The money panels on your dashboard show what you sold, what you kept and what your stock is worth. This article explains every line of them, and why profit is only right when each product has a cost.
Revenue, profit and cost figures are on Starter and up; on Free you see your order counts and the value of your stock. To see any of them, your role needs the View analytics and reports permission — see Staff roles: what each one can see and do. Choosing the period and grouping the charts is covered in Read your dashboard.
Note
Every money figure on the dashboard leaves tax out, except Tax collected, which shows it on its own. This holds whether your prices include tax or have it added at checkout. Tax is collected for the state, not earned by your store, so it is never counted as sales or profit.
Revenue and profit over time
Revenue & profit over time draws one point for each day, week or month of the period you chose.
| Line | What each point counts |
|---|---|
| Revenue (solid, shaded) | The totals of the orders placed that day — products after discount codes, plus shipping, without tax. Refunds are not taken off. |
| Gross profit (dashed) | That day’s gross profit, worked out exactly as in the financial summary: its net sales, less what the goods its customers kept cost you. Refunds, in full or in part, are taken off. |
- Cancelled and failed orders are left out of both lines.
- Point at the chart to see both figures for that day, week or month.
- Select Revenue or Gross profit in the legend above the chart to hide or show that line.
- The profit line falls when a day’s orders were refunded. It can drop below zero when refunded goods did not come back into stock, because their cost still counts while their sales are taken off.
- A point for a part-week or part-month is drawn fainter, so a short month does not look like a slump.
The two lines add up to the financial summary. Over the period, the dashed points add up to Gross profit exactly, and the revenue points add up to Gross sales − Discounts + Shipping. For Layal’s 30 days that is JOD 1,792.242 − 23.491 + 113.000 = JOD 1,881.751. Net sales is lower than the revenue line by two things only: the shipping it leaves out (JOD 113.000) and the refunds it takes off (JOD 89.655), which brings it to JOD 1,679.096.
The financial summary
The Financial summary at the bottom of the dashboard adds up the orders placed in the period you chose, leaving out cancelled and failed ones. On a wide screen it reads across, three lines to a row. Amounts that come off your sales show a minus sign.
Here is how Layal Boutique’s 30 days add up:
| Line | Layal’s 30 days | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Gross sales | JOD 1,792.242 | Your products’ prices × quantities, without tax |
| Discounts | −JOD 23.491 | Taken off by discount codes, without tax |
| Refunds | −JOD 89.655 | What refunds gave back for the goods, without tax |
| Net sales | JOD 1,679.096 | Gross sales − discounts − refunds |
| Cost of goods | −JOD 763.000 | What the goods your customers kept cost you |
| Gross profit | JOD 916.096 | Net sales − cost of goods |
| Gross margin | 54.6% | Gross profit ÷ net sales |
Shipping (JOD 113.000) is shown for reference and is not in net sales. Tax collected (JOD 282.999) is shown for reference too: it is the only line that holds tax.
Gross sales
What your products sold for: each item’s price times its quantity, before any discount code. It does not include shipping or tax.
It uses the price your storefront charged when the order was placed. A product on sale (its price lowered, with the old one shown as its Compare-at price) is not counted as a discount: the lower price is already its price.
If your prices already include tax (Prices already include tax in your tax settings), the tax inside them is taken out first. Layal’s prices include 16% tax, so a dress priced JOD 58.000 counts as JOD 50.000 of gross sales, and the JOD 8.000 shows under Tax collected. If your prices do not include tax, gross sales is simply your prices, because the tax was added on top at checkout.
Discounts
The money taken off orders by discount codes, shown as a minus. When your prices include tax, the tax inside the discount is left out too, so gross sales less discounts is exactly what the goods sold for without tax.
- A free-shipping code does not show here. It makes that order’s shipping zero, so it lowers the Shipping line instead.
- Gift cards and loyalty points are not discounts. They are ways of paying, so an order paid partly by gift card still counts in full.
Shipping
What customers paid you for shipping on these orders, without its tax. Orders that shipped free add nothing. Shipping is not part of gross sales or net sales; it is part of the Revenue line on the chart and of the average order value.
The tax on shipping only comes into it when Charge tax on shipping is on. Then that tax is left out of this line and counted under Tax collected.
Tax collected
The tax charged on these orders, at the rate your store had when each order was placed. When your prices include tax, it is the part of each price that is tax; when they do not, it is the tax added on top at checkout. It includes tax on shipping when Charge tax on shipping is on.
Tax is shown only here. Every other line, the Revenue line and the average order value leave it out. How your rate is set is in Set tax, payment methods and guest checkout.
Refunds
What your refunds gave back for the goods on the orders placed in the period, without tax, shown as a minus. It covers refunds through your payment provider and cash refunds you record on cash-on-delivery orders.
- A part refund takes off only what it gave back. Refund one dress from an order of three, and only that dress’s share comes off.
- Gift card balance and points count too. When a refund gives some of the order back on a gift card or as loyalty points, that share is in the figure with the money.
