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In your first week, a number that looks wrong is almost never a calculation problem. It's one of three things: the sync hasn't finished, something isn't connected, or a cost per unit is missing.
The tricky part is that all three look different depending on where you're standing. Missing ad spend makes your margins look great. A missing bank makes your cash flow look wrong. An unfinished sync makes everything look small. This article starts from what you're seeing and works back to which one it is.
Symptoms
My dashboard is empty, or only some cards have numbers
My sales are lower in Margins than in my sales channel
A whole sales channel is missing
My margins look impossibly good
My spend looks far too low
My numbers changed after I'd already looked at them
1. "My dashboard is empty, or only half of it has numbers"
What you're seeing: blank cards, or a dashboard where sales are populated but cash flow and spend aren't.
Why it happens: the first sync is still running. Margins pulls history from every account you connected, and each one finishes at its own pace, which is why the dashboard fills in unevenly rather than all at once.
How to fix it: No action is needed. The first sync usually takes a few hours, and up to a day if you have a lot of history. Sections marked Syncing fill in on their own; you don't need to refresh or reconnect anything.
If it's been more than a day, check Settings→ Integrations, and reach out with the platform name and when you connected it.
2. "My sales are lower than my sales channel says"
What you're seeing: a smaller number in Margins than the one on your Shopify, Amazon, or TikTok dashboard for the same period.
Why it happens: usually one of two things:
The sync hasn't caught up. Compare a period that ended a week ago rather than today. If the older period matches and the recent one doesn't, it's still importing.
You connected one store, not all of them. If you run more than one storefront on the same platform, each is a separate connection. A number badge on the platform's card in Settings → Integrations tells you how many you've connected.
How to fix it: check the store count first, since it's the one that never resolves on its own. Add the missing store, and its history imports.
3. "A whole sales channel is missing"
What you're seeing: a channel you sell on doesn't appear in your channel breakdowns at all.
Why it happens: it was skipped in the connection wizard, or its connection has expired and stopped importing.
How to fix it:
Go to Settings → Integrations.
Find the platform under Stores.
If it has no green checkmark, click the card and sign in to connect it.
If it has a red exclamation mark, click the card and sign in again to re-authorize it.
Note: a red exclamation mark means an expired authorization, not a failure on your end. Banks and ad platforms end authorizations on their own schedule.
4. "My margins look impossibly good"
What you're seeing: margins near 100%, or a product that you know is barely profitable sitting at the top of your best performers.
Why it happens: this is the most common one, and it has two causes that can both be true at once.
Missing cost per unit. A product with no cost books $0 of COGS, so Margins counts the whole sale price as profit. Your cost per unit is the one number no sales channel can supply.
Missing ad spend. If an ad account wasn't connected, the revenue it drove is in your numbers and the money it cost isn't.
How to fix it: open Finish setup and clear Add missing product costs. Then check Settings → Integrations and confirm every ad account you spend through is connected under Advertising platforms.
Important: this is the failure mode worth being most suspicious of, because it doesn't look like an error. A missing cost doesn't show up as a blank or a warning, it shows up as your best-looking product. See Why are my products missing cost per unit?
5. "My spend looks far too low"
What you're seeing: cash outflow, or a spend category, well below what you know you spent.
Why it happens: a bank or card you actually use for business isn't connected, or its connection has expired. Margins can only see the accounts you've given it. Another reason may be related to specific transactions that still need clearing.
How to fix it: go to Settings → Banks & Credit Cards and check every account you spend through is listed and connected. Add anything missing, and re-authorize anything showing a red exclamation mark. Then categorize any open transactions.
Note: the reverse is also worth checking. If you connected a personal account, spend that isn't business spend is being counted, which makes your profit look worse than it is.
6. "My numbers changed after I'd already looked at them"
What you're seeing: a month you reviewed last week now shows different figures.
Why it happens: this is usually correct behavior rather than a bug.
You added a cost per unit. Costs carry a start date and apply forward from it, so adding one recalculates COGS for every unit sold since that date.
You categorized transactions. Spend moves from unassigned into a real category.
A late-settling item landed. Refunds, fees, and payouts settle after the sale, and your figures update when they do.
How to fix it: nothing to fix. Numbers settle as your data completes, and they settle toward accurate. If a figure moved and you can't tie it to one of the three above, that's worth reporting.
Still stuck?
If your numbers still don't match your own records after your first sync has finished and Finish setup is clear, reach out to our Support team through chat or at [email protected]. Include the platform you're comparing against, the exact date range, both figures, and a screenshot of the platform's own report. That's everything Support needs to answer on the first reply rather than ask for details.