# Enter your costs

Add the costs Shopify does not know, such as shipping, packing and your monthly overheads, so the profit Omnymous shows is your real profit.

![Analytics, Store, Costs: Active Rules 3, Fixed / Month $3,500.00 and Variable Load 4.0%, then the COGS overrides, Variable costs and Shipping cards, each with its plus button](https://docs.omnymous.com/media/analytics/store/costs/screen.b44ac0ad.avif)

Omnymous reads your sales, refunds, payment fees and ad spend by itself, and your cost of goods from Shopify. What it cannot know is what shipping, packing and running the business cost you. Each of those is a cost rule. Until you add them, [Net Profit](https://docs.omnymous.com/analytics/metrics#net-profit) reads higher than it is.

## Before you start

- You are an owner, an admin or a member of the workspace. A viewer can read the costs but not change them.
- Have to hand what a shipment costs you, what packing and handling cost, and your fixed monthly costs: staff, rent, software.
- About ten minutes.

## Open your costs

In the sidebar, under **Analytics**, choose **Store**, then **Profit**, then **Costs** beside the period. The Dashboard's **Cost model** shortcut opens the same screen.

On a phone, tap **Analytics** in the tabs at the bottom, then **Profit** at the top, then **Costs** beside the period. There the screen is called **Cost model**.

The summary at the top counts your rules, adds up your fixed costs per month, and adds up the costs you set as a share of revenue.

![The costs summary: Active Rules 3, Fixed / Month $3,500.00 from flat-monthly rules, and Variable Load 4.0% from %-of-revenue rules](https://docs.omnymous.com/media/analytics/store/costs/summary.fae12705.avif)

Under it, one card per kind of cost: **COGS overrides**, **Variable costs**, **Shipping** and **Fixed costs**. Each lists its rules and has a plus button to add one.

## Add your shipping cost

1. **Open a new shipping rule**

   In the **Shipping** card, press the plus button. **New cost rule** opens with **Shipping** as its category.

2. **Choose how the cost is counted**

   Under **Basis**, keep **Per Order** for a cost each order carries once, or choose **Per Line Item** for a cost per product in the box. Leave **By Weight** and **By Quantity** aside: they need weight or quantity brackets, which this screen cannot enter yet.

3. **Name it and give its amount**

   Type a **Name**, then the **Amount** in your store's currency. The line under the amount repeats it in words, such as "= $6.50 per order".

   ![New cost rule: Category Shipping, Basis Per Order, Name Carrier labels (per order), Amount 6.50, which reads = $6.50 per order, the optional Effective from and Until, Active switched on, and Create rule](https://docs.omnymous.com/media/analytics/store/costs/shipping.bd31cdd8.avif)

4. **Save it**

   Leave **Effective from** and **Until** empty for a cost that always applies, and **Active** on. Press **Create rule**.

## Add packing and handling

In the **Variable costs** card, press the plus button. Under **Basis**, choose **Per Order** for a fixed amount per order, or **% of Revenue** for a share of each order's revenue. Type a **Name** and the amount, then press **Create rule**.

A share is typed as a decimal: 0.04 for 4%. The line under the amount confirms it, "= 4.0% of revenue". Type 4 and the screen warns you that it would be 400%.

![A variable cost rule on % of Revenue: Name Pick, pack and packaging, Amount 0.04, which reads = 4.0% of revenue](https://docs.omnymous.com/media/analytics/store/costs/percent.dcdff689.avif)

Do not add payment fees here: Omnymous already reads them from Shopify, and they would count twice.

## Add your fixed costs

In the **Fixed costs** card, press the plus button. A fixed cost is always a monthly amount, **Flat Monthly**: type a **Name** and what you spend in a month on staff, rent and software, then press **Create rule**. Omnymous spreads it over the days, so a 30-day period carries about one month of it.

## Cover products with no cost in Shopify

Omnymous takes each product's cost of goods from the **Cost per item** you set on it in Shopify. For a product without one, it counts nothing, and its orders look more profitable than they are.

In the **COGS overrides** card, press the plus button. Type a **Name**, set **Cost per unit** to 0, and type the **Fallback**: the share of a line's revenue to count as its cost, as a decimal, such as 0.30 for 30%. Then press **Create rule**.

![A COGS override: Cost per unit 0, which reads = $0.00 per unit sold, and Fallback 0.30, which reads = 30.0% of the line's revenue](https://docs.omnymous.com/media/analytics/store/costs/fallback.90d63159.avif)

> **Limit:** A COGS override cannot name a product on this screen: its rule is a fallback for every product with no cost in Shopify. To set one product's cost, set its Cost per item in Shopify.

## Check that it worked

"Cost rule created — margins recompute in a few minutes" appears at the bottom right of the screen, or at the top on a phone, and the rule is listed in its card with its basis and amount. A few minutes later, **Profit** shows it: its line in Profit & Loss, such as **Shipping**, and a lower Net Profit.

![The Shipping card with its rule: Carrier labels (per order), Per Order, $6.50](https://docs.omnymous.com/media/analytics/store/costs/result.6a85a2de.avif)

Each save starts a recalculation, but a rule saved while one is still running can be left out of it. If you save several rules in a row and a figure still leaves one out a few minutes after your last save, press **Recalculate**.

## If something goes wrong

| What you see                                                           | What to do                                                                                                                                                   |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| No plus buttons on the cards                                           | Your role is Viewer. Ask an owner or an admin of the workspace to change it, or to enter the costs.                                                          |
| "Percent bases take a decimal" under the amount                        | Type the share as a decimal: 0.04 for 4%.                                                                                                                    |
| "The rule ends before it starts."                                      | Set **Until** to a day after **Effective from**, or clear one of them.                                                                                       |
| **Create rule** cannot be pressed                                      | Fill in **Name** and the amount.                                                                                                                             |
| An error appears when you save a rule **By Weight** or **By Quantity** | These two need weight or quantity brackets, which this screen cannot enter yet. Use **Per Order** or **Per Line Item**.                                      |
| Net Profit did not change                                              | The recalculation takes a few minutes. Check that the rule is **Active** and that its dates cover the period you are looking at, then press **Recalculate**. |

## Related

- [Store](https://docs.omnymous.com/analytics/store): Store is your business in money: revenue, profit and ad spend, your profit and loss line by line, and how your customers come back.
- [Metrics](https://docs.omnymous.com/analytics/metrics): Every number on the Dashboard and the Analytics screens, with what it counts and the formula behind it.

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Source: https://docs.omnymous.com/analytics/store/costs · Checked against Omnymous on 19 October 2026