Articles on: Costs and Expenses

How to Add Product Costs

Product costs (your cost of goods sold, or COGS) tell Profitario what you pay for each item you sell, so your profit numbers reflect reality. This guide covers the Product Costs page and every way to add a cost: for a whole product, per variant, over time, by quantity, and by country.

The Product Costs Page

Open your shop and click Product Costs in the top navigation.

The table lists every product in your store. Each row shows:

Column	What it shows
Product	Product name and image. Click a row to expand its variants.
SKU	The variant count on a product row, the SKU on a variant row.
Coverage	How many variants have a cost, e.g. `2/3`. Green means complete, red means costs missing.
Qty Range	The quantity tier a cost applies to. Only shown when a product uses quantity breaks.
Unit Cost	What you pay your supplier for one unit.
Handling	An optional extra cost per unit for packaging, storing, or preparing the item.
Source	Where the current cost comes from: entered manually, synced from Shopify, CSV, and so on.

Costs are entered per single unit, in your store's currency. The handling cost is explained in What Is the Handling Fee?.

Add a Cost for a Whole Product

If all variants cost the same, set the cost once at the product level:

Find the product (use the search field to filter by name or SKU).
Type the cost into the Unit Cost field on the product row.
Optionally type a Handling cost.
Click Apply All in the top right to save.

The value is applied to every variant of the product. A small P badge next to the input shows the cost is set at the product level (the same for every variant). A V badge means variants have different costs; the product row then shows the cost range, e.g. 8.50–9.20.

Add Costs per Variant

When variants have different costs, set them individually:

Click the product row to expand it.
Type the Unit Cost (and optionally Handling) for each variant.
Click Apply in the product's toolbar, or Apply All in the top right.

In the screenshot, the Charcoal variant has an edited cost: the orange dot marks an unsaved change, and the circular arrow on the right reverts that edit. The product's toolbar shows 1 unsaved changes and an Apply button; the page header shows Apply All (1), which saves pending edits across all products at once.

Saving and Recalculation

Nothing is saved until you click Apply (one product) or Apply All (everything). After saving, Profitario recalculates the profit of affected orders; a short progress dialog shows while this runs.

If you change filters or leave the page with unsaved edits, Profitario warns you first. Choosing Discard changes throws away the pending edits.

Costs added this way apply to all orders, past and future. To change a cost from a specific date only, add a price change instead (see below).

Costs That Change Over Time

If your supplier's price changed, do not overwrite the current cost: orders from the old period would be recalculated with the new price. Instead, open the product and use Add Price Change to give each time period its own cost. See How to Add Cost Changes Over Time (Price Changes) for the step-by-step guide.

Quantity-Based Costs (Quantity Breaks)

If your supplier gives bulk discounts, e.g. a lower unit price when a customer orders 10 or more, turn on Qty breaks for the product and set a cost per quantity range. See How to Add Quantity-Based Costs (Quantity Breaks).

Different Costs per Country (Cost Zones)

If fulfilling to some countries costs more or less, e.g. you ship EU orders from a local warehouse, group countries into zones and give each zone its own costs. The zone tabs above the table (Default, plus your zones) switch the whole page between zones. See How to Add Country-Specific Costs (Cost Zones).

Importing Costs Instead of Typing Them

You do not have to enter every cost by hand:

Method	How it works
Shopify sync	Click Cost sync to apply Shopify's "Cost per item" values, or turn on auto-sync to keep them updated. See Sync Product Costs with Shopify.
File upload	Download a template, fill in costs in a spreadsheet, and upload it as CSV or Excel. See Import Product Costs from a CSV or Excel File.
Margin rules	The percent button next to Cost sync sets costs as a percentage of the selling price, for variants without a cost.
AliExpress	With the AliExpress integration connected, Profitario matches your supplier orders and fills in real purchase costs.

The Source column always shows where the current cost came from. A gray Shopify badge means a Shopify cost is available but not applied; hover it to apply the value with one click. Manually entered costs take priority over imported ones.

Common Questions

What happens if a product has no cost? Profitario treats its cost as zero, so profit for those orders is overstated. Use the Cost Status filter, e.g. With Sales, No Cost, to find products that need attention first.

Can I change the cost of a single order instead? Yes. You can override the cost on any individual order; see How to Manually Change the Cost of an Order.

I want to add a cost per order, not per product. Where does that go? Product and handling costs always attach to the items in an order. For a cost applied at the order level, e.g. a fixed packing fee for every order or a fee that depends on order conditions, use rule-based expenses instead: an expense rule adds the cost to every order that matches its conditions. See How to Add Rule-Based Expenses (Automatic Order Costs).

I sell in several currencies. Which one do I enter? Enter costs in your store's currency. Profitario converts order revenue as needed; the cost you type is always per unit in the store currency.