Average cost tracking

Average cost tracking keeps a running weighted average of what each product actually costs you, built from the landed cost of every purchase order you receive.

Buy the same item at different prices and the average moves with it, so your cost of goods reflects reality rather than the last price you happened to type.

What it includes

The unit cost plus everything you added to the order: shipping, customs duties, freight, insurance, fees. See shipping, duties and landed costs.

Checking whether it is on

Settings → Costs  has an Average costs card showing On or Off. If it is off, the same card has a Contact support button.

Getting it switched on

We need starting costs because an average has to begin somewhere. Three options:

• Pull from your Shopify cost per item fields - good if your costs already live there
• Send us a CSV - typically Stocky's Stock on Hand report with average cost selected, or an export from whatever you used before
• Start fresh - no starting costs at all. Every product waits until you receive it, and its average is built from that first purchase order onwards

Deciding which before you write in saves a round trip.

With the first two, anything we cannot find a cost for is treated the same as start fresh: no average until you receive it.

What moves the average

Only two things: receiving a purchase order, and unreceiving one.

Stocktakes and inventory adjustments change your quantities, not your average cost. That is deliberate - counting stock tells Stockie how many you have, not what you paid for them.

The rule once it is on

All purchase order receiving has to happen in Stockie. See once average costs are on, receive in Stockie - it is short, and it is the thing that goes wrong.

Changing your store currency pauses it

If you change your store's base currency in Shopify, average cost tracking is paused automatically. Every average you have is held in the old currency, and converting them is not something to guess at.

You will see a note in Settings → Costs  saying so. Support will follow up to reseed your costs in the new currency before turning it back on.

When to wait

Hold off if:

• You still have open purchase orders in another system that will be received there
• Your freight invoices arrive after the goods, so the landed cost is not known at receive time

Neither makes average cost unusable, but starting mid-transition gives you an average built on incomplete data.

One thing it cannot run alongside: if your store is set up to turn Shopify inventory sync on and off per purchase order, average costs cannot be used at the same time. Orders that skip Shopify would leave gaps in the average.

Turning it off

Support can switch it off again. Your averages are not deleted, but reports stop showing average cost while it is off, and switching it back on means seeding your starting costs again.

Where to see it

Reports → Inventory value  shows your holdings valued at average cost.