Dry cleaning and alterations reporting: see the whole business, not just sales
A busy counter tells you people are coming through the door. It does not tell you whether the alterations bench is keeping up, whether cleaning turnaround times are slipping, or whether the roster makes sense for the work ahead.
For us, that is what dry cleaning and alterations reporting needs to do. Not simply total yesterday's takings, but help us see right through the business and make better decisions today.
We run a multi-site garment-care operation with both dry cleaning and alterations. Garmenly grew out of that experience: real orders, real wages and real customers expecting their garments back when promised.
We had reports. We still did not have the visibility we needed.
Before building Garmenly, we used other systems, including SMRT and Geelus. Both helped shape our understanding of what we needed from a point-of-sale system, particularly once we wanted to look beyond a headline sales figure.
In our experience using SMRT at the time, reporting felt clunky. For the way we ran alterations, it was not a suitable fit. When we needed something outside the core reports, we found ourselves needing assistance from the company to produce it.
We also used Geelus and found it very simple to use. That simplicity was a positive, but in our setup it did not give us the depth we needed to analyse multiple KPIs together across the business.
These are our experiences with the configurations and versions we used, not a claim that either product has no reporting capability or cannot meet another operator's needs today. Our issue was fit: we needed reporting that reflected both sides of our business and helped us act without repeatedly asking someone else to assemble the picture.
Why one sales total is not enough
Imagine two days with the same sales total. On one, most of the work is routine cleaning. On the other, a much larger share is alterations with different skill requirements and completion times.
The top-line number looks the same. The demands on the team do not.
That is why our dry cleaning and alterations reporting separates the service streams, then connects sales with turnaround times, customer spend, productivity and the workload ahead. A strong trading day matters, but so does knowing whether we have the right people available to deliver it.
Across multiple locations, that distinction becomes even more useful. A healthy business-wide total can hide a local bottleneck. We want to understand where work is building up, not discover it when a customer arrives to collect something that is not ready.
The daily KPI email that gives us a clearer picture
With Garmenly, our daily KPI reports arrive by email. Instead of treating reporting as a separate task we might get to after closing, we have a regular view of the numbers that matter to running the operation.
The reports bring together:
| Reporting area | What we look for | The decision it supports |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | How the business is trading | Where to investigate changes in performance |
| Alterations and cleaning breakdown | Which service stream is driving sales | Whether the staffing mix reflects demand |
| Average turnaround times | How long work is taking | Where capacity or workflow needs attention |
| Customer spend | Changes in what customers spend | Whether sales growth is coming with stronger customer value |
| Alterations and cleaning productivity | Output in each part of the operation | Where to review workload, process and staffing |
| Detailed forecasting | The expected work ahead | How to plan capacity before pressure builds |
The value is not that there are more numbers. It is that we can read them together.
If sales look healthy but turnaround times are lengthening, we know there is more to investigate. If productivity changes, we can look at the service mix and the work involved before deciding whether the answer is staffing, scheduling or a process change.
Alterations productivity is not the same as cleaning productivity
A simple garment count does not explain every workload. Shortening a straightforward hem and completing a complex garment adjustment are not interchangeable tasks, even if both finish as one completed item.
Cleaning has its own workflow and capacity constraints. Combining everything into a single productivity figure can make the total easy to read while making the operation harder to understand.
We use Garmenly to look at alterations and cleaning productivity separately. That gives us a more useful starting point for asking what is happening and where support is needed.
It is not about turning a report into a staff league table. We interpret productivity alongside job complexity, quality, rework and the mix of work being completed. The aim is to identify the constraint, not jump to a conclusion about the person doing the work.
Forecasting lets us adjust the roster before the problem reaches the counter
Historical reporting answers, "What happened?" Forecasting helps us ask, "What do we need to be ready for?"
With detailed forecasting in Garmenly, we can review the expected workload and tweak rosters as conditions change. We are looking to balance two things: meeting customer expectations and keeping labour aligned with our wage-ratio targets.
