Cost Metrics

Overview

Cost metrics track every expense that comes out of your TikTok Shop revenue -- from the products themselves to platform fees, shipping, and warehouse costs. Understanding these costs is essential for knowing whether your shop is truly profitable. All cost values are shown as positive numbers on the frontend for readability, but they reduce your profit.

Metrics

COGS (Cost of Goods Sold)

• What it shows: The total resolved inventory cost of the units sold in the selected period.
• Formula: Sum of the cost resolved for each sold unit
• Where you see it: Dashboard, Profit & Loss, Sales & Profit, Product Details
• How costs are determined: Dashboardly first uses a priced FIFO lot when one covers the sold unit. Otherwise it uses the SKU Unit COG period active on the order date, then the product-level period active on that date. If no value applies, COGS is $0.
• Important notes: COGS must be configured by the seller because Dashboardly cannot know the supplier cost automatically. Product defaults cover variants without their own cost; a SKU period overrides the product period only for that variant. A new Effective Date does not rewrite earlier periods. COGS remains on a shipped/refunded unit when the product was not physically returned.

Fees & Taxes

• What it shows: The total platform fees TikTok charges on your sales.
• Formula: Referral Fee + Co-funded Promotion Fee + Other Fees
• Where you see it: Dashboard, Profit & Loss, Sales & Profit
• Fee accuracy: Fees are now normalized per line item for multi-item orders. When an order contains multiple products, platform fees, taxes, and commissions are allocated proportionally to each item rather than being lumped together. This makes per-product profit calculations more accurate, especially for promotional orders where discounts apply unevenly across items.
• Important notes: This includes TikTok's referral fee (their commission on each sale), transaction processing fees, and any other platform charges. The breakdown into individual fee types is visible on the Profit & Loss page. Recent orders (last 7-14 days) may show estimated fees based on your shop's historical fee rate. These estimates become exact once TikTok settles payments, typically within 7-14 days.

Customer-Paid Shipping, Shipping Costs, and Net Shipping

• Customer-paid shipping: The amount charged to the buyer. This is a credit and is not included in Gross Sales.
• Shipping costs: TikTok/carrier shipping charges and shipping adjustments attributed to the orders or settlement. This line is normally a deduction.
• Net Shipping: Customer-paid shipping + Shipping costs/adjustments using their signed values.