Creating Manual Adjustments
Overview
Manual adjustments let you add income or expenses that are not automatically tracked by TikTok. This includes things like software subscriptions, staff costs, packaging materials, taxes, or any other business expense or additional revenue that affects your real profit.
By adding manual adjustments, your Profit & Loss (P&L) and Sales & Profit pages reflect a more complete and accurate picture of your business.
Types of Adjustments
Income vs. Expense
Every adjustment is either:
- Income -- Additional revenue not captured by TikTok (e.g., one-time affiliate payouts, insurance reimbursements).
- Expense -- Costs you pay that TikTok does not track (e.g., software tools, shipping supplies, staff wages).
Past vs. Future
- Past adjustments have a date in the past. They appear immediately on the P&L for that date.
- Future adjustments have a date in the future. They will show up on the P&L once that date arrives. This is useful for scheduling known upcoming costs.
One-Time vs. Recurring
- One-Time -- Applied on a single date.
- Daily -- Repeats every day from the start date to the end date.
- Weekly -- Repeats every week.
- Monthly -- Repeats on the same day each month.
- Yearly -- Repeats once a year.
Recurring adjustments automatically generate entries for each period within the date range you set.
Allocation Methods
Dashboardly offers three ways to set the amount for an adjustment. Choose the one that best matches how the cost or income works in your business.
Fixed Amount
A flat dollar amount that is distributed according to the recurrence you choose (one-time, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly).
- Best for: Predictable, fixed costs that do not change with sales volume.
- Example: You pay $1,000 per month in warehouse rent. Create a monthly recurring expense of $1,000. Dashboardly spreads that evenly -- roughly $33 per day -- so your daily P&L reflects the cost accurately.
Formula
A combination of a fixed amount plus a percentage of a metric (GMV, Gross Sales, or Net Sales). The total is recalculated automatically based on your actual sales data for each period.
- Best for: Costs that have a base fee plus a variable component tied to sales.
- Example: Your payment processor charges $100 per month plus 2% of Gross Sales. Create a formula-based adjustment with a $100 fixed component and 2% of Gross Sales. On a day when your Gross Sales is $5,000, the formula calculates $100 + ($5,000 x 2%) = $200.
Per Order
A fixed cost per order that scales automatically with your daily order volume. No recurrence setting is needed -- Dashboardly calculates the expense each day based on how many orders you received that day.
- Best for: Variable costs that are incurred once per order, such as pick-and-pack labor, packaging materials, or payment processing fees charged per transaction.
- Example: You pay $2.00 per order for pick-and-pack labor. Create a per-order adjustment at $2.00. On a day with 50 orders, the expense is $100. On a slower day with 20 orders, it is $40.
Per Order adjustments have two constraints:
- Available only for Fulfillment Fees, Packaging Materials, Staff Costs, Payment Gateway Fees, and Other categories.
- SKU binding is not available -- use Fixed Amount if you need to tie the cost to specific products or SKUs.
Per-Order Allocation Step by Step
- Navigate to Manual Adjustments in the left sidebar.
- Click Add Adjustment.
- Enter a descriptive name (e.g., "Pick & Pack Labor").
- Select Expense as the type.
- In the Amount section, select Per Order.
- Enter the cost per order (e.g., $2.00).
- Choose a category: Fulfillment Fees, Packaging Materials, Staff Costs, Payment Gateway Fees, or Other.
- Set the start date. Optionally set an end date if the cost is temporary.
- Click Save.
You do not need to choose a recurrence -- per-order adjustments calculate daily based on your actual order count for that day.
How Per-Order Works
Each day, your expense equals the per-order rate multiplied by the number of orders that day. On a day with 50 orders at $2 per order, the expense is $100. On a slow day with 20 orders, it is only $40. This means your P&L automatically reflects the true variable cost of fulfilling orders, without you needing to update anything manually.
Order Scope for Per Order
Choose which orders the per-order cost applies to:
- Regular orders only (default) -- excludes samples.
- All orders -- includes samples.
- Samples only -- samples exclusively, ignores regular orders.
Comparing Allocation Methods
| Method | When to use | Scales with sales? | Recurrence needed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed Amount | Rent, subscriptions, salaries -- costs that stay the same regardless of how many orders you get | No | Yes (daily/weekly/monthly/yearly) |
| Formula | Payment processing, platform fees -- costs with a base fee plus a percentage of revenue | Yes (percentage component) | Yes |
| Per Order | Pick & pack, packaging per box, per-transaction fees -- costs incurred once per order | Yes (directly with order count) | No (automatic daily) |
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Go to the Adjustments Page
Navigate to Manual Adjustments in the left sidebar.
Step 2: Click "Add Adjustment"
Click the button to create a new adjustment.
