About
Applies to: Margins.
Using Finaloop Core? See How sales-based COGS records product costs when you sell.
Margins tracks your SKU margins using your cost per unit. Margins can sync that cost automatically from Shopify, and you can add it yourself for every other sales channel.
You can sync from Shopify, add a cost to a single product, correct many at once, or import by CSV. Every cost carries a start date and applies from that date forward until the next one begins, so a cost change adds to your history instead of rewriting it.
Before you begin
Decide what goes into your cost. Most brands use an average landed cost: product plus freight, duties, and inbound fees. See Calculating your average cost per unit in Margins.
Merge your duplicates first. Only the primary product's cost is used, so enter each cost on the primary product. See Merging multiple products.
Know the date each cost should start from. Margins recalculates cost of goods sold (COGS) from that date forward.
1. Sync your costs from Shopify
If you keep cost per item up to date in Shopify, Margins picks it up with no work on your end.
A synced cost belongs to the Shopify product only. Your Amazon, TikTok Shop, or wholesale sales arrive as separate products, so add a cost to them or merge them with a Shopify product. Merge each set with the Shopify product as primary, and that one cost then covers every channel selling the SKU.
In Shopify, set Cost per item on the product or variant.
In Margins, go to Products and merge the other channels' copies into the Shopify one, making the Shopify product primary. See Merging multiple products.
On Actions → Bulk costs edit, you'll see how many products are on synced costs. Edit those in your Shopify admin and the change flows through to Margins.
2. Add a cost to one product
Use this for a single SKU that needs an updated cost.
Go to Products.
Click the product name.
Open the Cost per unit tab.
Click Add cost.
Enter the amount in Cost per unit. If the product already has a cost history, also choose the From date when the new cost should apply.
Click Save.
The new cost appears at the top of the timeline and Current cost updates. Net units depleted on that entry shows To be updated until Margins finishes recalculating.
① Add cost, ② Current cost, ③ the edit pencil.
Note: You're adding a cost, not replacing one. Earlier entries stay on the timeline and keep applying to the units that sold while they were in effect.
3. Correct costs for many products at once
Go to Products.
Click Actions → Bulk costs edit.
Optional: turn on the missing-cost toggle to show only products without a cost.
Type a cost into the Average cost field on any row.
To apply one cost to several products, tick their checkboxes and enter the amount in Set cost for [n] selected product at the top right.
Read the note beside each row you changed. It names the exact date the cost will apply from, and says whether it's replacing an existing cost.
Click Save in the bar at the bottom of the page.
After you save, each product's Average cost recalculates for the period you're viewing.
① Export costs and Import CSV, ② Average cost fields.
Important: On a product with no cost yet, a bulk edit applies from the From date of the period you have selected. On a product that already has a cost, it replaces that entry and takes over its date. The note beside each row tells you which is happening, so read it before you save.
Click Export costs first. You get your current costs in a file you can check against your own records before you start typing.
4. Import costs from a CSV
Importing works best when you're setting up for the first time, or after a vendor price change across many SKUs.
Go to Products.
Click Actions → Bulk costs edit, then Import CSV.
Click Download the CSV template.
Fill in a cost and a date for each SKU. The file is matched on SKU, so the SKUs in your file need to match the SKUs in Margins.
Click Click here to choose a file and select your file.
Review the uploaded data, edit anything that looks wrong, and save.
Once saved, your costs appear on each product's Cost per unit timeline and COGS recalculates from each cost's date forward.
Important: Saved imports can't be reverted. To fix a bad import, upload a corrected file or edit the costs directly in the app.
The date column works like this:
The date is when the cost starts to apply, and it keeps applying forward from there. A cost dated 01-01-2023 applies from January 1, 2023 until the next cost begins.
If Margins already holds cost entries dated after the date in your file, and those SKUs are in your upload, the uploaded cost overwrites them.
To build the file, export the product list from Products with the missing-cost toggle on. You get exactly the SKUs that still need a cost.
FAQs
I set costs in Shopify. Why do my Amazon sales still show no cost?
The synced cost belongs to your Shopify product, and Amazon arrives as a separate one. Merge them with the Shopify product as primary. See Merging multiple products.
If I edit a Shopify cost in Margins, will it sync back to Shopify?
No. Change it in your Shopify admin and the new cost flows through to Margins.
Can I enter a cost for a date in the past?
Yes. Margins recalculates COGS from that date forward.
What if a product has no cost at all?
Its COGS is zero and its margin shows as 100%. See Why are my products missing cost per unit in Margins?.
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