retailer data
A Walmart Weekly Sales-Report Checklist
Use a weekly sales worksheet and worked example to reconcile totals, find the items behind a change, and assign the next investigation.
A weekly sales report needs a total another analyst can reproduce and item detail that explains the change. Start with a small, reconciled table, then use it to decide what needs investigation before building the presentation.
Download the weekly sales worksheet (.xlsx). It includes a blank review template and a completed synthetic example. Enter three mutually exclusive groups covering your full scope: two priority groups and all remaining items. Formulas calculate changes and reconcile the detail to independently entered source totals.
TrueShelf provides this working template; Walmart does not require it. The numbers below are invented for the example. They contain no customer results or Walmart exports.
First, establish a comparable week
Record exact start and end dates for both periods. Use the Walmart fiscal calendar to look up reporting weeks. Do not assume a calendar month is interchangeable with a 4-5-4 reporting period. Walmart’s financial fiscal year ends January 31, while comparable-sales reporting uses its retail calendar.
Confirm four conditions before calculating a change:
- Both periods are complete and cover the intended number of days.
- Both amounts use the same unit and treatment of returns.
- Item, store, and channel scope is consistent, or the difference is explicit.
- You know the source and refresh time of each input.
If a prior period was revised, preserve the extract used in the earlier report and explain the restatement. Otherwise, readers may mistake a revision to the prior week for a change in the current week.
Worked example: sales fall 5%, but the items move differently
The synthetic example compares two complete seven-day periods for the same stores and channel. Sales are measured in USD after returns.
| Item | Prior week | Current week | Dollar change | Percent change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | $10,000 | $8,000 | −$2,000 | −20.0% |
| B | $6,000 | $6,500 | +$500 | +8.3% |
| C | $4,000 | $4,500 | +$500 | +12.5% |
| Total | $20,000 | $19,000 | −$1,000 | −5.0% |
The total change is $19,000 − $20,000 = −$1,000. Divide by the prior total of $20,000 to get −5.0%. Do not average the three item growth rates to calculate total growth; their starting amounts differ.
Item A lost $2,000, while B and C together gained $1,000. Their changes reconcile to the $1,000 net decline. Investigate A first, while preserving the offsetting gains in the explanation.
Describing A as 200% of the net decline is mathematically possible but easy to misunderstand. A clearer headline is:
Total sales fell $1,000 (5%). Item A fell $2,000, partly offset by $1,000 of combined growth in B and C.
Reconcile before interpreting
Enter independently obtained source totals in the worksheet. Detail minus source should be zero before using the result.
If the current source total is $19,500 but your detail sums to $19,000, the unexplained difference is $500. Do not spread it across items or change a control total to make the report balance. Check omitted rows, duplicate keys, filters, returns, and extract versions.
Totals stay blank until all three groups have numeric inputs for both periods. Enter zero only when the amount is zero. When the prior amount is zero, percentage growth stays blank because division by zero is undefined; describe the dollar change.
Turn the concentration into an investigation
The sales table identifies where change occurred. It does not establish why. For Item A, check the same item-store set against dated inventory observations, changes in store membership, price, returns, promotions, and channel mix where available. Also check for missing days or stale extracts.
An end-of-week inventory balance cannot establish how often shelves were empty throughout the week. Match observation timing before inferring an availability problem. Avoid adding daily inventory balances as though they were weekly sales.
A useful request is: “Return Item A’s store-level sales changes for both weeks, with aligned inventory dates and stores entering or leaving scope.”
Write the decision in four lines
| Part | What the recipient needs |
|---|---|
| Observation | Total sales fell $1,000. Item A fell $2,000; other items offset $1,000. |
| Unknown | Whether demand, price, returns, distribution, availability, or a source issue explains Item A. |
| Next action | Reconcile Item A at store level, then compare inventory dates and store membership in the same scope. |
| Owner and due date | Name the person obtaining the detail and the date the account team will decide whether to act. |
The template has space for these four lines. Fill in the owner and deadline for your team before sharing it.
Before the meeting
Check the date ranges, refreshes, definitions, and reconciliation. Make sure the recipient can find the supporting rows. State hypotheses as hypotheses and identify what evidence would change the decision.
For a Scintilla report request, use the Scintilla supplier guide. For deeper item-store analysis, see how suppliers can analyze Walmart POS data.
Match a report’s store-number column with the Walmart store lookup and map to inspect addresses and recorded directory status.
Sources
- Walmart 2026 Form 10-K — Walmart Inc.