Sales with no item cost and how to fix them

A sale shows No item cost when ProfitClerk does not know what the item cost you. Its profit then leaves out the item's cost, so it is overstated, and the sale is left out of margin figures until it has a cost. Fix it by setting the cost on the sale, and stop it happening again by adding the item to your stock under the same SKU as the eBay listing.

Why a sale has no item cost

When a sale comes in from eBay, ProfitClerk looks for a stock item with the same SKU (the custom label on your eBay listing). A sale ends up without a cost when:

• its SKU matched no stock item: the sale is marked unmatched;
• the listing had no SKU, so there was nothing to match: give the listing its cost on Inventory › eBay listings and its next sales take it (see eBay listings without a SKU);
• the matched stock item has no cost (it was saved with a total cost of zero).

The order page says which: "The SKU … matched no inventory item" or "The matched inventory item has no cost".

Find them

• Orders banner: when some lines have no item cost, Orders shows a banner such as "12 order lines have no item cost". Click Show only these.
• Confidence filter: choose No item cost in the Confidence menu on Orders.
• Status filter: Unmatched shows the sales whose SKU matched nothing.
• Overview: a warning such as "3 orders have no item cost" with a Fix them button, and the Last 12 months card counts them too, with an Add item costs link.
• App: in Sales, tap the No item cost chip.

Fix one sale

On the website

1. Go to Orders and find the sale. Its Cost column shows No item cost.
2. Click Add cost.
3. Type the Cost / unit: what one unit cost you. The Line COGS ≈ below shows the total for the quantity sold.
4. Click Save.

Or open the order and type the cost in the No item cost recorded box at the top, then click Set cost.

In the app

1. Open Sales and tap the sale.
2. Tap Add the item cost in the No item cost recorded notice (or the Item cost button).
3. Enter the Cost per unit and tap Save.

The profit, margin and ROI update straight away, here and in every report. The cost column then shows an edited badge so you know it was set by hand.

Fix many at once

If you keep your costs in a spreadsheet, use Import costs on the Orders page (in the app, More › Import item costs, which opens the website). Each row is matched to orders by eBay order number, SKU or item title, and by default only orders with no item cost are filled in. You see every match before anything changes, and you can undo the import. See import item costs from a spreadsheet.

Stop it happening again

1. Go to Inventory and add the item, using exactly the SKU on your eBay listing (capitals do not matter). See add a stock item.
2. Enter the quantity and the Total cost paid, so it has a real cost.
3. From then on, new sales of that SKU find the item, take units off its stock and record their cost automatically.

For a sale that is already in ProfitClerk, setting its cost as above is the reliable fix. See match eBay sales to your stock for more on SKUs.

What a missing cost does to your figures

• The sale's Net profit shows the amount before item cost.
• Margin, ROI and an item's average ROI leave the sale out, and show Needs an item cost on the order.
• Best-seller lists never push a product up because of sales without a cost.
• The sale counts as Missing in cost confidence.