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Set Up Product Costs

Add your costs to unlock gross margin, Real Profit, and margin Signals.

Why Product Costs matter

Without Product Costs, MarginEngine can see your revenue but not your profit. Setting costs — even rough estimates — unlocks:

  • Gross margin per SKU and per order
  • Real Profit (contribution profit after all known variable costs)
  • Margin Signals — leaks and risks that only appear when costs are known

You don't need exact costs for every product. Start with your top 5–10 SKUs by revenue. MarginEngine will tell you which ones matter most.

Option 1: CSV import

The fastest way to set costs for many products at once.

  1. Open the AI chat and say "Help me set Product Costs"
  2. Paste or upload a CSV with columns: SKU, Cost
  3. MarginEngine previews the changes before applying
  4. Confirm to apply — costs are saved and margins recalculate automatically

CSV format example:

SKU,Cost
TSHIRT-BLK-M,12.50
HOODIE-RED-L,22.00
CAP-WHT,8.75

Option 2: Manual entry

For a small catalog or individual corrections:

  1. Go to the Product Costs page (via chat or navigation)
  2. Find the product or variant
  3. Enter the cost per unit
  4. Save — recalculation starts immediately

Option 3: AI-assisted

Ask the AI chat:

"Set Product Costs for my top revenue SKUs"

The AI will look up your highest-revenue variants, ask you for costs, and apply them with a preview before saving.

What happens after

Once costs are set:

  1. Margin snapshots recalculate for all affected orders
  2. Fog clears on products with known costs
  3. New Signals appear — margin leaks, cost anomalies, profitability rankings
  4. Receipts update to show the cost basis

GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out): if COGS is wrong, contribution margin will be wrong. The customer team is responsible for COGS accuracy. MarginEngine never fills in zero and never guesses a cost you did not provide. Unknown stays unknown until you confirm the number.

Historical costs

If your costs changed over time, you can set historical cost periods:

  1. Go to Product Costs
  2. Select a variant
  3. Use the historical correction flow to set costs for specific date ranges

This is useful when suppliers change pricing. MarginEngine will recalculate margins using the correct cost for each order's date.