Generate the COS % audit report

This process generates the period COS % Audit Report in Sage Intacct for a Rackson entity, exports it to Excel, and isolates the stores whose cost of sales percentage moved outside the expected range. The report highlights outlier stores automatically, and the workbook is then filtered and sorted so those stores rise to the top for review.

Source: Prelim Reports - % COS Audit Report Process Doc - RRS & RCY.docx, with the accompanying recording Prelim Reports - % COS Audit Report - RRS & RCY.mp4 (4m 19s).

Systems: Sage Intacct · Microsoft Excel · SharePoint (Rackson Group Documents)

Before you start

Access to Sage Intacct for the Rackson top-level entity, with the ability to select the RRS and RCY entities.
Access to the Rackson Group document library in SharePoint — specifically the entity's 2026 > Period Close > P0X > Financials > Prelims folder.
Know the correct period end date before you start. The report prompts for an As of date and defaults to today's date, so this must be changed.
Two separate report definitions exist, one per entity: COS % Audit Report - RRS and COS % Audit Report - RCY. This walkthrough covers RRS — run the same steps a second time for RCY using its own report and its own Prelims folder.

Run this only after the ending inventory workpaper has been posted. The report's current period COS % will not be accurate until the inventory adjustment is in the GL. See Inventory review.

Steps

Open Financial Reports in Sage Intacct

From the Rackson top-level entity, go to Applications → General Ledger → Financial Reports.

Sage Intacct financial reports list under general ledger — The Financial Reports list in Sage Intacct General Ledger

Filter the report list

In the Name column filter, type %COS and press Enter. This narrows the list to the two COS % Audit Report definitions — one for RCY and one for RRS.

Report list filtered to the two COS percent audit report definitions — Name filter narrowed to the two COS % Audit Report entries

Process and store the report for the entity

Click Process & store on the row for the entity you are running (RRS in this example). When prompted, clear the default As of date — which is today's date — and enter the actual period end date instead. Click OK.

The As of date field defaults to today's date rather than the period end date. Always overwrite it with the correct period end date before clicking OK, or the report will pull the wrong period.

As of date prompt with the default date being replaced — The As of date prompt, showing the default date being replaced with the period end date

Review the report on screen

The report opens showing, for every store: current and prior period Sales, COS $, COS %, the basis point change in COS % (BPS Chg), and current and prior period Inventory.

Stores whose BPS Chg falls outside the normal range are automatically shaded pink.

The pink shading is a built-in conditional format keyed to the BPS Chg column, flagging any change of positive 3.0% or greater, or negative 3.0% or less.

COS percent audit report with pink shaded outlier stores — The COS % Audit Report for RRS, with two stores already shaded pink for an out-of-range BPS change

Export the report to Excel

Click Excel in the report toolbar. The exported file carries the report title, the As of date, and the full store-level detail.

Exported COS audit report open in Excel with pink shading preserved — The report opened in Excel after export, showing the same store-level detail and pink shaded outliers

Filter the BPS Chg column by colour

With the workbook open, turn on AutoFilter, click the filter arrow on the BPS Chg column, choose Filter by Color, and select the pink cell colour. This limits the visible rows to only the stores flagged as outliers.

Excel filter by color menu applied to the BPS change column — Filtering the BPS Chg column by cell colour to isolate the flagged stores

Sort the flagged stores to the top

Use Sort by Color on the same column so the pink shaded rows sit at the top of the report, above the remaining stores. This keeps the full store list intact while making the outliers easy to scan and discuss.

Workbook sorted with outlier stores grouped at the top — The workbook after sorting, with all outlier stores grouped at the top

Save the workbook to the entity's Prelims folder

Choose Save As and browse to:

Rackson Group Documents → [entity folder] → 2026
  → Period Close → [current period] → Financials → Prelims

Name the file in the established format — for example RRS P6 2026 COS % Audit Report.xlsx — matching the naming used for the prior period's file in the same folder.

Prelims folder showing the prior period COS audit report file — The entity's Prelims folder, showing the prior period's file used as the naming reference

Repeat for the second entity

Return to the Financial Reports list and repeat steps 3 through 8 using the COS % Audit Report - RCY definition, saving the resulting workbook into the Rackson Cayenne entity's own Prelims folder with the matching RCY file name.

Summary

Pull the period COS % Audit Report for each Rackson entity from Sage Intacct, use the report's built-in outlier shading together with Excel's colour filter and sort to surface the stores with the largest cost of sales swings, and file the finished workbook in the correct Period Close folder for review.

What to do with the flagged stores — the investigation thresholds, the expected-outlier cases (fire, flood, remodel), and the reconciliation back to the corp prelim — is covered on RRS prelims and RCY prelims.

The report's own conditional format flags at ±3.0%, while the workpaper review guidance flags 300–400 basis points for investigation. The shading is the first pass; the wider band is the reviewer's judgment threshold.

RRS prelims — the ~145-store BK review and the food supplier invoice count cross-reference
RCY prelims — the DHC review
Inventory review — the upstream dependency

Before you start

Steps

Summary

Related