Run your first bridge
From a sales export to a bridge you can defend, in about five minutes. To follow along without a file, open the tool with sample data.
1. Check your file
Use one row per sales line, or per group of lines. A summarized export works as well as invoice detail, as long as it has these columns:
Numbers written like 12,50 or 1.234,56, with or without a leading minus sign, are read with the comma as the decimal mark when every value in the column is written that way; the Data check tab says when this happened.
| Column | Needed | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Period or date | Yes | A label such as 2026 or YTD Aug 2026, or a date. With a date you can compare by year, year to date, quarter or month. |
| Units | Yes | The quantity sold, such as pieces or cases. The tool divides sales by this count to calculate average price. |
| Sales | Yes | Net sales is the usual choice. |
| Gross sales | No | Sales before discounts. Adding it splits price into list price and discounts. |
| Cost | No | Adding it turns the bridge into a margin bridge, with price and unit cost shown separately. |
| Product attributes | At least one | Product, or the attributes that define it: model, finish, color and material. |
| Customer, region, channel | No | Use them as attributes or as filters. |
CSV and Excel (.xlsx, first sheet) files are accepted. The file is read in your browser and is not uploaded. To see the layout, download a small sample file of made-up sales.
2. Load and set up
- Drop the file on the tool, or use Choose file. You can also copy a range of cells in Excel, header row included, and paste it into the tool.
- Under Periods, pick the period column and the two periods to compare.
- Under Measures, pick units and sales. The tool guesses these from the column names; check them.
- Under Attributes, add the columns that define the product, most important first. To treat two columns as one attribute, use + combine. If the tool finds columns that roll up into each other, such as product, family and category, it offers to add them in order.
- Choose Calculate bridge.
The tool remembers your column choices, attribute order and options in this browser, so the next file with the same columns opens with the same setup. Filter selections and your data are never stored. To stop this, untick Remember this setup in this browser, which also deletes what was stored. To move a setup to another computer or share it, choose Save setup to file.
3. Read the bridge
- Volume: the change in units at last period’s overall average price.
- Mix, one line per attribute: the effect of selling a different blend.
- Price, or list price and discounts: measured only on configurations that sold in both periods.
- New and discontinued configurations: see the method page for the two ways to show them.
- Sales with no units: rebates, credits and fees. This line appears only if your file has such rows.
Below the chart, the match table shows how much of current sales was compared against an exact prior configuration. That share is how much evidence the price number rests on.
4. Find what is behind a bar
Click any bar to open Movers, sorted by that effect. Click a row to break it down by the next attribute. Each row’s effects add up to that row’s own change in sales, so any subtotal can be checked by hand.
The Accounts tab answers a different question: how much of the change came from new customers, lost customers, and existing ones buying more or less. Pick any column as the account.
5. See how widely price moved
Price changes groups matched sales by how much their average price moved. Use it to answer “how much of the book actually got the increase?”
Under the bands, Did the increase stick? takes the increase you planned and shows the realized change against it for each group.
6. Find who pays less for the same thing
Add customer as the last attribute and open Price gaps. Each customer’s price is compared with the average for the same product. The list shows the largest gaps and what they are worth. Gaps often have good reasons, such as volume tiers, so treat it as a list of places to look.
7. Test your choice of attributes
Setup check reruns the bridge with each attribute left out.
- If leaving an attribute out moves price a lot, that attribute carries real mix. Keep it.
- If it barely moves price and raises the match rate, the attribute is adding noise. Consider dropping it.
8. Look across more than two periods
With a date column, compare by quarter or month and open Trend. It runs one bridge for each pair of consecutive periods, so you can see when a price change landed.
9. Take it with you
- Export Excel writes the bridge, coverage, movers and a detail sheet with live formulas.
- In a CSV export, a name that begins with =, +, - or @ is written with a leading apostrophe, so a spreadsheet reads it as text.
- Download PNG saves the chart for a slide.
- Download report saves one HTML file with the chart, bridge, summary and top movers. It holds totals and a written summary, names the file, the setup, its filter values and the top movers, and holds no rows.
- Copy on the summary and on each table puts it on the clipboard, ready to paste.
- Your browser’s print command gives a clean page of whichever tab is open.
Common questions when setting up
- What order should the attributes go in?
- Put the attribute that most defines the product first. Customer usually goes last, so product mix is read before customer mix.
- The match rate is low. What now?
- Open Unmatched to see which configurations are new, then use Setup check to find the attribute that costs the most matches.
- Should returns be in the file?
- They can be. Rows with units are netted within their configuration. Rows with no units are shown on their own line. The Data check tab counts both.