Skip to main content
Operating Expenses captures overhead and indirect costs that are not tied to individual orders but still affect your bottom line. Costs like advertising spend, software subscriptions, office lease, and services belong here. Analytics subtracts these expenses from Gross Profit to calculate Net Profit for signed-in product users.
Operating Expenses

The Operating Expenses page with recorded ad spend and software costs

Operating Expenses can also be automated through the public API. Use expenses:write to create expenses and expenses:read to list or retrieve them.

​
What belongs in Operating Expenses

Use Operating Expenses for costs that support business operations but are not directly attached to a specific order:
  • Ad spend, including Facebook, Google, Etsy Ads, and similar channels.
  • Software subscriptions and tools.
  • Logistics and service fees.
  • Office costs and other overhead.
  • Custom categories you define.
Production costs tied to a specific order, such as supplier base costs, belong in the Ledger rather than Operating Expenses.

​
Setting up expense categories

Before recording expenses, configure categories in Settings → Expense Categories.
  • Categories are split into Operating and Payroll groups.
  • You can drag and drop categories to reorder dropdown menus.
  • Mark a category as Inactive if you no longer use it. Historical data remains preserved.
  • Only admin users can create or modify categories.

​
Recording an expense

You can add expenses four ways:
  • Single Entry — enter one expense at a time.
  • Bulk Entry — enter multiple expenses in a grid.
  • CSV Upload — upload a spreadsheet of expenses from another system or bank export.
  • API — create single or bulk expenses from external systems using the Expenses API.

​
Required fields

Every expense entry requires:
  • Date — when the expense occurred.
  • Category — select a configured category, or choose Other and enter a custom label.
  • Amount — the cost in USD.
You can optionally assign an expense to a specific Store, or leave it blank to apply as a consolidated expense. Use Description for notes.
When entering expenses manually or via bulk entry, Sellfern checks for potential duplicates with the same date, category, and store. Review warnings before saving.

​
Ad spend and VAT

A 5% VAT is automatically added to expenses recorded under an Ads category. VAT is calculated and tracked separately so Analytics can show both net ad spend and the VAT component.

​
Recurring expenses

For predictable costs, create a recurring expense. Sellfern applies the same amount, category, and store assignment on the schedule you configure.

​
How expenses affect Analytics

Operating expenses feed into Net Profit calculations.
For accurate reporting, expenses must be logged for the same time period you analyze. If you run a report for October but have not recorded October ad spend, Net Profit can appear higher than expected.

​
API automation

Use the API for system-to-system expense imports from accounting tools, bank exports, payroll processors, or workflow automation platforms.
For payroll imports, send a payroll category plus the optional payroll fields such as base_amount, bhxh_amount, bhxh_rate, bhxh_type, and employee_name.