Your First Briefing

Understand what MarginEngine shows you on day one — and what it can't see yet.

What is a Briefing?

The Briefing is your home screen. It's not a dashboard with charts — it's your AI business partner telling you what matters right now.

Every Briefing follows a simple structure:

1. Headline number — one hard number with a change vs the previous period
2. Top Signal — the most important money-relevant pattern
3. Fog line — what we can't see yet and what it blocks
4. Next Move — the one action that would make the biggest difference

Day one Briefing

On your first day, MarginEngine knows your Shopify data: revenue, discounts, refunds, taxes, and shipping charged. This is enough to show:

• Net Revenue (after discounts and refunds)
• Refund patterns by SKU
• Discount usage patterns

Reading Fog lines

Fog is not an error. It means "we can't see this yet." Every Fog line tells you three things:

1. What's hidden — e.g. "Gross margin hidden"
2. What clears it — e.g. "set Product Costs for your top SKUs"
3. What you unlock — e.g. "see real margin"

Example: "Gross margin hidden — set Product Costs for your top SKUs → see real margin"

Receipts

Every number in your Briefing has a receipt. Click any number to see:

• How many orders/days the number is based on
• The date range
• The calculation method
• Any Fog or caveats

Receipts exist so you can verify any number in 1–2 clicks. Even if you never click, the fact that you could is what makes the system trustworthy.