Operating expenses are your overhead: the recurring costs that are not tied to a single order, like software, salaries, or a monthly marketing retainer. Shopshot calculates them daily and allocates them to orders, so your net profit reflects the true cost of running the business.
How allocation works
Operating expenses are calculated daily and allocated across orders. Recurring costs are automatically converted to daily rates by Shopshot. A $300 monthly cost, for example, becomes a daily amount that is spread across the days it covers, then shared across that period's orders.
Adding an expense
Use + Add Operating Expense and set:
Cost name (for example June 2026 Marketing).
Type (for example Fixed Amount).
Frequency (for example Monthly).
Category (for example Marketing).
Amount.
Start date and End date.
You can Import expenses in bulk or Export CSV, and edit or delete any row.
Where it lands
Operating Expenses is its own expandable group in the Profit & Loss statement, sitting below Contribution Margin. Subtracting it gives Net Profit. Because it is date-bounded and daily-allocated, an expense only affects the days it actually covers.
Common questions
Why spread a monthly cost across days? So a cost lands on the orders it genuinely supports, rather than dumping the whole amount on the day it was paid.
How do I handle a one-off cost? Set a start and end date that cover the period it applies to, and Shopshot allocates it across those days.