses the current active APL; it is not a historical reconstruction of approval as of an earlier date.
Understand the totals
The bottom rows show stores, stores with voids, and the percentage carrying each product. With Opportunities on, additional rows show the selected period's dollar/unit sales, average monthly sales, and monthly opportunity. The month count and unit labels follow your options.
The worksheet summary includes:
- Total Stores: stores in that worksheet.
- Carrying POD: points of distribution. One store carrying three products equals three PODs.
- Total Voids: missing store/product combinations marked VOID. One store missing three products equals three voids.
- Total POD Potential: stores multiplied by products in the worksheet.
- Voids %: total voids divided by total POD potential.
Grand totals also summarize the dollar and unit rows. Percentage carrying is calculated from total carrying POD divided by total POD potential.
Note: a store can appear in more than one Regional/Tag worksheet. Adding worksheet store counts together may count the same store more than once.
Download or email the Excel workbook
- Click Export on the Report tab. Workbook options load with progress updates.
- Review the filename, font, and grid-line style. The suggested filename includes your company, broker, and report month.
- Choose Download workbook under After creation, then click Save.
The workbook includes all selected worksheets, not only the one currently visible. It preserves the color coding, sales/opportunity values, totals, and worksheet-specific legend.
To send the workbook, choose the email option instead. Review From, select your To recipients, and add Cc/Bcc if needed. Broker contacts and inside users are available; no recipients are automatically selected. Edit the subject and message, then send.
The suggested message lists the included Regionals and/or Tags with distribution statistics and overall totals. You can edit it before sending. Use Cancel/Close to leave without sending a message.
If you close the dialog after starting workbook creation, use the download/activity badge at the top of TurnLink to return to the result.
Reuse your setup or reopen your report
Saved options remembers your selections so you can run the same setup again. Click Save beside the saved-options list to name a setup. After loading a saved setup and making changes, you can save over it or save a new copy. The gear button opens saved-options management.
Open previous reopens the last generated report without rebuilding it. It preserves the original report snapshot. To include newer orders, audits, or setup changes, return to Options and click View Report again.