Start with the order and its adjustments
A customer keeps one item and returns another. You issue a partial refund, refund part of the original shipping charge, and see a payment fee in the Shopify payout report. To understand what you kept, begin with Shopify’s order and sales records. They can tell you how much merchandise and shipping revenue was reversed, which matters when you match the payment that went back to the customer.
Shopify calculates net sales from gross sales after discounts and sales reversals. It reports shipping and taxes separately. If you use the net sales line, check which reversals are already in it before making any adjustment. Keep customer-paid shipping separate from what your own carrier charged you. Shopify’s sales report definitions.
Follow one partially refunded order in Canadian dollars
This fictional store sold C$140 in merchandise and applied a C$20 code. The customer paid C$10 for shipping. Later, the store reversed C$30 in merchandise sales and refunded C$5 of shipping. The example also shows C$12 in checkout tax with C$3 reversed. Use the actual amounts by line in your order, including any rounding.
| Line | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Net merchandise sales | C$140 gross − C$20 discount − C$30 merchandise reversal | C$90.00 |
| Net shipping income | C$10 received − C$5 refunded | C$5.00 |
| Net revenue for profit review | C$90 merchandise + C$5 net shipping | C$95.00 |
| Separate tax line | C$12 charged − C$3 reversed | C$9.00 |
| Product, fulfillment, and fees | C$48 product cost + C$13 fulfillment + C$4.21 recorded fees | C$65.21 |
| Order contribution before ads and overhead | C$95.00 − C$65.21 | C$29.79 |
If you allocate C$16 of ad spend to this order for your own reporting, the tracked contribution falls to C$13.79 before overhead. Write down how you allocated the spend. If you handle ad costs at store level, start with the C$29.79 order contribution and account for ads when you sum the period.
Match the activity to the order, processor, and supplier
- Order and sales records. Match the original sale and reversal by order reference. Record when the adjustment was processed. If a Friday order is refunded on Monday, decide whether the report should show Monday activity or update the order’s original cohort. Keep the chosen basis consistent across comparisons.
- Payment transaction records. Find the original charge, the refund, and the fees recorded by your payment processor. Use the fee amounts from the transactions. Shopify Payments lets you view fees in the transaction table and export the underlying details. Shopify’s payout detail and export instructions.
- Supplier and fulfillment records. Check whether you paid return postage and whether the item could be resold. In this example the store did not recover the product cost. A confirmed C$14 supplier credit would increase the example contribution before ads and overhead to C$43.79.
Explain why the payout amount differs
Payouts show when money moved through the payment provider. The order report shows what sold or was reversed during the period. A partial refund, a payout spanning several order days, and Thursday’s sales all have different timestamps. If you also accept payments through a separate processor, pull that provider’s fees and settlement data separately.
Match a bank deposit to its payout entry, then follow the payout to the charge, refund, and fee records behind it. For period-level balance activity, Shopify recommends its Shopify Payments activity report. The report describes activity in Shopify Payments and has separate coverage from the sales report. Shopify Payments activity report guidance.
Make three orders your weekly spot check
Pick one discounted order, one partially refunded order, and one order with an unusually large fee or shipping charge. Trace each to its original transaction. For each open item, make a short note about the source record, the amount you need to confirm, and whether the number in the profit report is final or still estimated.
In the Profit Inspector sample, use the period filter and inspect the cost lines where you would look for a discrepancy. Then bring your three real orders to the weekly reconciliation blueprint and match your inputs before drawing a conclusion. Explore the sample profit dashboard.
Common questions
Are discounts and refunds already included in Shopify net sales?
Shopify’s net sales reflect discounts and sales reversals. Check the order detail and use the separate shipping and tax lines when matching a customer’s refund.
Why doesn’t a Shopify payout match net sales?
Payouts reflect payment activity and settlement timing. Net sales reflect sales and reversals. Reconcile payout fees and transactions separately, then match them to the right orders when needed.
Repeat the check next week
Follow the weekly blueprint to match sales, costs, and deposits in order.
Read the reconciliation blueprint