Zid's built-in reports or a connected ERP?
Zid's reports explain how the store performs: sales, products and stock. A connected ERP keeps the books: revenue, returns and stock per warehouse.
Your Zid dashboard has its own reports and analytics. Do you still need a connected ERP?
The short answer: Zid’s reports explain how the store performs, such as sales, products and stock at your store locations. The ERP keeps the books: revenue, returns as credit notes, stock in each warehouse, and what never passes through the store at all, such as supplier purchases and other sales channels. One answers “how is the store selling?”, the other “what do the books say?”.
Point by point
| Zid reports | Connected ERP | |
|---|---|---|
| The question it answers | How the store is doing | What the books say |
| Data source | Your Zid store data | Everything recorded in the ERP, including Zid orders once connected |
| Sales | Sales reports by period, product, city, payment method and more | Every paid Zid order with the customer, items, tax and shipping |
| Returns | Return rate in the inventory and products reports | One credit note per return, with Odoo, ERPNext and Wafeq |
| Stock | Stock at your store locations | Stock in each warehouse, flowing to Zid locations from the Growth plan |
| What never passes through the store | Outside their scope | Purchasing and other channels, depending on the system |
| Availability | Some reports and analytics depend on your Zid plan | Depends on the system and user roles |
| Usually used by | Store managers and marketing | Accountants and finance |
The Zid side follows the Zid help center and may change. The ERP side is general and varies by system.
Why stores usually need both
Zid’s reports see what happens inside the store. Supplier purchases, sales from other channels and stock adjustments in the warehouse never pass through the store, so they live in the ERP. The ERP, for its part, never sees store visits or how shoppers behave on the store.
The link’s job is to make Zid orders and returns part of your books, and to keep Zid location stock in step with your ERP warehouses. Zid’s reports stay where you read how the store performs.
The third layer: the app’s dashboard and assistant
Install
The insights dashboard is on by default when you install the app.
Four views
Overview, sales, customers and products.
Nightly refresh
The dashboard data refreshes every night.
Ask directly
The assistant in the app answers in Arabic or English from your own store data.
Insights and the assistant work right after install, before your ERP is connected and with no API keys.
Questions merchants ask
Do Zid's reports replace an ERP?
Zid's reports explain how the store performs, and the ERP keeps the books. A store whose books must bring together sales, returns, stock and purchasing usually needs both.
What does the app's insights dashboard show?
Four views: overview, sales, customers and products, with metrics such as Revenue, Average order and Returning buyers. It is on by default at install, works before your ERP is connected, and refreshes every night.
Can I ask questions of my store data directly?
Yes. The assistant in the app answers in Arabic or English about your orders, customers, products, coupons and store settings. Best sellers and returning buyers are in the insights dashboard.
Sources
Systems in this comparison
- OdooOdoo 18 and 19: orders, returns and stock between Zid and Odoo.
- ERPNextERPNext: orders, returns, and each warehouse's stock at its Zid location.
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and OperationsDynamics 365 Finance and Operations: orders and stock between Zid and the ERP.
- WafeqWafeq (accounting): orders, returns and stock between Zid and your books.
Further reading
- Three things that work from day one after installInsights and the assistant work right after install, before your ERP is connected. The Grow your sales page is in the app. The assistant acts once you approve.
- From Zid order to ERP in six stepsA paid Zid order takes six steps: notice, customer, posting, read-back, the document number in Zid, then status with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.