The Cost of Goods, also known as "COGS," is most commonly used to determine the sales tax due for a specific period. You can access COGS in the dashboard by selecting Reports > Cost Of Goods. Filter by the store, use the Column Visibility tab to choose which columns you want to export to CSV or PDF, and then select the date range.
If the report is generating slowly, try shortening the date range.
What the ShipHero COGS Report Includes and Excludes
The COGS report lists items that shipped with a ShipHero shipping label and prices them at the current cost on each product record. Use the table below to see what the report does and does not capture before you rely on it for tax or financial decisions.
| Data | How the COGS report handles it |
|---|---|
| Shipped items with a shipping label | Included. An item appears in the COGS report when it is tied to a shipping label. |
| Orders without a shipping label | Not included. Orders that never had a shipping label generated, such as draft orders or orders that have not shipped, do not appear in the COGS report. |
| Returns | Included. The COGS report shows return figures for the date range you select, along with figures before and after returns. |
| Product cost | Current cost only. The COGS report uses the cost on the product record when you generate the report. |
| Cost at the time of sale | Not captured. The COGS report does not save the cost of a product at the time it shipped. If you change a product's cost, the next report you generate uses the new cost for every shipped item in its date range. |
| Landed costs and different purchase prices | Not captured. The COGS report does not include landed costs. It also does not track different costs when you buy the same product from different vendors or on different purchase orders. |
| Kits | Calculated from components. See Kit COGS in the ShipHero COGS Report below for how Standard Kits and Build Kits differ. |
COGS Report Example: Changing a Product's Cost
A product costs $5 when it ships in January. In February, you change the product's cost to $6. If you generate the January COGS report in March, the report uses $6 for every unit shipped in January.
Kit COGS in the ShipHero COGS Report
The COGS report calculates kit costs from component costs. What the report shows depends on the kit type. A Standard Kit stays as one line item on the order, and a Build Kit is split into one line item for each component. For more about the two kit types, see Overview: Kits in ShipHero.
| Kit type | Rows in the COGS report | How the COGS report calculates cost |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Kit | One row for the parent kit SKU. | ShipHero adds up each component's cost multiplied by its quantity in the kit, then multiplies the total by the number of kits shipped. The cost on the parent kit's product record is ignored. |
| Build Kit | One row for each component SKU. The parent kit SKU does not appear as a row. | Each component uses its own cost, multiplied by the quantity shipped. |
For both kit types, the selling price and the component retail price do not change COGS. The COGS report uses selling price only for the tax and sales columns, such as Price Paying Tax On.
For example, a "Chocolate Gift Box" kit has one milk chocolate bar (cost $2), one dark chocolate bar (cost $3), and one bag of truffles (cost $4). The parent kit SKU has a cost of $1 and a selling price of $25. If 10 kits ship:
- Standard Kit: The COGS report shows one row for the Chocolate Gift Box with COGS of ($2 + $3 + $4) × 10 = $90. The parent kit cost of $1 is ignored.
- Build Kit: The COGS report shows three rows: the milk chocolate bar at $20, the dark chocolate bar at $30, and the truffles at $40. The rows add up to the same $90.
Get Cost of Goods Data Outside the ShipHero COGS Report
When the COGS report does not meet your reporting needs, you can pull your ShipHero data into your own tools and apply your own cost rules, such as landed costs or the cost on the date an item shipped. The cost for each product is stored in the product's Value field. ShipHero offers two ways to pull your data.
| Option | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Recurring Data Exports | Use Recurring Data Exports when you want a scheduled copy of your ShipHero data, such as orders, shipments, returns, and products, to load into a database or reporting tool like Power BI, Tableau, or Snowflake. Recurring Data Exports are free and run automatically on a schedule. See Overview: Recurring Data Exports in ShipHero for what they include and how to access them. |
| ShipHero AI Toolkit | Use the AI Toolkit when you want to ask an AI assistant, such as Claude or ChatGPT, questions about your ShipHero data in plain language. See the toolkit overview for how to connect. |
Discounts and Sale Items
When ShipHero pulls an item's sale price from your e-commerce store, the discount will be reflected in the Price Paying Tax On column.
If a percentage discount is offered on the total price of an order, the percentage is calculated by comparing the total order price and the sum of line items. This is also reflected in the Price Paying Tax On column.