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Getting started

What does Sharpsum show?

Your store's profit for any period: revenue from your Shopify orders, minus the cost of the goods you sold, ad spend and expenses — shipping, handling, payment fees and the costs you enter.

Where do the numbers come from?

Sales come from your Shopify orders and are counted the way Shopify's own reports count them: gross sales, discounts, sales reversals, shipping charges, taxes, cost of goods and orders match Shopify's reports to the cent. Gift cards are the one difference, and you choose it: by default Sharpsum counts their money when a card is sold, Shopify when it is spent. Ad spend comes from the ad accounts you connect and the spend you enter; expenses are what you enter on the Expenses page.

How far back does Sharpsum go?

When it is installed, Sharpsum reads your orders from the last 13 months, and on the free plan and in a free trial you see those months. Once you pay for a plan, Sharpsum reads your whole order history in the background and the calendar reaches back to your first order.

Profit and revenue

How is profit calculated?

Profit is revenue minus the cost of goods, ad spend and expenses. Expenses are shipping cost, handling, payment fees and the costs you enter on the Expenses page. By default gift cards count when they are sold, so payments made with gift cards are taken off, and the same money does not count twice.

What counts as revenue?

Gross sales, less discounts and sales reversals, plus the shipping you charged, all without tax: Shopify's net sales plus shipping charges. By default gift cards sold count as revenue too; to leave them out, as Shopify's reports do, choose that in Settings.

Why is a day's revenue negative?

Sales reversals, which are returns, cancellations and order edits, count on the day they happen, not on the day of the original order, the same as in Shopify's reports. A day with more reversals than sales has negative revenue, and its profit and margin are negative too.

What is the margin?

Profit as a share of revenue. On a day with negative revenue the margin keeps the sign of the profit, so a loss always shows as a negative margin. A day with costs but no revenue reads −100%: everything spent that day is lost.

Which orders are counted?

Orders placed in the period, as Shopify counts them. Test orders and orders that only sell gift cards are left out.

What do the percentages next to the numbers mean?

The change against the period you compare with, chosen next to the date range: the previous period of the same length, the same dates last year, or dates of your own. Green is a change for the better, red for the worse, grey is no change, so lower costs show green.

What do the reports show?

Profit by product, variant, product type, vendor, tag and collection is gross profit: net sales less the cost of goods. Shipping, payment fees, ads and expenses belong to orders and days, so profit by sales channel, POS location, country and order is before ad spend and expenses: revenue less the cost of goods, shipping, handling and payment fees. Ad spend and expenses come off on the Profit page.

Costs

Where does product cost come from?

From the cost per item you set on each product in Shopify. Sharpsum uses the cost Shopify recorded when the item sold, so changing a cost in Shopify later does not rewrite past profit. On Product costs you can count your own cost instead.

What if a product has no cost set?

On the Profit page its sales count with no product cost, which makes profit look higher than it is, and Sharpsum points this out. In Reports it shows No cost, and its sales stay out of gross profit and margin, as in Shopify's profit reports. Set the cost per item on the product in Shopify, or on Product costs, where it can count for past sales too. A product that really costs nothing, such as a free gift or a digital download, can be marked so from its row in Reports; or tick Count products without a cost as costing nothing there.

Can I count other costs than Shopify's?

Yes. On Product costs, give a variant your own cost per item, or add an amount or a percentage to Shopify's cost. A cost with a day counts for sales from that day; one without a day counts for every sale, past ones too. Every order is counted again at once.

How do cost rules work?

A rule covers all products, or those of some product types, vendors, tags or collections, on the days you choose. It sets the cost per item, or adds an amount or a percentage to Shopify's cost. Rules count in their order: the first that covers a sale sets its cost. A cost you set for a variant counts before every rule.

Can I set many costs at once?

Yes: on Product costs, export a file with every variant, fill in Your cost, and From when a cost starts later than the first sale, then import the file. Variants are found by Variant ID or SKU.

What happens to product cost when an item is returned?

By default its cost comes off the cost of goods on the day of the return, since the item is yours again. In Settings you can keep the cost instead, for items that cannot be sold again.

How is shipping cost counted?

By default as what the customer paid for shipping. In Settings you can use a fixed amount per order and per item, a share of the shipping charge or rates by destination, or leave shipping cost out. An order you bought shipping labels for in Shopify counts what the labels cost, with later price adjustments, in place of these rules; Settings can turn that off.

What is handling?

Packing materials and work: an amount per order, per item and a share of the order's value, as you set them in Settings. Orders sold in your shop through point of sale have none unless you choose otherwise.

How are payment fees counted?

Shopify Payments reports the fee for each payment, and Sharpsum counts it as charged. Every other provider your orders were paid through is listed in Settings; enter its rate there.

Gift cards

How are gift cards counted?

By default the money counts when a gift card is sold, since that is when it reaches you; payments made with gift cards are taken off, so nothing counts twice. Shopify's reports count the other way: selling a card is not revenue, the products it buys are. To count as they do, choose that in Settings.

What if an order paid with a gift card is refunded?

Money refunded onto the gift card is added back on the day of the refund, cancelled orders included.

Expenses

What are expenses for?

Costs besides the goods and ads: rent, salaries, apps, subscriptions; or an amount for each order, or a share of revenue, such as a fulfilment fee or a royalty. Add them on the Expenses page and they come off profit on the days they cover.

Spread over the days, or all on the day it is due?

Spread splits each payment evenly over the days it covers — a monthly cost of 900 adds about 30 a day. All on the day it is due counts the whole payment on that day.

What if an expense includes VAT?

