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Rank suppliers and products by return with IRR Analytics

IRR Analytics ranks every supplier and every product by its Internal Rate of Return — the annualized, money-weighted return on the cash you deploy, the way a bond yield or a fund's IRR works. Capital goes out when you pay suppliers, cash comes in as the goods sell, and IRR turns that timeline into one comparable number. It's the purchasing great equalizer: a slow, cheap product and a fast, expensive one land on the same scale.

Before you begin​

  • You need permission to view reports.
  • IRR is computed from your purchase orders and the sales that draw them down, so you need orders that have received stock and sold through. The ranking is most reliable for fully sold-through orders — a complete cash cycle with nothing left to estimate.

Open the report​

  1. Go to Insights → Reports and open IRR Analytics.
  2. The report opens on By Supplier, with the leaderboard ranked by IRR.

Read the leaderboard​

Four tiles across the top summarize your whole book:

  • Capital Deployed — the cash you've put into the ranked orders.
  • Total Profit — what those orders have returned.
  • Blended Multiple — profit-weighted MOIC across the book (money-in ÷ money-out).
  • Top Performer — the best single IRR.

Below the tiles, each row is a supplier ranked by IRR, with its multiple (MOIC), capital, revenue, units sold, percent sold, order month, and hold in days.

Two things to know when you read a row:

  • Growth multiples. An IRR of 1,000%/yr or more is shown as a ×/yr growth multiple (e.g. 10.0×/yr) instead of an unreadable percentage. Returns below that threshold read as an ordinary percentage (e.g. 152%).
  • Sold on terms. A Sold on terms chip means the order sold before you paid the supplier — negative working capital. The cash came in first, so the return is real even though it looks like recovery preceded the outflow. A short tag flags an extreme rate coming from a very short hold, which is kept out of the headline ranking so a few days can't distort the board.

Switch to By Product to re-cut the exact same returns per item instead of per supplier. The math is identical; only the grouping changes.

Prove any rank​

Every rank is auditable. Click the proof icon on a row to open Return proof · cash flows — the actual cash flows behind that supplier or product, month by month: cash out to the supplier, then cash in as the stock sells. Each order shows its active window (first cash movement → last), and orders that sold on terms carry the same Sold on terms chip so the window reads honestly rather than looking backwards. Click any order inside the proof to drill into that single order's full breakdown — the same view described under On a purchase order below.

Realized only vs. the full book​

By default, Realized only (fully sold through) is on, so the board ranks only orders where every unit has sold — the proven return, with nothing estimated. Turn it off to include open positions, which are marked at cost; the totals then swing to reflect stock you haven't sold yet. Leave it on to compare proven results; turn it off to see the whole book, projections included.

Reconciliation events — recounts, not losses​

A bulk stock-take write-off can look like a trading loss even when it's just a recount to match your 3PL. When a supplier or product has material write-offs, its row shows a $… in stock-takes chip. Open the chip to see the split for that row — the return counted as a loss versus the return credited back as a recount — with a link to each underlying stock take.

Tick Exclude reconciliation events to switch the whole board to the recount view at once: write-offs are treated as inventory recounts rather than losses, and their cost is credited back to the return. Capital deployed is unchanged — only how the write-offs are counted changes.

Set a baseline date​

Use Analyze from (default All time) to rank only orders placed on or after a chosen date. Reset the baseline after a big event — a supplier change or a strategy shift — so a new stretch of orders is judged on its own, without older history dragging the numbers.

IRR everywhere: orders and suppliers​

The report is the leaderboard, but the same number is attached to the orders and suppliers it's built from — so you can read a return without leaving what you're doing.

On the purchase orders list​

Open Orders → Purchase Orders. IRR isn't shown by default — open the column picker and switch on IRR % and Sell-through %. Every order then carries:

  • IRR % — that order's annualized return. This column reads as a plain percentage even when it's large; the report's ×/yr growth-multiple shorthand is a report-only convenience, not used here.
  • Sell-through % — how much of the order has sold, so you can weigh how settled the return is.
  • A small dot beside a provisional IRR — an order sold through too lightly for the figure to be trusted yet. It's shown, but flagged so you don't act on a number a couple of early sales produced.

Use the Return filters in Advanced Filters to slice the list — e.g. every order under a target IRR, or everything not yet fully sold.

On a purchase order​

Open any purchase order and switch to its IRR tab. Where the report gives one number per supplier or product, this breaks a single order down:

  • Annualized IRR and the money multiple (MOIC) — return rate and money-in ÷ money-out for this order alone.
  • Tiles for Days held, Sold through, Capital deployed, Profit, and NPV @ hurdle — the profit discounted at your hurdle rate.
  • A Product / Fully-loaded toggle: rank on the plain product cost, or on the fully-loaded cost that also includes freight and duty. Fully-loaded is the truer return; product-only shows the trading margin before landing costs.
  • The units that sold and the cash timeline — the same out-then-in flow the report's proof modal shows, for this one order.

The Sold on terms and short period chips carry over from the report, with short notes explaining each so the number reads honestly.

On a supplier​

Open a supplier and switch to its IRR tab. Up top, four KPI cards show that supplier's Annualized IRR, money multiple, profit, and capital deployed — with days held and percent sold as the subtitle under capital. Below, a Products ranked by IRR table lists every product you buy from them, best return first — the report's By-Product view, scoped to one supplier.

Next steps​

Video transcript

IRR Analytics ranks every supplier and every product by its Internal Rate of Return. That's the annualized, money-weighted return on the cash you deploy — like a fund's IRR. Open Insights, then Reports, and choose IRR Analytics. Four tiles summarize your whole book: capital deployed, total profit, blended multiple, and top performer. Below them, suppliers rank by IRR. Cascade Components leads. Its sold-on-terms tag means the sale landed before you paid the supplier. Switch to By Product to re-cut the same returns per item. The Cascade Stainless Hinge tops the list, ahead of the tent and the linen set. The math is identical — only the grouping changes. Every rank is auditable. Click the proof icon on Cascade's row to open Return proof, cash flows. You see cash out to the supplier, then cash in as it sells, month by month. The order sold on terms, so the cash came in first. By default, IRR Analytics ranks only fully sold-through orders — the proven return. Close the proof, then turn Realized only off. Now open positions appear, marked at cost. The totals swing to reflect stock you haven't sold yet. Bulk stock-take write-offs can look like trading losses. Apex Distribution shows six hundred dollars in stock-takes. Open that chip: counted as a loss, or credited back as a recount. Tick Exclude reconciliation events to switch the whole board to the recount view. IRR follows your orders everywhere. On the purchase orders list, switch on the IRR and Sell-through columns from the column picker. Now every order shows its own return and how much of it has sold. A small dot flags a provisional figure — an order too lightly sold to trust yet. Open a purchase order and its IRR tab breaks that single order down — annualized return, money multiple, days held, and percent sold. Toggle the product cost against the fully-loaded cost with freight and duty. Below sit the units and the cash timeline that produced the number. Each supplier has an IRR tab too — return, multiple, profit, and hold up top, then every product you buy from them, ranked by IRR. It's the same honest number as the report, wherever you happen to be working. It all rolls up in the report, under Insights, Reports. Set a baseline date to judge a fresh stretch of orders on its own. Sort any column to find your best and worst cash. IRR Analytics — the purchasing great equalizer, one honest number per supplier and product.

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