About
Finish setup is where your data goes from connected to trustworthy. Margins imports everything it can from your connected accounts, then collects the handful of things it couldn't work out by itself, like an uncategorized transaction, a product with no cost, a login that expired, and puts them in one list with a time estimate on each.
Most of them take 3 to 5 minutes. Clearing them is what moves your Data accuracy score, and it's the difference between a dashboard that looks plausible and one you'd make a reorder decision from.
Finish setup is a first-run checklist that retires 24 hours after you finish it. This article covers the three stages of Finish setup, how to clear each kind of review item, and what your accuracy score means.
In this article
The three stages
Clear your review items
What your data accuracy score means
When your data is ready
Before you begin
Your first sync needs to have run. If you've just connected your accounts, give it a few hours, or up to a day if you have a lot of history. See Getting started with Margins.
1. The three stages
Click Finish setup in the left sidebar. The badge on it is your number of open items. This section will disappear once you complete the open tasks.
Stage | What it's for | What you do here |
Onboard your apps | Confirms your connections are in and importing | Nothing, once it says Done. Manage connected apps takes you to your integrations. |
Customize your data | The items Margins couldn't confirm on its own | All the work in this article |
Explore your business | Your way in once the data is ready | Explore Dashboards or Connect MCP |
2. Clear your review items
Open Customize your data. Under Items to review you'll see one card per item, each with an Open badge and a time estimate.
Every item works the same way:
Click the chevron on the item to expand it.
Read what Margins found and what it needs from you.
Click the action button to go to the page where you fix it.
Make the change there, then come back to Finish setup.
Note: each item also has a Skip link. Skipping removes the item from your list without changing your data, so use it when the item genuinely doesn't apply to you, not to tidy the list.
The item list is generated from your own account, so yours won't match anyone else's. These are the ones most people see.
Categorize the remaining transactions
Margins categorizes the large majority of your transactions automatically and asks you about the rest, usually the ones with an unhelpful bank descriptor or unknown payees. Uncategorized spend doesn't disappear from your numbers; it sits in the wrong place, which quietly distorts your profit.
The action button takes you to Transactions. See Clearing transactions that need your input.
Add missing product costs
We can sync your cost per unit from Shopify but no other sales channel provides this information. A product without one books $0 of Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), so it shows a 100% margin.
The expanded item names the count "12 products don't have a cost yet", and your three options:
Upload costs with a CSV
Add them directly in Margins, or
Set them in Shopify and let Margins sync them.
Recommended: clear this one first. Every other number on your dashboard is downstream of it, and a missing cost doesn't look like an error, it looks like your best-performing product. See Adding your cost per unit.
Connect missing apps
Margins found activity from something you haven't connected, like a payout from a channel it can't see, or spend on a card it doesn't have. It flags it rather than leaving a hole in your numbers.
The action button takes you to your integrations, where you can connect it.
Reconnect your banks and cards / Reconnect your Ads account
A connection has expired and stopped importing. This is normal, banks and ad platforms expire authorizations on their own schedule, and it says nothing about your account.
Reconnecting picks up everything from the gap, so nothing is lost as long as you don't leave it for weeks.
3. What your data accuracy score means
The card at the top of Customize your data shows your score as a bar running from Needs work to Excellent, with a one-word verdict above it. Click the information icon beside it for the scale.
Your score reflects how complete and accurate your data is, not how much you've used Margins.
Score | What it means |
Needs work | Some data items or connections still need updating. |
Strong | Most of your data is synced, just a few more items to update. |
Advanced | Your data is in great shape, with only minor items left. |
Excellent | Everything is synced and your data is in peak shape. |
The simple way to think about it: the score is a summary of the list underneath it. Clear items, it goes up. Let a bank connection expire, it goes down.
4. When your data is ready
Once you customize your data, open Explore your business.
Two things worth doing at that point:
Explore Dashboards: your profitability, products, channels, and marketing performance, with peer comparisons alongside your own numbers.
Connect MCP: connects Margins to Claude, ChatGPT, or another AI tool so you can ask questions and build reports in the chat you already have open.
FAQs
Do I have to clear every item?
Do I have to clear every item?
No. You can use Margins with items outstanding. But each open item is a known inaccuracy in your numbers, so it's worth knowing which ones you're choosing to live with.
What does skipping an item actually do?
What does skipping an item actually do?
It removes the item from your list without changing your data. Use it when the item doesn't apply to your business.
My score went down. What happened?
My score went down. What happened?
Almost always an expired connection. Banks and ad platforms end authorizations on their own schedule, and when one stops importing your data is less complete than it was. Check Items to review for a reconnect task.
How long do the items take?
How long do the items take?
Each card shows its own estimate, and most are 3 to 5 minutes. Add missing product costs is the one that can take longer, because it depends on how many products you sell and whether you have your costs to hand.
Does clearing items change my past numbers?
Does clearing items change my past numbers?
Yes, and that's the point. Adding a cost per unit recalculates COGS from that cost's start date forward, so months you've already looked at can change. That's your numbers getting more accurate, not less stable.