A side-by-side of the cost assumptions inside Triple Whale, Shopify, and the Kova forecasting dashboard, plus the specific answers we need to make profit reporting accurate.
The short version: Triple Whale showed a loss of about £4,100 for Aug 1 to 13, and we wanted to understand whether that number can be trusted. Triple Whale is pulling product costs from Shopify correctly. The issue is that the cost data inside Shopify itself is inconsistent, and the overhead and shipping figures in Triple Whale were entered a while ago and may no longer reflect how the business runs today.
We audited every product sold between 1 June and 13 August (7,104 orders, £388,857 in sales). The same product often exists as several Shopify listings, and those listings carry different costs for the same physical item. Example: the Tomato Vine Standard Starter Pack is costed at £30.11 on one listing and £21.38 on another. Whichever listing a customer happens to buy through decides which cost gets counted.
None of this is a big fix. It is one working session in Shopify plus five quick answers from you, listed at the bottom of this page.
"COGS ambiguity" means: if each product's true cost is the one on its highest-selling listing, the other listings mis-costed their sales by £2,684 over these 10 weeks. And if the highest-selling listing is the wrong one, the error is larger still. Another 75 products have smaller cost differences that we would tidy up in the same pass.
Same SKU, different cost depending on the listing. Sorted by profit impact. The pattern we see: newer single-scent listings carry costs around £30, older multi-listing pages carry £21 to £22, and our dashboard has been using £27.36. One of these is right and we need to know which.
| SKU | Listings selling this SKU and the cost each carries | Spread | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| NEW-STAR-IOW-TOM | Tomato Vine Refillable Candle Starter Pack (Standard Size)£30.11 (514 sold) Starter Pack£21.38 (102 sold) Refillable Candle Starter Pack£22.31 (7 sold) |
£8.73 | £945 |
| XLREFILL-FIG | Grand Refills£11.99 (45 sold) Fig Candle Refill (Grand Size)£11.23 (5 sold) Grand Refill Subscription - 12 Months£134.76 (3 sold) Rolling Subscription£11.23 (1 sold) |
£123.53 | £373 |
| NEW-STAR-OUT-CIT | Citronella Refillable Outdoor Candle Starter Pack (Standard Size)£30.11 (86 sold) Starter Pack£21.38 (23 sold) PREORDER - Outdoor Candle - Standard Starter Pack£30.11 (13 sold) Refillable Candle Starter Pack£22.31 (1 sold) |
£8.73 | £209 |
| PET-STAR-IOW-TOM | Tomato Vine Refillable Candle Starter Pack (Petite Size)£23.10 (108 sold) Petite Starter Pack£15.77 (21 sold) |
£7.33 | £154 |
| XLREFILL-CIT | Citronella Outdoor Candle Refill (Grand Size)£2.67 (16 sold) Grand Refills£11.23 (12 sold) Citronella Refills£10.23 (4 sold) |
£8.56 | £133 |
| SQUARTERSUB | The Petite Seasonal Subscription Box£17.04 (16 sold) Seasonal Subscription£9.01 (15 sold) |
£8.03 | £120 |
| LREFILL-DISC | Standard Refills£5.62 (632 sold) Rolling Subscription£5.68 (92 sold) Standard Refill Subscription - 12 Months£62.40 (2 sold) Standard Refill Subscription - Rolling£5.68 (1 sold) |
£56.78 | £119 |
| LREFILL-TON | Standard Refills£5.68 (137 sold) Rolling Subscription£5.68 (36 sold) Tonka Candle Refill (Standard Size)£5.68 (24 sold) Standard Refill Subscription - 12 Months£62.40 (2 sold) |
£56.72 | £113 |
| LREFILL-MRO | Standard Refills£5.62 (178 sold) Roses Standard Refill - 290g£5.68 (105 sold) Roses Candle Refill (Standard Size)£5.68 (72 sold) Rolling Subscription£2.67 (34 sold) |
£3.01 | £111 |
| NEW-STAR-OUT-TRO | Tropic Refillable Outdoor Candle Starter Pack (Standard Size)£30.11 (18 sold) PREORDER - Outdoor Candle - Standard Starter Pack£30.11 (10 sold) Starter Pack£21.38 (10 sold) |
£8.73 | £87 |
| LCANDLE-IOW-TOM | Tomato Vine Refillable Candle (Standard Size)£19.68 (129 sold) Standard Candles£14.42 (14 sold) |
£5.26 | £74 |
| LREFILL-TOM | Tomato Vine Candle Refill (Standard Size)£5.68 (211 sold) Standard Refills£5.62 (176 sold) Rolling Subscription£2.67 (20 sold) |
£3.01 | £71 |
These sold in the period but have an empty cost field in Shopify, so Triple Whale counts them as pure profit. The Petite Starter Pack single-scent listings are the main gap. The multi-scent Petite listing carries £15.77, so that is probably the right value, but the newer listings pattern above suggests it could be higher.
