Gross profit is your trading. Net profit is your business. Expenses is where the difference lives — payroll, software, advertising and the charges eBay bills you for running a shop.
An expense belongs to a calendar month, not a day. The page shows one month at a time, with arrows to move between them.
What imports itself
Three kinds of expense arrive from eBay automatically and keep themselves up to date:
| Row | What it is |
|---|---|
| eBay store subscription | Your monthly store fee |
| eBay listing fees | Insertion fees |
| eBay advertising | Promoted Listings charges that name no particular order |
| eBay postage labels | Labels billed to your account rather than to an order |
| eBay return postage labels | Charged to the month the label was bought |
| eBay fees on orders outside your history | Fees on orders before your start date — see eBay fees |
An imported row carries a from eBay marker and has no delete button. That is on purpose: the row is a mirror of eBay's ledger, so deleting it would only bring it back on the next sync. Expand one to see the individual charges behind it, or export them.
A fee type eBay invents next year still becomes an expense, named after what eBay called it, rather than vanishing from your books.
What you add yourself
Anything eBay does not bill. Pick a Category — Payroll, Software, Advertising, Subscriptions, Office or Other — give it a description and an amount. Mark it recurring and there is a Copy last month's recurring button so you are not retyping your VA's salary twelve times a year.
Why a week shows less than the month
A month's expenses are spread evenly across its days, and a window takes only the days it covers. A 7-day window takes seven days' worth; a whole month takes the lot.
The page states the daily figure outright, and tells you where you are:
- Mid-month: "Counted so far (12 of 31 days): 240.00 — the rest is deducted as the month runs on, which is why the dashboard's Expenses figure reads lower than the total above until month end."
- Month over: "The month is over, so the full 620.00 is deducted from its profit."
This is the most common reason the dashboard's Expenses figure looks "too small" partway through a month. It is not missing anything — the rest of the month has not happened yet.
The three figures at the top
- Gross profit — after fees, cost and refunds, the same settled figure your dashboard shows
- Expenses — this month's total
- True net profit — gross profit less expenses, in green or red
Who can see it
Expenses needs the Manage business expenses permission — the Owner, a Manager or an Accountant. See team and roles.