Understanding true profit

"Profit" is a loaded word. Most tools show gross margin and call it profit. Meridia shows the number that actually lands in your bank.

Formula

True profit = gross revenue − channel fees − payment processing − shipping − advertising − refunds − cost of goods.

What's included automatically

Channel fees, payment processor fees, advertising cost (from connected ad accounts), refunds and chargebacks, and shipping labels purchased through the channel.

What you supply

Cost of goods sold. Optionally: shipping materials, inbound freight, storage (for 3PL/FBA sellers), and manual overheads allocated per-order.

What's excluded by default

Fixed overheads (salaries, rent, software subscriptions) — these belong in your P&L, not per-order profit. Taxes collected from customers (VAT, sales tax) — we treat these as pass-through.

Per-SKU vs per-order

Both are available. Per-order is the source of truth; per-SKU is derived by allocating order-level costs (shipping, ads) proportionally to revenue across the order's line items.

Negative profit warnings

Meridia flags any order with negative true profit in red. Usually it's one of three causes: a discount code that stacked below cost, a high-return SKU that tripped into loss after refund, or advertising attribution that landed heavily on a low-margin product.