Here are some of the most common questions we receive about Cost of Goods Sold in Link My Books.
❓ I've adjusted the values for my COGS data in Link My Books – why aren't they updating in my accounting software?
Answer:
There could be several reasons:
✅ Check COGS is turned on: Go to Settings > Settlement Settings > Cost of Goods Sold and ensure it's enabled.
✅ Check all costs are entered:
Monthly uploads: Verify your bulk upload shows the month in green.
Average costs: Go to Inventory > Product Costs and ensure there are no zero values.
✅ Check settlements sent before enabling COGS:
Refresh the settlement in the View screen, then send the COGS data manually.
Or rollback and resend both Sales & COGS data together.
❓ What is the difference between "Average" and "Monthly" product costs?
Answer:
When you enable COGS in Link My Books, you choose how to enter your product costs. This setting can be found in Settings > Settlement Settings > Cost of Goods Sold.
Average (per SKU): You enter one cost for each SKU, and that same cost is used for every settlement until you change it. This is per SKU — each product has its own individual cost. It does not average costs across your entire catalogue.
Monthly: You upload a cost file each month, allowing you to update costs as they change (e.g. if your supplier prices fluctuate). Each month's settlements will use that month's uploaded costs.
⚠️ Why is my Product Costs page blank?
Link My Books only adds SKUs to the Product Costs page once they are detected in your settlement/payout reports. If you have just enabled COGS, the page may appear empty until your next settlement is processed. If your products have been selling and settlements have been imported but the page is still blank, please contact support so we can investigate.
❓ A settlement shows "No COGS" and £0.00 in my Sales account — is this a data error?
Answer:
Not necessarily. Before assuming there is a calculation problem, it's worth checking what's actually inside the settlement, because Amazon (and other channels) sometimes generate payouts that contain no sales lines at all.
The most common cause of a settlement showing "No COGS" alongside £0.00 in your chosen Sales account is that the payout consists almost entirely of reserved balance movements (funds Amazon is holding back, or releasing from a previous hold) rather than actual product sales. We don't decide what goes into a settlement — the channel does — and we then map every transaction type using your Accounts and Taxes mappings.
When a settlement contains no sales:
There's nothing for COGS to be calculated against, so the COGS bill is not generated and the settlement legitimately shows "No COGS".
Your Sales account stays at £0.00 for that settlement because no sales lines exist to post there.
Reserved balance entries flow to your Reserved Balances account, fees flow to their respective expense accounts, and so on.
✅ How to verify this for yourself
Download the audit file for the settlement (Settlement → Action → Download Audit File). The audit file gives you a transaction-by-transaction breakdown of exactly what the channel sent us. If the file shows only reserved balance movements, fees, and refunds (with no order/sales lines), the empty Sales account and the "No COGS" status are both correct.
If the audit file does show specific orders that you believe should have produced sales but didn't, the missing data is on the channel's side — please contact the channel (e.g. Amazon Seller Support) to find out why those orders weren't included in the payout.
How is this different from "Missing Product Costs"? If the settlement does contain sales lines but COGS still shows as zero, that's a different issue — usually a SKU in the settlement has no cost entered yet (even one £0 SKU blocks the COGS bill for the whole settlement). In that case, see the FAQ above on adjusting COGS data, or check Payout analysis page – COGS turned off or missing product costs error.
❓ A split settlement shows "Missing COGS" but I've entered all my costs — what's going on?
Answer:
This usually happens when a settlement spans a month boundary — for example, a payout covering 28 Feb – 2 Mar. When this occurs, Link My Books splits the settlement into two parts (one for each calendar month) so that revenue lands in the correct accounting period.
The "Missing COGS" warning badge appears on the overall settlement card on your dashboard, even if only one part of the split has an issue. This can be confusing — you click into the settlement expecting to find missing costs, and everything looks fine because you're viewing the larger part that has all its costs entered.
What to do:
Open the settlement and check both parts individually. The split parts are usually labelled by date range (e.g. "28 Feb – 28 Feb" and "1 Mar – 2 Mar").