For example, if the coming workload puts more pressure on alterations than cleaning, a total headcount is not enough. We need the right skills available in the right part of the operation.
Equally, if demand looks lighter, we can review planned coverage rather than automatically repeating the previous week's roster. These are planning decisions informed by the numbers, not a promise that software can guarantee a margin or remove the need for judgement.
Any roster changes still need to follow the applicable award or agreement, notice requirements and consultation obligations. The Fair Work Ombudsman's rostering guidance explains the requirements around discussing changes to regular rosters and ordinary hours.
Wage ratio and customer service belong in the same conversation
We do not want to hit a wage target by leaving the team unable to finish the work. We also do not want to carry a roster that no longer reflects the workload.
A useful wage ratio compares labour cost with revenue for the same period and scope. For example, a store-level calculation should use that store's labour and revenue, with a consistent approach to on-costs, GST and which revenue measure is being used.
The calculation can be expressed simply:
Wage ratio (%) = labour cost ÷ revenue × 100
Consistency matters more than making one day's percentage look attractive. Cash collected today may relate to work completed earlier, so the basis of the comparison needs to be understood.
We use reporting and forecasting to work towards our wage-ratio targets while protecting the service customers expect. If a delay becomes likely, earlier visibility also gives us time to respond and communicate rather than leave the customer to discover the problem at collection.
That sits alongside the automated customer messaging we covered in our first blog. Better visibility helps us decide what needs attention; a consistent communication process helps us keep customers informed.
What to ask when choosing dry cleaning or alterations POS reporting
Our advice is to test reporting against a normal week in your own business, not just a polished demonstration. Ask the provider to show you how the system answers the questions you actually use to make decisions.
- Service breakdown: Can you see alterations and cleaning separately, rather than relying on one sales total?
- Turnaround: Can you understand how long work is taking and identify where to investigate?
- Customer spend: Can you look beyond transaction volume to the value of customer activity?
- Productivity: Can you review the different parts of the operation without treating every job as identical?
- Multi-site visibility: Can you understand individual locations as well as the overall business?
- Forecasting: Can you use the expected workload to inform staffing decisions?
- Access to answers: Can you get the reporting you need routinely, or does every new question become a support request?
The right report should lead to a useful action. If it cannot help you decide what to investigate, what to change or what to leave alone, it may be adding information without adding clarity.
Better reporting should change tomorrow, not just describe yesterday
For our operation, the biggest improvement is being able to connect the numbers. Sales, service mix, customer spend, turnaround times, productivity and forecasting are no longer separate conversations.
They help us understand where the business is performing, where work needs attention and how to plan the team around customer commitments. That is the kind of visibility we wanted when we built Garmenly.
Garmenly is POS software for dry cleaning and alterations. Your silent business partner, helping you see what is happening and what needs attention next.
Book a Garmenly demo and bring the reporting questions your current system makes difficult. We will walk through how Garmenly approaches them using the kind of workflow you run.
Common reporting questions
Which KPIs should a dry cleaning and alterations business track?
Start with sales, the split between cleaning and alterations, average turnaround times, customer spend, productivity in each service stream and the expected workload. Review these together with labour costs and wage-ratio targets, rather than treating any single number as the full picture.
Can Garmenly email daily KPI reports?
Yes. In our operation, Garmenly emails daily KPI reports covering sales, the alterations and cleaning breakdown, average turnaround times, customer spend, productivity and detailed forecasting.
How can reporting help with rostering?
Reporting shows how the operation is performing, while forecasting helps you review the work ahead. Together they can inform the staffing level and skill mix needed to meet customer expectations while working towards wage-ratio targets, subject to the employment rules that apply.
Why report on alterations separately from cleaning?
The work has different skills, processes and time requirements. Separating the reporting makes it easier to understand the service mix and investigate workload or productivity changes without assuming that every completed garment represents the same amount of work.