Bookings, Billings, and Backlog (BBB)

Bookings, billings, and backlog (BBB) information is fundamental for any organization that manufactures and ships products.

BBB reflects the pulse of the business and enables the business to plan and react to current market events.

BBB is an acronym for "Bookings, Billings, Backlog". BBB usually also includes two additional components "Cancellations and Returns", which is how it is implemented in the ADRM Software BBB Business Area Model.

• BOOKINGS are field sales reports of anticipated sales that must be planned for and also provides management with anticipated.
• Bookings information enables you to count new orders in the current period, identify which products are performing best and poorest and monitor trends.
• BILLINGS represent actual sales that have been made and have been invoiced to customers. Billings usually translate directly into revenue.
• BACKLOG represents products sold to customers that cannot be invoiced because the product is not available in inventory or for delivery to the customer.
• Backlog data enables you to identify problems in terms of orders that have been received but not shipped.
• Changes in backlog are the first indication that the business is changing in some way and require immediate analysis and action.
• If the backlog is rising then the business is growing. If the backlog is falling there are market, sales, manufacturing or supply issues causing the business to slow that need to be identified and addressed.
• CANCELLATIONS represent the cancellation of an order after it has been booked and billed. This represents the most serious condition of all to a business in that real revenue has been lost after the sales work had been done.
• RETURNS represents the return of product by the customer after it has been billed and delivered. The reason for returns is of critical importance to the business.

BBB data is used to form an accurate picture of the direction in which the business is heading.

BBB can answer critical questions:

• Which products produce the most revenue?
• How do current period BBB compare against past periods?
• Is backlog sufficient to meet sales and revenue targets?
• Are customer orders meeting promised delivery dates?

BBB data can be difficult to integrate since it may come from one or more sources, formats and may contain nonintegrated data.

BBB reinforces the need for an overall data architecture in which products, product hierarchies, channels, orders etc. are consistently defined and implemented.

BBB is related to every core part of the business - sales, marketing, inventory, financial reporting and profitability.

The BBB models can be seamlessly integrated with other BA models such as MARKETING, INVENTORY, FINANCIAL REPORTING as well as industry Enterprise and Data Warehouse models.