Part 4 — Report Details · Chapter 4.8

Site Retention

This chapter explains the Site Retention report. The rules every report shares are in chapter 4.1.

What it shows

Of the sites that had work in a year, the share that had work again the next year. A figure of 34.6% for 2024 means about one site in three that you worked at in 2024 came back in 2025.

Use it for recurring work, such as yearly inspections or operating permits. A site that stops coming back is a lost renewal.

Where the data comes from

Your work orders: each one’s site and the date it was made.

What you need to do to make it work

The report needs nothing in Reports > Setup. It does need your work orders kept a certain way:

  1. Run recurring work under its own project, such as Inspections or Operating Permits. Then tick that project in Projects. Mixed in with one-off repairs, every repair site that never calls back looks like a lost renewal.
  2. Put a site on every work order. A work order with no site does not count.
  3. Use one site record per place. If the same building is two site records, this year’s work and last year’s work never meet, and the site looks lost. Chapter 2.4 shows how to fold a duplicate into the real one.

How it is worked out

  1. For each year, BigWave lists the sites with at least one work order that year.
  2. It checks which of those sites had at least one work order the next year.
  3. The figure is the second number as a share of the first.

The report counts sites, not customers. A customer with ten sites counts ten times.

Which years have a figure

A year has a figure only once the next year has started. The latest year reads, for example, 2025 (2026 so far). Its figure can still rise until the next year ends, as more sites come back.

What counts

  • A work order with no site does not count.
  • A cancelled or deleted work order does not count.
  • A site that skips a year counts as lost for the year before the gap. It counts again in the year it comes back.
  • Projects matters a lot here. With All projects, every kind of work counts, and a one-off repair looks like a lost site. Tick the project your recurring work runs under. The page reminds you of this.

Which date puts it in a year

The day the work order was made, on your company’s calendar.

Options

  • Year From and Year To pick the years. The report always compares whole years, so it has no Show For.
  • The report has no Group By.

Checking a figure

Press Chart Data, then View records on a year. The grid lists each site with work that year:

  • Site and Customer
  • Work orders in the year, and Work orders in the next year
  • Came back: “returned” or “did not return”

The sites that did not return come first. They are the ones to follow up.