How the money-lost report is calculated

The money-lost report multiplies the number of cancelled COD orders from the last 60 days that had shipped by the shipping you pay on each one: the trip out to the customer plus the trip back to you. The orders come from the refuser scan. The two shipping costs are numbers you type in.

Money lost = cancelled COD orders that had shipped × (shipping out + shipping back)

How do you use it?

1. In Find customers who refused COD, click Scan orders. Until you scan, the report says "Run a scan to see this."
2. In Money lost to refused COD, fill in Shipping out, per order and Shipping back, per order, in your shop's currency.
3. Read the result, for example "USD 150 lost on 3 refused COD orders that had shipped (last 60 days)." It updates as you type.

If some cancelled COD orders never shipped, the result adds a line such as "2 more were cancelled before shipping, so they cost no shipping."

If both costs are 0, you see the order counts only, for example "3 of 5 cancelled COD orders had shipped in the last 60 days. Enter your shipping costs to see the money."

If none of them had shipped, you see a message such as "None of the 5 cancelled COD orders had shipped, so no shipping money was lost."

The report is part of the Pro plan.

Which orders does it count?

It starts from the orders the refuser scan finds: orders created in the last 60 days that are cancelled and were paid by Cash on Delivery. Of those, it counts only the ones that had shipped. Orders from customers who are already tagged, and orders with no customer attached, count too.

An order counts as shipped only if Shopify has at least one fulfillment recorded on it, meaning it was marked as fulfilled by you, your staff or a shipping app. If you hand a parcel to your courier without fulfilling the order in Shopify, the report treats that order as never shipped.

Why 60 days: by default, Shopify lets apps read orders from the last 60 days only, and Khaleeji COD doesn't ask for the extra permission that older orders need.

What does the figure include?

Only shipping, both ways, at one flat amount per order. The result is in your shop's currency, rounded to a whole number.

It leaves out the other costs of a refused order, such as:

• COD or handling fees your courier charges
• packaging and inserts
• the ad spend that brought the shopper to your store
• staff time to pack, confirm and restock
• stock that was away from your shelf, or came back damaged

So for an order that really did go out and come back, the true cost is higher than the report shows. What one refused COD order really costs gives a fuller formula you can fill in yourself.

When can the figure be off?

The report treats every cancelled COD order with a fulfillment as a parcel that went out and came back. That isn't always true:

• If you marked an order as fulfilled but cancelled it before the courier collected it, you paid no shipping, but it's still counted. The figure is too high.
• If you send parcels without marking the orders as fulfilled in Shopify, those orders count as never shipped. The figure is too low.
• A flat rate per order can be off if your courier charges more for some areas or for heavier parcels.

Treat the figure as an estimate built from your own inputs. It's most useful as a comparison: run it again next month and see whether the number of refused orders that had shipped has gone down.

Which shipping costs should you enter?

Use your courier's real rates rather than a guess:

1. Shipping out: what your courier charges you to deliver one typical COD order. Check your contract or a recent invoice.
2. Shipping back: what you pay when a refused parcel comes back to you. Look for the return or RTO (return to origin) charge on your invoice.
3. If your rates change by emirate, city or weight, use an average from a recent invoice.

The costs you enter aren't saved. Both fields start at 0 each time you open the app, so keep your two numbers somewhere handy.

What can you do with the number?

• Tag the customers the scan found, so they can't choose COD again (with the tag rule switched on).
• Use the cart and first-order rules to limit COD on the orders you'd least like to see refused. See the checkout rules reference.
• Track your refusal rate over time. RTO (return to origin) explained shows how to work it out.