# The number most teams report is not the number that decides

> Five free tools for the decisions that move a retail P&L: an ecommerce budget builder, a KPI framework, stock and availability intelligence, promotion economics and media efficiency. Each returns a decision, an owner and the money behind it. No form.

Source: https://barkingcat.ai/toolkit/

## The Commercial Toolkit

Five tools for the decisions that move a retail P&L. Each takes the data you already have and returns a decision, an owner and the money behind it. Free to download, no form.

## How to use them

## Give away the calculation. Keep the judgement.

Read in order, the five follow the commercial year: plan it, watch it, stock it, promote it, fund it. Each one can be used on its own.

All five work the same way. Every line carries money. Every finding answers What? So what? Now what?, and names the person who owns the decision. Checks say FAIL rather than producing a confident answer from bad data. Estimates are labelled as estimates, and each tool says plainly what it does not do. The sample figures belong to a fictional retailer.

The workbook recommends; the business decides.

ExcelWeekly

## Plan the year

## The Ecommerce Budget Builder

What should we plan to sell, and what will it cost?

### The problem

Last year plus a growth rate.

### What the tool does

Builds the plan week by week from traffic, conversion, basket and returns, with every cost and the gap to target.

[Read the guide](https://barkingcat.ai/thinking/ecommerce-budget-builder/) [Download the workbook](https://barkingcat.ai/assets/barking-cat-ecommerce-budget-builder.xlsx)

Excel49 KPIs

## Watch it

## The Ecommerce KPI Framework

Are we measuring the right things, and who acts when they move?

### The problem

Forty metrics on a dashboard, and nobody owns most of them.

### What the tool does

Keeps only the metrics that drive a decision, each with an owner, a threshold and an action.

[Read the guide](https://barkingcat.ai/thinking/ecommerce-kpi-framework/) [Download the workbook](https://barkingcat.ai/assets/barking-cat-ecommerce-kpi-framework.xlsx)

ExcelSize level

## Stock it

## Availability and Stock Intelligence

Is the stock we hold a decision, or a report?

### The problem

Stock reports count units, not what customers can buy.

### What the tool does

Shows availability by size, and ranks every line by lost sales, markdown and cash.

[Read the guide](https://barkingcat.ai/thinking/availability-and-stock-intelligence/) [Download the workbook](https://barkingcat.ai/assets/barking-cat-availability-and-stock-intelligence.xlsx)

ExcelPlan and review

## Promote it

## Promotion Economics

Will the discount pay, and afterwards, did it make money or merely move it?

### The problem

Every function claims the promotion’s sales.

### What the tool does

Tests whether a discount can pay before the event, and whether it made money after.

[Read the guide](https://barkingcat.ai/thinking/promotion-economics/) [Download the workbook](https://barkingcat.ai/assets/barking-cat-promotion-economics.xlsx)

ExcelCampaign level

## Fund it

## Contribution and Media Efficiency

Does the last pound of media pay?

### The problem

ROAS credits campaigns with sales they did not cause.

### What the tool does

Judges each campaign on the contribution it caused, and on what the last pound earns.

[Read the guide](https://barkingcat.ai/thinking/contribution-and-media-efficiency/) [Download the workbook](https://barkingcat.ai/assets/barking-cat-contribution-and-media-efficiency.xlsx)

## Before the numbers

## Three self-assessments

The toolkit works on your data. The [self-assessments](https://barkingcat.ai/self-assessment/) work on your judgement: thirty-six readiness checks, twenty-one AI checks and a pre-peak checklist, each answered in your browser and kept there.

## Or have it read

The tools do the arithmetic. Deciding what to do about it, in your business, with your team, is [the work Barking Cat does](https://barkingcat.ai/counsel-and-projects/).

## Contact

steve@barkingcat.ai

Barking Cat Advisory Limited. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17338003.