Revenue Analytics
Part of Ecommerce dashboard design
Building a daily trading dashboard from Shopify reports
A daily trading dashboard should answer whether the store is operating as expected and where someone needs to investigate. Keep the first screen small enough to …
Build the first screen around a sales measure, order count, returns or refunds, and operational checks the trading team can act on. Use Shopify sales reports for sales tiles, then place each tile’s label, value, date range and report link in the team’s shared trading view.
Step 1: In Shopify admin, go to Analytics > Reports and filter by the Sales category. Start with Sales over time; Shopify sales reports cover orders over time and other criteria such as product or channel.
Step 2: Choose and label the sales measure before adding its tile. Gross sales is product price multiplied by quantity, before taxes, shipping, discounts and sales reversals; pending, cancelled and unpaid orders are included, while test and deleted orders are not.
Step 3: Add an Orders tile beside the sales measure. Shopify defines orders as the number placed on a given date, so show the date range with the count.
Step 4: Add a sales-reversals tile if the trading team needs to see adjustments that reduce sales. Shopify defines sales reversals as order adjustments that result in negative monetary value.
Step 5: Keep returns and refunds distinct. Returns appear in Sales reports, while refunds appear in the Payments finance report. For refunded figures, add Payment status to Sales over time, filter for Refunded or Partially refunded, and organise the report by Payment status.
Step 6: Add operational tiles for availability checks on important products and for checkout or payment incidents. Include the affected product or incident and an owner beside each item.
Step 7: Compare the selected sales measure and order count with an appropriate prior trading period. Keep the underlying count beside any percentage movement, and annotate promotions, outages, trading-day differences and major changes made yesterday.
Step 8: If the finance team uses paid revenue, label that measure clearly rather than calling every figure “total sales”. Link each tile to its underlying report.
Step 9: Open or refresh the reports before the trading meeting. Shopify says sales reports are up to date, give or take about one minute, and can be refreshed to show newer data.
Show an update timestamp and mark today as provisional if the data can still change.
Building the first-screen trading dashboard, step by step
- Open the Sales reportsIn Shopify admin, go to Analytics > Reports and filter by the Sales category. Start with Sales over time.
- Choose and label the sales measureDecide whether the tile shows gross sales or paid revenue, and name it accordingly before placing it.
- Add an Orders tileShow the order count beside the sales measure, always with its date range.
- Add a sales-reversals tileInclude it when the team needs to see adjustments that reduce sales.
- Keep returns and refunds separateReturns sit in Sales reports; refunded figures need Payment status on Sales over time in the Payments finance report.
- Add operational tilesAvailability checks on key products plus checkout and payment incidents, each with an owner.
- Compare with a prior trading periodKeep the underlying count beside any percentage, and annotate promotions, outages, trading-day differences and yesterday's major changes.
- Label paid revenue clearlyIf finance uses paid revenue, name that measure precisely rather than calling every figure total sales.
- Refresh before the trading meetingReopen the reports, show an update timestamp, and mark today as provisional where data can still change.
Trading dashboard definitions to get right
- Gross salesProduct price multiplied by quantity, before taxes, shipping, discounts and sales reversals. Pending, cancelled and unpaid orders are included; test and deleted orders are not.
- OrdersThe number of orders placed on a given date, so the count must always travel with its date range.
- Sales reversalsOrder adjustments that result in negative monetary value — the figures that pull a sales measure down.
- Report freshnessShopify sales reports are up to date, give or take about one minute, and can be refreshed to show newer data.
Returns versus refunds in Shopify reporting
- ReturnsAppear in the Sales reports, so they can sit alongside the sales and orders tiles on the trading view.
- RefundsAppear in the Payments finance report. To show refunded figures, add Payment status to Sales over time, filter for Refunded or Partially refunded, and organise the report by Payment status.
- Why the distinction mattersShopify documents that sales and payments reporting can disagree, so a single blended refund figure will mislead the trading meeting.
