What Each Status and Cost Does in the Profit Rules

The profit rules table has one row per payment status of an order and one column per kind of cost. This guide explains what each row and each column does to your numbers, with an example.

Where

In the sidebar: Store settings > Profit Rules

Who

Anyone deciding whether to change a rule

What Each Status Row Does#

For every row: switched off, its orders disappear from your reports with their revenue, their costs and their refunds. Switched on, their revenue counts and the ticked costs are deducted.

Paid. The payment was captured. Default: on, all six costs. This row cannot be switched off. Orders that are partly paid follow this row too. Untick a cost here only if it should never be deducted from your profit.

Authorized. The customer's payment is approved but not captured yet. Default: on, no costs. With the default, an authorized order of $100.00 adds $100.00 to revenue and $100.00 to profit, because none of its costs are deducted yet. Tick the costs if you ship authorized orders before you capture the payment. Switch the row off if an order should only count once it is paid.

Pending. The payment is still open, for example a bank transfer, a manual payment or cash on delivery. Default: on, no costs. It behaves like Authorized. Tick the costs if you ship before the money arrives, which is the normal case for cash on delivery. Switch the row off if many pending orders are never paid.

Partial refund. Part of the order was refunded. Default: on, all six costs. The order's revenue counts and the refund is deducted in Returns & Refunds, so only the kept part remains. Costs are counted per item. A returned item keeps its cost unless Deduct returned COGS is on. Leave this row as it is unless you have a clear reason.

Refunded. The whole order was refunded. Default: on, all costs except Tax. The revenue and the refund cancel each other out, and the costs you still paid (product, shipping, fees) remain as a loss. Example: an order of $90.00 without tax and with $39.90 of costs is fully refunded. Row on: it lowers profit by $39.90. Row off: the order, its refund and its costs are all left out and it changes nothing. Keep the row on if you want returns to show what they cost you. Tax is unticked by default: the tax collected on fully refunded orders is then not counted in the Tax row. Ticked, it is counted.

Deduct returned COGS. Default: off. Off: refunded items keep their full product cost. On: the product cost of refunded items that go back into stock is credited, for full and partial refunds. Costs paid to a supplier through an integration, such as AliExpress or DSers, are never credited. The box is locked while neither Partial refund nor Refunded has COGS ticked. Turn it on if returned goods go back on your shelf and are sold again. See COGS Restocked Explained.

What Each Cost Column Does#

A ticked box deducts the cost for orders with that status. An unticked box leaves the cost out, as if it were $0.00, on the dashboard and in the profit of each order in the Orders list.

Ad spend, app costs and operating expenses are not costs of a single order. The profit rules do not change them.

Worked Example#

One day has two orders. Profit here means revenue minus the six order costs, before ad spend and expenses.

Order A always counts in full: $100.00 − $35.00 − $5.00 − $2.00 − $3.20 − $8.00 = $46.80.

With the default, the pending order looks very profitable because none of its costs are counted yet. If order B was already shipped, the second line is the honest number.

Limits#

• The five statuses are fixed. You cannot add a status or split one, for example by payment method or by fulfillment.
• The rules do not change ad spend, app costs or operating expenses.