Look for the smaller part — typically the one with fewer days — and check whether any SKUs in that part are missing a product cost.
Enter the missing cost on the Product Costs page, then refresh the settlement. The "Missing COGS" warning should clear once all SKUs across both parts have costs entered.
💡 Tip: If you use Monthly cost uploads, make sure you have uploaded costs for both months that the split settlement spans. A cost file uploaded for February won't cover the March portion of the split.
❓ I sell on Shopify and my product costs are already in Shopify — can Link My Books pull them in?
Answer:
✅ Yes — we have a Shopify "Cost per item" sync feature that pulls the cost you've entered in Shopify (under each product's Cost per item field) into Link My Books automatically.
⚠️ This is currently a beta feature. The Shopify cost-per-item sync must be enabled and run by our Admin/Support team for your account. You cannot activate it yourself yet. Please contact support via the chat icon or email [email protected] to request it.
Once enabled, the sync will update the matching SKUs in your Product Costs list with the costs from Shopify. From there, the costs will flow through to your accounting software (Xero or QuickBooks) as long as COGS is set to post — not set to "Analytics only".
❓ Why does the exchange rate on my COGS bill in QuickBooks look wrong or different from my sales journal?
Answer:
Link My Books does not apply any exchange rate to COGS bills. The COGS values sent to QuickBooks are based entirely on the landed costs you have entered on the Product Costs page, in whatever currency you chose for each product.
If you see a different exchange rate on your COGS bill compared to your sales journal, this is because:
QuickBooks applies its own exchange rate when it creates the COGS bill, based on the posting date of that bill. This rate may differ from the rate QuickBooks used for the sales journal, even if both are for the same settlement.
The COGS bill is a separate transaction from the sales journal — it represents the cost of products sold, not the revenue. These two are independent entries and QuickBooks handles their currency conversion separately.
In short: The amounts on your COGS bills come from your Product Costs page in Link My Books. Any exchange rate conversion you see in QuickBooks is applied by QuickBooks, not by Link My Books. If the exchange rate looks incorrect, check the posting date of the COGS bill in QuickBooks and the rate QuickBooks used for that date.
❓ How do we reconcile the COGS amount with invoices from suppliers and freight forwarders?
Answer:
When COGS tracking is turned on in Link My Books, we calculate the total cost of products sold each settlement and move that value from your chosen Inventory Asset account to your COGS account.
To avoid double‑counting:
Post all purchase invoices to the same Inventory Asset account you've selected in Link My Books.
As stock is sold, Link My Books will correctly reduce that balance and move costs into COGS.
❓Can I choose which currency to enter my product costs in?
Answer:
✅ Yes. On the Product Costs page, you can choose the currency for each product.
💡 Best practice: match the currency to your Xero/QuickBooks home currency.
❓ How do I account for refunds with COGS?
Answer:
Refunds can be tricky because items may:
Go back into inventory (sellable or unsellable),
Be returned but not resold, or
Be destroyed.
👉 Settlement reports don't include enough detail to track all this immediately.
Recommendation: do a quarterly or annual inventory valuation to adjust for these scenarios.
❓ Can I use Cost of Goods Sold with Seller ToolKit?
Answer:
✅ Yes! Seller ToolKit syncs product costs automatically with Link My Books.
Please see: Seller ToolKit Guide
❓ I only want to send Sales data (not COGS) to Xero/QuickBooks. How can I achieve this?
Answer:
Open each settlement on your dashboard.
Send only the Sales tab manually (ensure automation is off in Settings > Settlement Settings).
Or enable Show COGS in Analytics only in Settings > Settlement Settings > Cost of Goods Sold.
❓ Should I enter my product costs with or without VAT?
Answer:
💡 It depends on whether you are VAT registered:
✅ If you are VAT registered:
Enter your product costs without VAT (net), because your accounting software will handle VAT separately.✅ If you are not VAT registered:
Enter your product costs with VAT (gross), because VAT is part of your actual cost.
If you have any questions about this article or feedback on how we could make it better please reach out to the support team via the blue chat icon on the bottom right of the page or via email to [email protected].