Add Costs for Deleted Products and Variants

When you delete a product or variant in Shopify, its past orders stay in your history, but no cost can be matched to the item any more. Those orders then count without a product cost, so their profit is too high. This guide shows where deleted items appear and how to give them a cost.

Where

In the sidebar, open Product Costs and turn on Show deleted.

Who

Stores that deleted or re-created products or variants in Shopify that already had orders.

Time

A minute per variant.

Updates

Past orders that used the item are recalculated in the background. Large stores take a few minutes.

Show Deleted Products and Variants#

By default, the Product Costs page lists only what exists in your store today. Show deleted adds the products and variants you deleted in Shopify.

The cost applies to every past order that used the variant, based on each order's date, exactly like a cost of a live variant. In the example, the Merino Wool Blanket shows 1 unsold: the deleted Terracotta variant has no cost yet, but it did not sell in the sales period (No sales).

Find Orders with Deleted Items#

In Orders. A gray trash icon in front of an order line means the product or variant was deleted in your store. Hover it to see which of the two. The red dollar icon next to it means the line has no cost. Click the line to open the cost editor for its product, with the deleted variant already selected.

In Product Costs. Set the status filter to With Sales or With Sales, No Cost. Products with orders of deleted variants then show a badge after their name, for example 5 deleted · 5 missing cost. The badge turns gray and shows only the count once every one of those order lines has a cost. Click the badge to open the cost editor.

Set a Cost in the Cost Editor#

The cost editor (Edit Price Changes) opens on the Costs step and lists deleted variants in their own group at the end.

Continue to Review and click Save & Apply. When you came from an order line and all live variants share one cost, that cost is already filled in for the deleted variant: check it and save.

Relink a Re-Created Variant#

Sometimes a variant is deleted and created again with the same SKU. Then the old orders point to the deleted variant, and the new one already has a cost. Instead of entering the cost twice, you can move the old order lines to the live variant.

Profitario offers this when a deleted variant has exactly the same SKU as a live variant of the same product, and the live variant has a cost:

• Clicking such an order line in Orders first opens Matching live variant found.
• In the cost editor, the deleted variant's row shows a link icon (Relink to the live variant) instead of asking for a cost.

The dialog names both variants, the live variant's cost and how many order lines move. Relink moves them: the live variant's cost, including its price changes, then applies to those orders. Set cost separately keeps them apart, and you enter a cost for the deleted variant instead.

Ghost Rows#

A deleted product or variant that has a cost stays on the Product Costs page with a Ghost badge, even with Show deleted off. Its cost keeps applying to past orders, and you can still change or delete it.

Deleted items without a cost stay hidden until you turn on Show deleted.

Limits#

• The cost template for file imports leaves out deleted products and variants. Enter their costs on the Product Costs page.
• Relinking is only offered for an exact SKU match on the same product. A variant that was moved to another product cannot be relinked.

Common questions