Setting Up Cost of Goods (COGS)

Overview

Setting up your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is essential for accurate profit tracking. Without COGS, Dashboardly can't calculate your true profit margins. There are three ways to set up costs: individually, in bulk, or via CSV import.

Why COGS Matter

Until you set your product costs, your Profit & Loss report will show $0 for COGS, meaning your profit numbers won't reflect your actual margins. Once you add costs:

• Dashboard shows accurate profit metrics
• P&L Report includes full cost breakdowns
• Inventory displays product-level profitability
• Per-order profit becomes visible in the Orders view

Method 1: Individual Product Cost

Best for setting costs on a few products:

1. Navigate to Inventory from the sidebar
2. Find the product you want to update
3. Click the Unit COG cell for that product/SKU
4. A modal will open with your options:
   • Add First COG Period (if no cost exists yet)
   • Edit Current Period or Add New COG Period (if a cost already exists)
5. Enter the following:
   • Cost Value — Your per-unit cost (e.g., $12.50)
   • Effective Date — When this cost becomes active (defaults to today)
   • Notes (optional) — Reason for the cost (e.g., "Initial supplier cost")
6. Click Create Period

The cost is applied immediately and your profit metrics will update.

Method 2: Bulk Update

Best for setting the same cost across multiple products:

1. Go to Inventory
2. Select multiple products using the checkboxes
3. Click Bulk Update Costs from the toolbar
4. In the modal, fill in the cost fields you want to update:
   • Unit COG — Per-unit product cost
   • Shipping Cost — Per-unit shipping cost
   • FBS Costs — Storage, fulfillment, and shipping fees (if using FBS)
5. Set the Effective Date (immediate or custom date)
6. Add optional Notes
7. Review the preview showing how many products will be updated
8. Click Apply

Only fields you fill in will be updated — empty fields are skipped.

Method 3: CSV/Excel Import

Best for setting costs across your entire catalog:

Step 1: Download the Template

1. Go to Inventory
2. Click Import Costs
3. Select your product filter:
   • Active or sold (recommended) — Products with recent activity
   • Active only — Currently active products
   • All products — Everything in your catalog
4. Click Download Template to get an Excel file

Step 2: Fill in Your Costs

1. Open the downloaded file in Excel or Google Sheets
2. You'll see columns for: Product Name, Seller SKU, Product ID, SKU ID, Unit COG, FBS Shipping Cost
3. Fill in the Unit COG and/or FBS Shipping Cost columns
4. Leave cells empty to skip them
5. Do not modify the Product ID or SKU ID columns

Step 3: Upload and Review

1. Back in Dashboardly, upload your filled-in file
2. The system validates your data and shows a preview:
   • Green — Cost decreased
   • Red — Cost increased
   • Blue — New cost (was empty before)
   • Error — Invalid data (shown with explanation)
3. Review the changes carefully

Step 4: Confirm Import

1. If there are errors, you can fix and re-upload, or check "Skip invalid rows"
2. Click Import to apply
3. You'll see a summary: successful updates, failed, and skipped

Cost Periods & Effective Dates

Dashboardly uses a time-period cost model. This means you can track cost changes over time:

• Each cost entry has an Effective Date (when it starts) and an optional End Date
• When you add a new cost period, the previous period automatically ends the day before
• Your P&L report will use the correct cost for each time period

Example:

• Jan 1 – Jun 30: Unit COG = $5.00
• Jul 1 – Dec 31: Unit COG = $5.50
• Jan 1 onwards: Unit COG = $6.00

This way, your historical profit calculations remain accurate even when costs change.

Product-Level Defaults

You can set a default cost at the product level that automatically applies to all SKUs:

• SKU-specific costs override the product default
• You can reset any SKU back to the product default
• Useful when all variants of a product share the same cost

Supported Cost Types

Tips

• Start with Unit COG — it has the biggest impact on profit accuracy
• Use the CSV import if you have more than 20 products
• Update your costs whenever your supplier prices change
• Check Inventory → Cost History to review all past cost changes