Add your costs

Fabrik Analytics works out profit from your sales, cost of goods, advertising and the costs you enter here. Until you add them, the P&L counts shipping, payment fees and overheads as nothing, so profit and margin read too high.

Before you start

• Who: agency staff who can open the brand's Settings, or the owner of a brand run without an agency.
• Cost of goods is not entered here. It comes from each variant's Cost per item in Shopify. Check that your products have it set in Shopify.
• Shopify Payments fees are imported from your Shopify payouts, so do not add them again.

The cost types

Open the brand, then Settings, Costs. The strip at the top switches between:

Step by step: add a cost

1. Open the brand and choose Settings, Costs.
2. Choose the tab for the cost type, for example Shipping.
3. Select Add. A new row opens, marked Draft.
4. Fill in:
   • Label, for example "3PL fulfilment";
   • Category, for example Shipping & Logistics;
   • for a gateway, the Gateway, its Rate (%) and its Flat / order fee;
   • for other variable costs, the Method: Flat per order, Per unit, % of basis (with a Basis of Net Sales, Net Sales + Shipping, Orders or Units) or Fixed amount;
   • for a fixed cost, the Amount and its Frequency: Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Weekly, Daily or One-off;
   • the Tier (CM2 or CM3) for non-fixed costs;
   • optional Start date and End date.
5. Leave Active on.
6. Select Save. A message confirms Saved.

To change a cost later, select the pencil on its row. To remove it, open it and select the bin. A message confirms Removed.

Examples

• Fulfilment at a flat 3.50 per order: Shipping, Flat per order, 3.50.
• PayPal at 2.9% plus 0.30: Gateway, PayPal, Rate 2.9, Flat / order 0.30.
• Affiliate commission of 10% of net sales: Variable, % of basis, 10, Basis Net Sales.
• Software at 600 a month: Fixed, Amount 600, Frequency Monthly.

Portfolio costs and how they are split

A cost shared by several brands, such as a warehouse or a team, can be entered once on the portfolio.

1. Open the portfolio and choose Settings, Costs.
2. Add the cost as above.
3. Under Split across brands, choose:
   • Not split: each brand bears the whole cost.
   • Equally: each brand bears the same share.
   • By share of net sales: each brand bears its share of the portfolio's net sales in the same period. The preview uses last month.
   • Set percentages: type a percentage for each brand. They must total 100.
4. Check the preview under the choice, which shows each brand's share and amount.
5. Select Save.

Each brand then sees the portfolio cost on its own Costs page, marked Portfolio, with its split shown.

Overriding a portfolio cost on one brand

If a brand adds a cost with the same type and label as a portfolio cost, the row shows Conflict. Switch on Override portfolio cost so the brand's value replaces the portfolio's for that brand, or rename it to keep both.

What you will see

• Each row shows its Type, Level (Brand or Portfolio), Category, Amount, Tier and Status (Active or Off).
• The P&L, the Dashboard's profit figures and Markets update to include the new costs.
• The Costs not set notice on the P&L disappears.

Troubleshooting

• "Add a label first": give the cost a label before saving.
• "The percentages must total 100": the split percentages do not add up. Adjust them until the line under them reads 100%.
• "... clashes with portfolio cost": see overriding above.
• Shipping by market says Fabrik enters shipping rates. Email support@fabrik.ae with the countries and costs to add.
• Profit still looks too high. Check cost of goods is set on your variants in Shopify. Variants without a cost count as zero.