Simple vs Detailed COGS Entry View

🎯 What You’ll Learn

• Why two views

• What each view includes

• How to switch between them

• Pros & cons of each

• When to use one over the other

• Real-world usage examples

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🧠 Why We Introduced a Simplified COGS Entry

As of December 2023, SellerLegend introduced a new, simplified method for entering your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). This update came in response to user feedback requesting a quicker and easier setup—especially for lower-volume sellers and newcomers.

Previously, our Detailed View of COGS allowed for rich data capture, including:

• Units purchased
• Purchase currency (which may differ from marketplace currency)
• Exchange rate at the time of purchase
• Supplier or manufacturer details
• Personal notes

When all these fields were filled in, SellerLegend automatically:

• Performed currency conversion
• Calculated cost per unit

However, usage patterns showed that only a small subset of power users took advantage of these advanced fields. Many sellers—especially those managing fewer SKUs—found the detailed entry process more complex than necessary.

As a result, we introduced the Simplified View to speed up setup and streamline COGS tracking for most sellers.

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🧱 What Are The Two Views?

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Which View Should I Use?

SellerLegend offers two ways to define the unit cost of a product: Simple View and Detailed View. Both calculate profit accurately — the choice depends on how much data you want to track.

🔁 Can I Switch Between Views?

Yes — at any time.

• If you enter data in Simple View, then switch to Detailed View, the system will pre-fill the available data.

• If you’re already using Detailed View and switch back to Simple, you’ll only see the fields relevant to Simple, but your detailed data will be retained.

⚠️ Nothing is lost when switching — it’s purely a change in the interface.

• Switching views is simple. At the bottom of the COGS entry form you will find a message saying :
  • You are currently editing cost of goods in Simple view. Click here to switch to Detailed view.

🔄 What If You Already Use the Detailed View?

No worries—you can continue using the Detailed View as usual. Here’s how compatibility works:

• Both views are fully interchangeable
• You can switch between them at any time without data loss
• When editing a product, you’ll be taken to whichever view you used last
• New users after Dec 6, 2023, will default to the Simplified View, but can toggle to Detailed View if needed

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🖥️ Visual Differences Between the Views

The Detailed View includes these 6 extra fields:

• Provider (manufacturer/supplier)
• Notes
• Total Paid
• Currency Conversion Rate
• Units Purchased

The Simplified View omits these for a cleaner, faster interface. Unless you’re managing multi-currency purchases or want to log supplier notes, the Simple View is all you need.

⚙️ Behind the Scenes

Whether you use Simple or Detailed, SellerLegend always computes the same final cost per unit, and applies it to:

• Profit and Loss

• Dashboards

• Order-level profit

• Sales per day and other financial views

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🧠 When To Use Each View

✅ Use Simple View if:

• You just want to enter the bottom-line cost per unit.

• You don’t need to track supplier info, currency, or shipment details.

• You’re updating COGS quickly or in bulk.

Example:

You know it costs you $3.65 to land a unit of your garlic press. That’s all you care about. Simple View is perfect.

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✅ Use Detailed View if:

• You want to track who provided the shipment.

• You’re dealing with international currencies.

• You want SL to auto-calculate the cost per unit from total paid & units.

• You need auditing or traceability for teams or accountants.

Example:

You receive a shipment of 2,000 units from Supplier ABC. You paid £4,180 in total, in GBP. You want to record that for traceability — and let SL compute the per-unit cost.

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📊 Example Comparison

Simple Entry

Detailed Entry

SL will derive the same per-unit costs ($3.75 and $4.25), but Detailed View captures more context.

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