The most common question in the first week is "why don't my Shopshot numbers match Shopify?" The short answer: your sales do match, and they are meant to. Your profit is lower, and that is the entire point. Shopify shows what you sold. Shopshot shows what you kept.
What should match, and what should not
Figure | Shopify | Shopshot | Should they match |
Total Sales | Total Sales | Total Sales | Yes. Shopshot uses Shopify's definition and reconciles exactly. |
Net Sales | Net Sales | Net Sales | Yes. Same definition (gross minus discounts minus returns, ex tax and shipping). |
Gross / Net Profit | Not shown | Shown | No. Shopify does not calculate profit. This is what Shopshot adds. |
If your Total Sales does not match Shopify, that is a data or date-range issue worth a support conversation. If your Net Profit is lower than Shopify's sales, that is correct and expected.
Why Net Profit is lower
Shopify's headline is revenue. Shopshot subtracts the real costs Shopify never tracks:
COGS from your cost setup
Shipping cost you actually paid carriers
Transaction fees from your payment gateways
Fulfillment (handling) costs
Ad spend and acquisition cost from connected platforms
Operating expenses you have entered
[Screenshot placeholder] Side-by-side of Shopify's Total Sales and Shopshot's P&L, highlighting that Total Sales agrees while Net Profit is lower
How to reconcile in three checks
Match the date range. Set the same range in both tools, in the same time zone (Shopshot uses your store's time zone).
Confirm Total Sales agrees. It should match to the dollar. If it does, your data is syncing correctly.
Read down the P&L. Each subtraction from Total Sales to Net Profit is a real cost from your setup. If a cost looks too low, that input is probably incomplete, not wrong.
Why a cost might look off
A number that looks wrong is almost always a number that is incomplete. If Order-level Costs look low, COGS or shipping is not finished. If Marketing Costs are zero, no ad platform is connected. Shopshot never fills a gap with a guess, so a missing input shows up as a smaller cost, which makes profit look higher than it really is.
Common questions
My Total Sales matches but my accountant's profit is different. Who is right? Both can be right at their own definition. Confirm you are both including or excluding the same things (tax treatment, refund timing). Shopshot documents each rule in How Shopshot calculates profit.
Shopify shows a sale today that Shopshot shows on a different day. Why? Check the time zone. Shopshot dates everything in your store's time zone, and recognizes returns on their processed date.
My profit went up after I did nothing. Why? A sync likely completed, or a refund cleared. Profit reflects the latest reconciled data for the range.
Next step
If a cost line looks incomplete, close the gap. Finishing your cost setup is what makes Net Profit exact. → Set up costs for a new store
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