There are two error message that you may see on the payout analysis page:
This article will explain what these are and how to resolve them.
You do not have COGS tracking turned on
If you are seeing the message "You don't have COGS tracking turned on" as per the below screenshots, this means that you do not have our optional Cost of Goods Sold tracking enabled.
If you'd like to bring this data through on the Payout Analysis page then you will need to turn on COGS tracking to bring this data through.
To do so head to Settings > Settlement Settings > Cost of Goods Sold where you can turn on Cost of Goods Sold and follow the instructions there.
You have missing product costs so these figures will not be accurate
If you are seeing the message "You have missing product costs so these figures will not be accurate" as per the below screenshots, this means that some of your products contained in this payout are missing product costs.
To enter your missing product costs head to Inventory > Product Costs where you can toggle to show just the SKUs with no product costs assigned to easily see which costs you need to add:
What is COGS tracking?
Cost of Goods Sold tracking is a feature within Link My Books that allows you to keep a track of the cost of the units sold during any given settlement period. You can learn more about COGS tracking, how it works and how to set it up in this help article.
Why is this relevant to the payout analysis page?
If you don't have COGS tracking turned on or you have missing product costs, the figures shown on the payout analysis page will not show a true reflection of your profits or return on investment.
Profit before COGS
The Profit figure will show before COGS meaning it is a calculation of the following:
Sales
+ Other income (such as FBA inventory reimbursements)
- Refunds
- Fees
- Advertising costs
With COGS tracking enabled and set up with valid product costs, the calculation is as follows:
Sales
+ Other income (such as FBA inventory reimbursements)
- Refunds
- Fees
- Advertising costs
- Cost of goods sold
Profit margin before COGS
The Profit margin figure will show before COGS meaning it is a calculation of net profit (excluding COGS) divided by revenue and shown as a percentage.
Return on investment
If you don't have COGS tracking turned on the Return on investment (ROI) figure will not populate at all. This is because ROI figure is a calculation of net profit divided by the cost of goods sold and shown as a percentage.
With COGS tracking turned off, we can't calculate the ROI figure.
If you're missing product costs then we will calculate the ROI figure with those costs we do have, but it will therefore not be an accurate reflection of your true ROI since some product costs are missing.
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].