# Margin memo: what last week actually made

> The Margin memo shows what last week's sales made after product cost and ad spend, store-wide and by product, from Shopify's cost per item. Nothing is estimated.

Source: https://www.usepiste.com/docs/measurement/margin-memo

The Margin memo shows what one Monday-to-Sunday week made once product cost and ad spend are taken out, for the whole store and by product. Every figure comes from Shopify or your ad accounts and says where it came from, and Piste never estimates a missing cost. The memo ends on at most one product worth a decision, as a plain line: nothing in your store changes.

## How do I get the Margin memo?

You can get it every Monday as an [automation](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations), or ask for it whenever you like.

**Every Monday.** The owner creates it from the Margin memo template. It runs Mondays at 8:00 in your workspace's time zone, covers last week, and posts every week, even when there's nothing to decide.

### 1. Open Automations

Go to https://app.usepiste.com/automations and pick **Margin memo** under "Ready-made for your store".

### 2. Choose where results go

Pick the web chat, Slack (your DM or a channel) or iMessage. It starts as where you already read.

### 3. Create it

Press `Create and try it now`. The memo is created switched on, and its first run is a dry run: it reads your store and writes the memo, but posts nothing.

A workspace can have one Margin memo automation. See [Templates](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations/templates) for the other ready-made automations.

**Whenever you ask.** Ask Piste "What did we actually make last week?", or name an earlier week. Anyone who talks to Piste can ask, on the web, in Slack or over iMessage. It reads only, so nothing asks for approval.

## What's in the memo?

| Line | What it says |
|---|---|
| Net sales | Shopify's net sales and orders for the week, with gross sales, discounts, and refunds and returns, before tax and shipping |
| After product cost and ad spend | What's left, on the net sales that have a cost recorded: as cents in the dollar for US, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong dollars, otherwise as a percentage of those sales |
| Product cost | From Shopify's cost per item, with the share of net sales it covers |
| Ad spend (early access) | Each connected ad account's spend for the week, as billed |
| Not taken out | Payment fees, shipping you pay for, staff, rent, apps and taxes |
| By product | The 5 best-selling products, each with net sales and what's left after its cost |
| One to decide | At most one product, or "Nothing to decide this week." |

When fewer than 80% of net sales have a cost recorded, the memo gives no store-wide margin. It says so, names up to 3 best sellers without a cost, and adds: "Filling in their cost per item in Shopify would unlock the margin."

## How are the figures worked out?

- **Net sales** are Shopify's, so refunds and discounts are already out and aren't taken off again. A refund counts in the week it happens, as Shopify's reports count it, so a week can carry an earlier week's refunds.
- **Product cost** is Shopify's cost per item, the cost you entered on each variant. Sales of products without a cost are left out of the margin, never guessed.
- **Ad spend** is each connected account's spend, as billed, taken out in full. Only spend in the store's currency counts: an account billed in another currency is named and left out, not converted. Spend is set against a product only where Google Shopping names the product; the rest isn't split by product. Without an ad account, the memo says "Ad spend: no ad account is connected, so none is taken out."

All the ad spend comes out of the sales that have a cost recorded, even though some of it sold products without one, so the figure errs low rather than high.

## What does "One to decide" mean?

The memo picks at most one product: the biggest loss among products with at least 5 orders in the week, or, with none, a best seller that has no cost.

| What it found | What the memo suggests |
|---|---|
| A product that sold below its cost | "Worth checking its cost per item, its price and any discount on it in Shopify." |
| A product that lost money once its Google Shopping ads are counted | "You could lower its bids or leave it out of Shopping in Google Ads, or raise its price in Shopify." |
| One of the 5 listed products with no cost, bringing at least 5% of net sales | "Enter its cost per item in Shopify and next week's memo will count it." |

The suggestion is a line of text, not a card. Piste doesn't change prices, bids or listings from the memo. Before writing, Piste checks [memory](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/memory): if it says you ignore that product, or you've already declined that decision, the memo leaves the "One to decide" line out.

## What does the Margin memo need?

- **A connected Shopify store with its sales reports.** The store's owner grants reports by opening Piste in the Shopify admin and choosing "Allow Piste to read your sales reports". Without it, Piste says the memo can't be made and why. See [Shopify](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/shopify).
- **Cost per item in Shopify** on the products that make at least 80% of your net sales, for a store-wide margin.
- **A Google Ads or Meta account** (early access) for the ad spend line. Without one, the memo takes out product cost only.

## Limits

| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Schedule | Mondays at 8:00, in your workspace's time zone |
| Week covered | Last full Monday-to-Sunday week, in the store's time zone |
| Cost recorded for a store-wide margin | At least 80% of net sales |
| Products read | The 250 best-selling |
| Products listed | 5, with a count of the rest |
| Orders before a product counts as a loss to act on | 5 in the week |
| Best seller without a cost worth deciding on | At least 5% of net sales |
| Decisions per memo | At most 1 |

## Related

- [Templates](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations/templates): the Margin memo and the other ready-made automations.
- [Measurement](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/measurement): what your ad spend did, by channel.
- [Targets](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/measurement/targets): a monthly net sales target.

## Questions

### Does the Margin memo include payment fees?

No. Payment fees, shipping you pay for, staff, rent, apps and taxes are never taken out, and every memo says so.

### Why does my memo say there's no store-wide margin?

Under 80% of last week's net sales had a cost per item recorded in Shopify. Piste doesn't estimate missing costs, so it names the best sellers without one instead.

### Is the Margin memo my profit?

No. It's what's left of the net sales that have a cost recorded, after product cost and ad spend. Payment fees, shipping, staff, rent, apps and taxes are still to come out.

### Do I need an ad account for the Margin memo?

No. With Shopify alone, the memo takes out product cost and says no ad account is connected, so no ad spend is taken out.

### Does Piste change anything based on the memo?

No. The memo ends on at most one product worth a decision, written as a line about what you could do. Nothing in your store or ad accounts changes.