Step 3: Fill in the Details
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | A descriptive name (e.g., "Monthly Shopify subscription") |
| Type | Income or Expense |
| Category | Choose from categories like Supply Costs, Ad Costs, Shipping Costs, Staff Costs, Software Subscriptions, Taxes, and more |
| Amount | The dollar amount per occurrence |
| Date | The date (or start date for recurring) |
| End Date | Optional. For recurring adjustments, the last date it should repeat |
| Recurrence | One-Time, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly |
| Allocation Mode | Fixed Amount, Formula, or Per Order |
| Order Scope | (Per Order only) Regular orders only, All orders, or Samples only |
| Product / SKU | Optional. Bind the adjustment to a specific product or SKU |
| Timezone | Your local timezone, used for date calculations |
Step 4: Save
Click Save. The adjustment is applied immediately to the relevant dates on your P&L and Sales & Profit pages.
Binding Adjustments to Products or SKUs
By default, adjustments are applied at the shop level. However, you can bind an adjustment to a specific product or even specific SKUs within a product. This is useful for:
- Tracking product-specific costs (e.g., custom packaging for a particular item)
- Allocating shared costs across specific SKUs
- Getting accurate per-product profit on the Sales & Profit page
When binding to multiple SKUs, you can choose how the amount is distributed:
- Equal -- The total amount is split evenly among all selected SKUs.
- Custom -- You specify the exact amount for each SKU.
Expense Categories
Dashboardly provides many built-in categories to help you organize your adjustments:
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Supply Costs | Raw materials, production supplies |
| Ad Costs | Advertising spend outside TikTok |
| Marketing Costs | Influencer payments, non-ad marketing services |
| Shipping Costs | Third-party shipping services |
| FBS Manual Shipping | Manual shipping cost entries for FBS orders |
| Inbound Shipping | Costs to ship inventory to warehouses |
| Packaging Materials | Boxes, labels, inserts, other packaging supplies |
| Fulfillment Fees | Third-party fulfillment service charges |
| Staff Costs | Employee wages, contractor payments |
| Software Subscriptions | Shopify, tools, analytics software |
| Internet Utilities | Internet, phone, and similar recurring utilities |
| Taxes | Income and business taxes |
| VAT / GST | Value-added or goods & services tax |
| Legal Fees | Legal services, compliance costs |
| Platform Fees | Fees from other selling platforms |
| Payment Gateway Fees | Payment processing charges |
| Inventory Purchases | Bulk inventory buys |
| Inventory Write-Offs | Damaged or unsellable stock |
| Customer Refunds | Refunds processed outside TikTok |
| Return Shipping | Costs for processing returns |
| Damaged Goods | Loss from damaged inventory |
| One-Time Revenue | Non-recurring income |
| Affiliate Commission | Payments to affiliates outside TikTok |
| Other | Anything that does not fit other categories |
How Adjustments Affect Your Reports
Profit & Loss Page
Manual adjustments appear as separate line items in the P&L. Expenses reduce your Operating Profit and Net Profit. Income increases them.
Sales & Profit Page
If an adjustment is bound to a specific product, it affects that product's profit metrics directly. Shop-level adjustments appear in the overall totals.
FBS Manual Shipping Adjustments
If you use Fulfilled by Seller (FBS) and want to track your actual shipping costs per order, you can create FBS Manual Shipping adjustments. These let you:
- Select specific orders.
- Enter the actual shipping cost you paid.
- The adjustment is tied to those specific orders, giving you per-order shipping accuracy.
This is helpful when TikTok's reported shipping costs do not match what you actually paid your carrier.
Tips
- Be consistent with categories. Using the same category for similar costs makes your P&L easier to read.
- Use recurring adjustments for subscription costs. Set it once with a Monthly recurrence and it will automatically appear on each month's P&L.
- Review past adjustments periodically. If a recurring expense changed (e.g., a subscription price increased), update or create a new adjustment.
- Bind product-specific costs to SKUs. This gives you the most granular and accurate per-product profit data.
- Pause or resume recurring adjustments instead of deleting them. See Manual Adjustments for details.
Common Issues
Adjustment does not appear on the P&L
- Check the date. Make sure the adjustment's date falls within the date range you are viewing on the P&L.
- Check the timezone. If your adjustment timezone differs from the P&L date range, the adjustment may appear on a different day than expected.
Amount seems doubled
- Make sure you did not create the same adjustment twice. Check the adjustments list for duplicates.
- Recurring adjustments generate one entry per period. A monthly adjustment with a 12-month range creates 12 entries.
Deleted an adjustment but numbers did not change
Refresh the page. Changes to adjustments take effect immediately but the page may need a refresh to display updated numbers.