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 cost of the products you sold, based on the unit costs you entered on the Inventory page.
• Formula: Unit Cost x Quantity for each item sold
• Where you see it: Dashboard, Profit & Loss, Sales & Profit, Product Details
• How costs are determined: Dashboardly now supports product-level defaults with SKU-level overrides. When calculating COGS for a sold item, the system reads the cost from the inventory record for that SKU. If the SKU has its own cost set, that value is used. If not, the product-level default is used. If neither is set, COGS defaults to $0. This means you can set cost once per product and have it apply to all variants automatically.
• Important notes: COGS must be configured manually on the Inventory page -- Dashboardly cannot automatically know what you paid for your products. If COGS shows as zero, go to Inventory and set your unit costs (at the product level or per SKU). COGS is included even for orders that were refunded but where the product was NOT returned to you, because you still lost that inventory.

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 may show estimated fees based on your shop's historical fee rate; these estimates are replaced with exact amounts once TikTok settles the order. See Understanding Your Data Quality for the full progression.

Shipping Cost

• What it shows: The net financial impact of shipping on your profit. This can be positive or negative.
• Formula: Pulled from TikTok settlement data (net shipping amount)
• Where you see it: Profit & Loss, Sales & Profit
• Recent orders: Orders that have not yet been settled by TikTok now estimate shipping costs using historical averages from your shop. This means shipping costs appear sooner rather than showing $0 until settlement. For FBS (Fulfilled by Seller) orders, you can also set a default shipping cost per product on the Inventory page, which is used when no TikTok shipping data is available.
• Important notes: A negative shipping cost means you paid for shipping (for example, if you offered free shipping or a shipping discount). A positive shipping cost means the customer paid more for shipping than it actually cost, and you keep the difference. This is the settlement-level shipping impact from TikTok, not a carrier invoice. Once TikTok settles a payment, the estimated value is replaced with the exact amount automatically. To see the full picture, look at Net Shipping Impact on the P&L page, which combines Shipping Revenue (what the customer paid) with Shipping Cost (the net settlement amount).

FBT Fees

• What it shows: Warehouse and fulfillment fees charged by TikTok's Fulfillment by TikTok (FBT) program.
• Formula: Pulled from TikTok settlement data
• Where you see it: Profit & Loss, Sales & Profit
• Important notes: FBT fees only apply if you use TikTok's fulfillment warehouses. If you handle your own shipping, this will be zero. These fees cover storage, picking, packing, and shipping handled by TikTok's warehouses.

Co-funded Promotion Fee

• What it shows: Your share of the cost for co-funded promotional campaigns with TikTok.
• Formula: Pulled from TikTok fee data (cofunded_promotion_service_fee_amount)
• Where you see it: Profit & Loss (within Fees & Taxes breakdown)
• Important notes: When you participate in TikTok co-funded promotions, both you and TikTok contribute. This metric shows YOUR portion (the expense). TikTok's portion appears as Platform Subsidy (income for you). These are two separate values -- do not confuse them.

Landed Cost

• What it shows: The full cost of getting your products into the warehouse, including product cost, shipping to warehouse, customs duties, and import taxes.
• Formula: COGS + Inventory Shipping + Customs Duty + Import VAT
• Where you see it: Product Details, Inventory
• Important notes: Landed Cost gives you a more complete view of your true per-unit cost than COGS alone. You can enter Inventory Shipping, Customs Duty, and Import VAT on the Inventory page alongside your unit costs.

How These Metrics Connect

All cost metrics feed into the Operating Profit calculation:

1. COGS is subtracted first to get Gross Profit
2. Then Fees & Taxes, Shipping Cost, and FBT Fees are subtracted to reach Operating Profit
3. Co-funded Promotion Fee is part of the Fees & Taxes total

The more accurately you set your COGS and landed costs, the more accurate your profit metrics will be.

Common Questions

Why is COGS showing as zero?

You need to set your product unit costs on the Inventory page. The fastest approach is to set cost at the product level, which automatically applies to all SKUs. Dashboardly cannot automatically determine what you paid for your products. Once you enter costs, COGS will calculate automatically for all past and future orders.

Why is Shipping Cost sometimes positive?

A positive shipping cost means the customer paid more for shipping than the actual shipping expense. TikTok settles the net difference to you. This is most common when customers pay a flat shipping fee that exceeds the real cost. It increases your profit.

Why do Fees & Taxes seem different for recent orders?

Dashboardly upgrades order data through three stages: Just Placed (newest orders -- fees estimated from your shop's historical average), Processing (TikTok provides pre-settlement fee data that is more accurate), and Settled (final exact amounts from TikTok's settlement). Recent fees refine automatically as TikTok settles payments -- no action needed from you. See Understanding Your Data Quality for the full breakdown.

What is the difference between COGS and Landed Cost?

COGS is just the product purchase price. Landed Cost adds shipping-to-warehouse, customs duties, and import VAT on top. If you source products internationally, Landed Cost gives a more accurate picture of your true product cost.

Do cancelled orders affect COGS?

It depends. If an order was cancelled before shipping, COGS is not counted. If the order was shipped and then cancelled (but the product was not returned), COGS is still counted because you lost that inventory.