Metrics & Calculations

Setpilot analytics · How every number is calculated

Every number,
explained.

No jargon, no black boxes. Here's what each number on your Setpilot dashboard means — and how we work it out — in plain language.

The basics

Setpilot looks at every order in your store and breaks it down piece by piece. For each sale we start with what the customer actually paid, take out the tax, and subtract any discount. That leaves your real sales — the honest amount that came in before your costs.

Real sales = What the customer paid − Tax − Discounts

Refunds and returns are handled automatically: when you give money back, it's subtracted from every number it affects. So everything you see already reflects what really happened — not just what was ordered.

Sales & revenue

The money coming in — what your customers paid you, before any of your costs.

Metric	What it means
Gross sales	Everything customers paid for your products, before discounts or refunds.
Net revenue	Your sales once tax and discounts are taken out — your true top line.
Total sales	Gross sales after discounts are applied.
Revenue split	The same revenue, broken into products, shipping and other charges.
Discounts	The total value of all the discounts you gave.
Returns	Money refunded to customers — shown as a negative.
Taxes	The tax you collected on orders.
Shipping charged	What customers paid you for shipping, after any refunds and discounts.
Units sold	How many product units you sold (returns aren't counted).

Your costs

Everything it takes to fulfil an order. Setpilot always fills in a value — even when some details are missing — so your profit is never overstated.

Cost	What it means
Product cost	What you paid your supplier for the items in the order. If you haven't set a cost for a product, we use your default margin so the figure stays realistic.
Shipping cost	What it costs you to ship the order, based on the shipping method and destination. If an order already shipped and is then refunded, this cost stays — the carrier was already paid.
Payment fees	What your payment provider (Shopify Payments, PayPal, and so on) charges to process the order — usually a small fixed fee plus a percentage.
Handling & processing	Any other per-order cost you've set up, like packaging or handling — as a fixed amount or a percentage of the order.
Marketing	Your ad spend, spread across the orders that came in that day. Only online-store orders carry ad cost — in-person and draft orders don't.
Other costs	Any remaining business costs you've added that don't fit the categories above.
Shipping balance	What customers paid for shipping minus what shipping actually cost you — whether shipping makes or loses you money.

Profit, step by step

Setpilot peels back your costs one layer at a time, so you can see exactly where your margin goes. Each step takes the one above and removes the next group of costs.

Gross profit = Net revenue − Product cost Profit after fulfilment = Gross profit − Shipping, payment & handling Contribution margin = Profit after fulfilment − Marketing Net profit = Contribution margin − Other costs

On the dashboard these four steps are also labelled CM1 to CM4. Alongside the amounts, we show each one as a percentage of your revenue, so you can compare months at a glance.

Metric	What it means
Gross margin %	Gross profit as a share of your revenue.
Contribution margin %	Contribution margin as a share of your revenue.
Total costs	All your costs added together.

Marketing

How hard your ad spend is working.

Metric	What it means
Ad spend	What you spent on each channel — Facebook/Meta, Google, and others.
Total spend	All your ad spend added up.
ROAS	Return on ad spend — the revenue you earned for every €1 spent on ads.
CAC	Customer acquisition cost — how much ad spend it takes to win one new customer.
AOV	Average order value — the typical amount a customer spends per order.

Customers

New shoppers versus people coming back. Every order is tagged as a customer's first purchase or a repeat, and that drives these numbers.

Metric	What it means
New orders	Orders from first-time customers.
Returning orders	Orders from customers who had bought from you before.
Total orders	All the orders in the period.
New vs. returning %	The share of your orders coming from new versus returning customers.
Lifetime value	The total a customer has spent with you over time.

Inventory

Whether you're about to run out — or sitting on too much. We look at how fast each product has been selling lately to estimate how long your stock will last.

Daily sales rate = Units sold in the last 90 days ÷ 90 Days of stock left = Units in stock ÷ Daily sales rate

Metric	What it means
In stock	Units you have on hand right now.
Sold (last 90 days)	How many units you've sold recently.
Stock status	Out of stock, low (under about a month left), overstock (more than ~6 months or not selling), or healthy.
Stock health %	The share of your products sitting in a healthy stock range.
Inventory value	What your current stock is worth — units on hand times their cost.

Order details

The labels Setpilot puts on each order, so you can filter and group your reports any way you like.

Detail	What it means
Payment status	Whether the order is paid, pending, refunded or partially refunded.
Fulfilment status	Whether the order is fulfilled, unfulfilled or partly fulfilled.
Source & payment method	Where the order came from and how the customer paid.
Order revenue	The order's net revenue.
Order profit	The order's profit after its fulfilment costs.

Where the numbers come from

Every figure traces back to your real orders. Setpilot reads each order in detail, adds up its costs and any refunds, then rolls everything into daily totals and the profit view on your dashboard.

Your orders → detailed breakdown → daily totals → your dashboard

Because nothing is guessed at the top level, you can always click into a number and see the exact orders behind it.