Read the Finance Summary report in Shopify
The Finance Summary report is the bookkeeping view of the store. It gathers sales, payments, gift cards, tips and gross profit into cards, and the Total sales breakdown card shows how gross sales become total sales. This tutorial reads October 2026.
Written · Shopify admin, desktop steps · 6 minutes read
The worked example
| Period | October 2026 |
| Gross sales | $4,820.00 |
| Discounts | $312.40 |
| Sales reversals | $145.00 |
| Net sales | $4,362.60 |
| Total sales | $4,976.20 |
Download the record: finance-summary.csv (141 bytes).
A finance summary record for the worked example month. Gross sales minus discounts minus reversals gives net sales, and net sales plus taxes plus shipping gives total sales.
1Open the reports list
From your Shopify admin, go to Analytics then Reports. Click the Category filter and click Finances to show only the finance reports.
2Open Finance Summary
Click the Finance Summary report. It shows an overview of your sales, payments, gift cards, tips and gross profit data for the selected time frame, in cards with links to deeper reports.
3Read the Total sales breakdown card
Read the Total sales breakdown card first. It shows the key figures that add up to how much your customers spent overall, known as total sales. In the worked example, gross sales are $4,820.00, discounts $312.40 and sales reversals $145.00, giving net sales of $4,362.60.
4Add taxes and shipping
Below net sales, the card adds taxes and shipping. Taxes of $425.60 and shipping of $188.00 bring the total to $4,976.20. Total sales is net sales plus taxes, duties, shipping charges and fees.
5Open the Discounts by order report
Click the link to the Discounts by order report from the breakdown card. It lists the discounts customers received by using discount codes at checkout, split into line-item discounts and order-level discounts.
6Read the payments cards
Read the payments cards next: Total Payments, Payments by method and Payments received. These show money movement, which the sales figures do not.
7Check the gross profit card
Read the Gross profit breakdown card last. Only net sales with a cost recorded at the time of the sale count toward cost of goods sold and gross profit, so a product sold without a recorded cost adds to net sales but not to gross profit.
The arithmetic
| Line | Amount | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| Gross sales | $4,820.00 | $4,820.00 |
| Discounts | −$312.40 | $4,507.60 |
| Sales reversals | −$145.00 | $4,362.60 |
| Net sales | $4,362.60 | $4,362.60 |
| Taxes | $425.60 | $4,788.20 |
| Shipping | $188.00 | $4,976.20 |
| Total sales | $4,976.20 | $4,976.20 |
Net sales are $4,820.00 minus $312.40 minus $145.00, which is $4,362.60. Total sales are $4,362.60 plus $425.60 plus $188.00, which is $4,976.20.
Held at the counter
Net sales is not cash in the bank. The sales figures track the value of goods, and the payments cards track the money. A sale can be recorded days before the payout lands, so reconcile the two cards separately.
Profit counts only products with a cost recorded. If a product sold without a cost per item recorded at the time of the sale, its net sales sit outside the cost of goods sold and outside gross profit. Set the cost when you create the product, not at month end.
A removed channel drops from the channel list. By default the report shows data across all sales channels. If you remove a channel, it stops showing in the channel list, but you can still view its history by selecting All channels.
Sources
- Finance reports — Shopify's help pages: the Finance Summary report, the Total sales breakdown card, the Discounts by order report, and the gross profit rules.