Choose whether the amount includes VAT you get back or VAT that is part of the cost, and enter the rate. VAT you get back is left out of the expense.

Can I keep an expense listed without counting it?

Yes: turn off Subtract from profit on the expense.

Can an expense be in another currency?

Yes: choose its currency on the expense. Sharpsum turns it into your store's currency at the rate Shopify's reports use for each day.

Ad spend

How does ad spend get into Sharpsum?

Connect your ad accounts on the Ad spend page and their spend is fetched automatically, a figure for each day. Spend in channels that cannot be connected is added by hand on the same page. It comes off profit on the day it was spent.

What are ROAS and POAS?

ROAS, return on ad spend, is the conversion value an ad account's platform counts for each unit of spend: a ROAS of 3 means 3 in sales for every 1 spent on ads. POAS, profit on ad spend, takes that value at your margin before ad spend over the same days, the revenue left after the cost of goods, shipping, handling and payment fees, so it shows profit rather than sales: above 1 the account earns more than it costs, below 1 it loses money. Meta counts purchases and Google the conversions you count as primary, each in its own attribution window, so one sale can be counted by both.

Is Shop Campaigns ad spend counted?

Yes, automatically. When your store runs Shop Campaigns, Shopify's ads in the Shop app, Sharpsum reads their daily spend, orders and sales from Shopify's reports. Their spend comes off profit and shows on the Ad spend page under its own name, and their return sits beside Meta's and Google's.

Flow, blocks and AI

Can I ask Claude or ChatGPT about my profit?

Yes, on the Growth and Pro plans; Sidekick answers on every plan. The AI assistants page, opened from Settings, has the address to add to Claude or ChatGPT, with the steps for each. You allow each assistant in Sharpsum and can remove it there at any time. An assistant reads only this store's figures, never customers' names, emails or addresses, and can't change anything.

Can I ask Sidekick about my profit?

Yes. Ask Sidekick in your Shopify admin, for example what your profit was last month by Sharpsum. Sidekick asks you before it uses Sharpsum, then reads the same figures you see here. It can't change anything.

Can I see profit on an order's or a product's page?

Yes. Open an order or a product in Shopify, go to Blocks at the bottom of the page, press + Block and choose Sharpsum. An order shows its revenue, costs and profit; a product shows what it sold in the last 30 days and its gross profit. The info icon says what each figure counts.

Can Sharpsum start a Shopify Flow workflow?

Yes. In Flow, choose one of Sharpsum's triggers. Daily profit comes each morning at 6:00 in your store's time zone with yesterday's revenue, profit, margin, ad spend and orders; Weekly profit comes on Monday morning for the week before, and Monthly profit on the first morning of a month for the month before, each with the profit of the period before it to compare. Order sold at a loss comes once for each order Sharpsum counts at a loss, with the order. Add any action, such as an email to your team, a Slack message or a row in a sheet, and turn the workflow on: Flow and the apps you choose send it, not Sharpsum. Sharpsum sends a trigger only while a workflow uses it.

Plans

How do the plans differ?

Plans differ in how many orders a month they cover — Free 50, Starter 500, Growth 2,000, Pro 6,000 — in how much order history they show: the last 13 months on Free, every order on the others — and in how often ad spend is read: every 3 hours on Free, and on the others as often as the platforms update it. From Growth up you can also ask Claude and ChatGPT about your figures; Sidekick answers on every plan. Everything else is on every plan. If nobody opens Sharpsum for 3 days, it reads every 6 hours and catches up the moment you open it. For more orders, we set up a plan for your store.

How does the free trial work?

Paid plans start with a 14-day free trial. During it every day shows, however many orders your store has; if it has more than the plan covers, a note on the Profit page says so before the trial ends.

What happens when my store has more orders than its plan covers?

Each calendar month counts its own orders. In a month with more orders than your plan covers, the days after the plan's orders are hidden until you choose a larger plan. A store that was within its plan and outgrew it has 30 days to choose before anything is hidden. Nothing is lost: Sharpsum keeps counting every order, and the days show again as soon as a plan covers them.

What if I move to a smaller plan?

Months you already paid a larger plan for stay as they were. Months after the change follow the new plan.

How do I pay?

Plans are chosen and paid in Shopify, in US dollars, and the charge appears on your Shopify bill. A year costs as much as ten months. You can change your plan at any time on the Plans page.

Dates and data

Which time zone are the days in?

Your store's time zone from Shopify settings, so each day matches Shopify's reports.

Which currency does Sharpsum work in?

In your main currency: your store's own until you choose another in Settings or with the currency button on the Profit page. The choice is your store's, for everyone: figures are shown in it, and amounts in Settings and on the Product costs page are entered in it. Shopify keeps your orders in your store's currency, so Sharpsum turns them at Shopify's rate for each day. When you change the main currency, the amounts you entered are turned into the new one at today's rate. An expense or ad spend can be in any currency.

Which exchange rates does Sharpsum use?

Shopify's rate for each day, the same as Shopify's reports when they show another currency: for your figures in the currency you choose, and for expenses and ad spend in other currencies.

Can I take my figures to a spreadsheet?

Yes. Export above the table on the Profit page saves the days or months you are looking at, in the currency shown, as a CSV file that Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets open. Reports, Product costs, Ad spend and Expenses have their own Export.

What data does Sharpsum keep?

Order amounts, dates and IDs, the country and region orders went to, and what you enter in Sharpsum, kept in the European Union. It does not keep customers' names, emails or street addresses. When you uninstall Sharpsum, all of your store's data is deleted at once; only a record that your store installed and removed it stays, for three years. An AI assistant you connect reads your store's figures only when you ask it something.