# Are you losing money? Find the channel or product that is

> A marketplace can look busy and still lose money once fees, ads, refunds and the real cost of each unit are counted. Here's how to find where, in about half an hour.

Category: Worked examples · Web page: https://bookalyze.com/guides/are-you-losing-money

## Before you start

What you should see:
- [ ] Your marketplaces' settlements or months are in Bookalyze (they don't need to be posted)
- [ ] Your SKUs are linked to products
- [ ] Landed costs on your deliveries, or opening stock with its cost
- [ ] Cost of goods sold posted for the months you'll look at

## 1. Which marketplace

**Where in Bookalyze:** Commerce → Channel profit

Pick the last three or six months. Read each column down to **Profit** and the margin. A channel with healthy sales and a thin or negative profit is the place to look.

- **Fees** high against net sales? Check the fulfilment fees on your biggest SKUs.
- **Advertising** eating the margin? Compare it with the extra sales.
- **Refunds** high? Look at which orders on Commerce → Orders → Refunded.
- **Your own costs**: count prep, storage and software against the channels they serve, so the comparison is fair.

## 2. Which product

**Where in Bookalyze:** Commerce → Channel profit → By product

Every product's profit after fees, cost and ads, the ones losing money first, each with its ACOS next to its break-even ACOS. The full routine is in **Find and fix the products losing money**.

**Where in Bookalyze:** Inventory → Prices

Each Amazon listing's price beside its landed cost. Open **Change price** on a suspect to see Amazon's fee estimate and the profit and margin at today's price, without changing anything.

> **Tip:** A 2-pack or a bundle is costed with every unit in it, so the margin is the real one.

## 3. Decide

- Raise the price, and watch the listing with **Listing watch** to see how competitors move.
- Cut the ad spend on that product or channel.
- Reorder less of it: **Reorder** shows how many it really sells.
- Or stop selling it there, and switch the channel off if nothing else sells.

## What you should see

What you should see:
- [ ] Every channel's profit, after cost of goods and your own costs
- [ ] A margin for each listing you checked
- [ ] Next month's Channel profit showing the change

## Related guides

- [Profit by product, after ads: what every product really makes](https://bookalyze.com/guides/profit-after-ads.md): Each product's profit after the marketplace's fees, what it cost you and its ads, per marketplace. The products losing money come first, each with how far its ads can go before they stop paying.
- [Find and fix the products losing money, once a month](https://bookalyze.com/guides/fix-products-losing-money.md): A 30-minute monthly routine on Profit by product: which products lose money after ads, why, and what to change for each verdict.
- [Channel profit: what each marketplace really makes](https://bookalyze.com/guides/channel-profit.md): A column per marketplace, in its own currency, from sales down to profit after fees, ads, cost of goods and your own costs. All channels together in your main currency.
- [Amazon prices beside cost and fees](https://bookalyze.com/guides/amazon-prices.md): Every linked SKU's Amazon price next to what a unit costs you. Change a price and see Amazon's fees, your profit and margin before you send it, then whether Amazon applied it.
- [Landed cost and FIFO stock lots](https://bookalyze.com/guides/landed-cost-and-lots.md): What a unit really cost you: the supplier's price plus its share of freight, duty, brokerage and prep. Each delivery becomes stock lots, and sales use the oldest first.