- Refunded delivery is never taken off. Net sales leaves shipping out, so a refund of the delivery fee does not lower it. A fully refunded order adds nothing to net sales.
- An order with the status Refunded counts as refunded in full, however it reached that status.
- An order paid entirely by gift card and points counts the items you gave back on it.
Note
A refund counts against the period the order was placed in, not the day you refunded it. Refunding a September order in October lowers September’s figures, and leaves October’s as they were.
How to refund is in Refund an order in full or in part and How do I refund a cash on delivery order?.
Net sales and average order value
Net sales is gross sales, less discounts and refunds — what your products brought in after everything you gave back, without tax or shipping. It is the first of the five headline figures on the dashboard, in bold in the summary. For Layal: JOD 1,792.242 − 23.491 − 89.655 = JOD 1,679.096.
Average order value, the fourth headline figure, is what one order brought in on average: the orders’ totals — products after discounts, plus shipping, without tax — divided by the number of orders. Refunds are not taken off it. Cancelled and failed orders are not counted in either the totals or the number of orders. Layal’s 33 orders brought in JOD 1,881.751, an average of JOD 57.023: 1,881.751 ÷ 33 is 57.0228, rounded to the dinar’s three decimal places.
Cost of goods
What the goods your customers kept cost you: each item’s Cost per item, times the quantity sold, shown as a minus. The cost used is the one the product had when the order was placed. An item that had no cost counts as zero — see Why profit needs each product’s cost price.
A unit that came back and was put back into stock — from a return marked received, or a parcel returned to sender — is not counted. It is stock you can sell again, not a cost of the sale. A unit you refunded without getting it back still counts, because you no longer have it.
Gross profit and gross margin
Gross profit is net sales less cost of goods: what your products earned you after discount codes, refunds and what the goods cost you. It is shown in green, and holds no tax. For Layal: JOD 1,679.096 − 763.000 = JOD 916.096.
Gross margin is gross profit as a share of net sales, to one decimal place. Layal’s JOD 916.096 of profit on JOD 1,679.096 of net sales is a margin of 54.6%. When net sales is zero or below, the margin shows 0%.
Why profit needs each product’s cost price
NoqtaShop can only work out profit from a cost you give it. You enter it as Cost per item — on a product’s pricing, or on each variant when a product comes in sizes or colours. Customers never see it. See Set a product’s price, cost and stock and Edit variants: prices, stock and photos.
When an item has no cost:
- It counts as costing nothing, so its whole price shows up as Gross profit.
- Gross margin reads higher than your real margin.
- In Inventory value, its stock adds nothing to Cost value, so Potential profit is overstated too.
Each order keeps the cost the product had at the moment it was placed. Adding or changing a cost today corrects Inventory value straight away, and every order placed from now on. Orders already placed keep the cost they were placed with — zero, if there was none — so earlier periods do not change.
Tip
Enter the cost when you add a product, before its first sale. A margin worked out without costs looks healthy and is wrong, and the orders it covers cannot be corrected afterwards.
Inventory value: at retail, at cost, and its potential profit
Inventory value is your stock as it is right now. The period chips do not change it.
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Retail value | Each item in stock × its price — what your stock would bring in if it all sold at today’s prices. |
| Cost value | Each item in stock × its Cost per item — what you paid for the stock you hold. |
| Potential profit | Retail value − cost value. Shown in green. |
| Units on hand | The number of items in stock. |
Below them is a list of up to six products with the most money tied up in them at cost — their stock times their cost — largest first. Use it to see where your cash is sitting.
Only products with Track inventory turned on count, whatever their status. A product you sell without tracking its stock has no stock figure, so it adds nothing here. See Adjust stock and see its history.
On the Free plan: order counts stay, revenue and profit are locked
Revenue, profit and cost figures are on Starter and up. On Free, the dashboard keeps everything that counts orders and stock, and shows On a higher plan with a padlock where a money figure would be.
| Panel | On Free |
|---|---|
| Orders, New customers | Shown |
| Net sales, Gross profit, Average order value | On a higher plan |
| Revenue & profit over time | Locked, with Revenue, cost and profit figures are part of the Starter plan and above. Your order counts are included in every plan. and See plans |
| Orders over time, Order status breakdown, Top products by units | Shown |
| Inventory value | Retail value and Units on hand shown; Cost value shows On a higher plan; Potential profit and the product list are hidden |
| Financial summary | Locked, with the same message and See plans |
Point at any On a higher plan chip to read the same sentence, which names Starter as the plan that includes these figures. See plans opens Subscription, where you can compare plans and move up — see Upgrade or change your plan.
Nothing is lost while these figures are locked. They are worked out from your orders whenever you look, so the day you move up to Starter, the dashboard shows them for your past orders too. See Plans and what each includes for everything else each plan adds.
What to do next
- Set a product’s price, cost and stock — add the cost that profit needs.
- Upgrade or change your plan — unlock revenue and profit figures on Starter.