| Listing | SKU | Units | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Refills | no SKU | 63 | £1,663 |
| Outdoor Candle - Grand Starter Pack | no SKU | 10 | £990 |
| The Heather MatchPott | no SKU | 12 | £293 |
| Grand Candles | no SKU | 3 | £267 |
| Orangery Refillable Candle Starter Pack (Petite Size) | PET-STAR-SPE-ORA | 5 | £245 |
| Citronella Outdoor Refillable Candle Starter Pack (Petite Size) | PET-STAR-OUT-CIT | 5 | £245 |
| Seasalt Refillable Candle Starter Pack (Petite Size) | PET-STAR-OCE-SEA | 4 | £196 |
| Just a Pott | no SKU | 6 | £165 |
| Starter Pack | no SKU | 2 | £130 |
| The Blush MatchPott | no SKU | 5 | £125 |
| Cook Refillable Candle Starter Pack (Petite Size) | PET-STAR-SAG-COO | 2 | £90 |
| The Speckle MatchPott | no SKU | 3 | £75 |
| Starter Pack | no SKU | 1 | £69 |
| Just a Pott | no SKU | 2 | £55 |
| Fig Refillable Candle Starter Pack (Petite Size) | PET-STAR-BLU-FIG | 1 | £49 |
| Tonka Refillable Candle Starter Pack (Petite Size) | PET-STAR-HEA-TON | 1 | £49 |
| Roses Refillable Candle Starter Pack (Petite Size) | PET-STAR-BLU-MRO | 1 | £45 |
| Just a Pott | no SKU | 1 | £45 |
| Just a Pott | no SKU | 1 | £45 |
These are manually entered figures, one set in Triple Whale and one in our dashboard, and they disagree. Both were entered months ago, before the recent team changes.
| Cost line | Triple Whale hasTW | Kova dashboard hasKova | The question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed overheads | £1,100 per day (about £33,500/mo), entered Oct 2025 | £28,896 per month (about £950/day) | With the staffing change, the smaller consultant arrangement, and the email platform fees gone, what is the real monthly figure now? |
| Fulfilment and shipping per order | £2.00 per order, entered Jun 2025. The shipping profile itself is set to £0.00 | £4.50 per order | What does it actually cost today to pick, pack and post one order, including materials? |
Shopify Payments fees import automatically into Triple Whale, so those are accurate. The other gateways are manual entries.
| Gateway | Triple Whale hasTW | Kova dashboard hasKova | The question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Payments | Imported from Shopify (accurate) | 1.7% + 25p flat on all orders | None. We will align our flat rate to the imported actuals. |
| PayPal, Klarna, manual, gift card | 0% + 30p per order | 1.7% + 25p (same flat rate as above) | The 30p with no percentage looks like a placeholder. PayPal and Klarna both charge a percentage. Do you have the real rates, or shall we pull them from your gateway statements? |
Once we have the answers: we (or your team) update the cost field on every duplicate listing in Shopify so each SKU carries one number, fill in the Petite costs, and correct the overhead, fulfilment and gateway entries in Triple Whale. We update the same figures in the Kova dashboard at the same time. From then on both systems read from the same corrected source and the profit number becomes one we can all trust.