At a glance
Total Cost of Goods Sold for the period. The expense side of revenue. Pairs with Revenue Booked into GL to compute Gross Margin.
| What it counts | SUM(Transaction.Amount) for Account.Type = COGS (typically 5000-5999 in standard NetSuite chart), posted in the period. |
| What’s in COGS | Inventory issued at cost (when an Invoice or Cash Sale ships), inventory adjustments, write-downs, freight-out (sometimes), shrinkage. |
| What’s NOT in COGS | Carrying cost (OpEx), warehouse rent (OpEx), interest on inventory loans (Finance). |
| Tax treatment | n/a. |
| Currency | OneWorld: reporting currency at transaction-date FX. |
| Subsidiary scope | Respects dashboard filter. |
| Time window | 30D vsP |
| Alert trigger | None at headline; the Gross Margin % carries the alert |
| Roles | owner, finance |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your NetSuite data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A US wholesale apparel distributor. 30-day window 14 Mar 26 to 12 Apr 26.| Component | Amount (USD) |
|---|---|
| Inventory issued at cost (sales) | $4,180,000 |
| Freight-out | $42,000 |
| Inventory write-downs | $20,000 |
| Inventory adjustments | $14,000 |
| Shrinkage | $4,000 |
| COGS Total (this card) | $4,260,000 |
| This period | Prior period | vsP | |
|---|---|---|---|
| COGS Total | $4,260,000 | $4,330,000 | -1.6% |
- COGS dropped only 1.6% while revenue dropped 4.8%. Cost is sticky; revenue is volatile. This is why margin compressed.
- Inventory issued at cost ($4.18M) is the bulk of COGS. This is the unit-economic line: SOLD-units × landed-cost.
- Freight-out classification varies. Some accounts book it to COGS (UPS shipping cost when Invoice ships); some to OpEx. Card respects whatever is mapped.
- Inventory write-downs ($20K) are typically obsolescence reserves. Not unusual; should track to revenue scale.
- Shrinkage ($4K) is theft, damage, miscount. Most accounts run 0.1-0.5% of COGS. >1% suggests warehouse problems.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with COGS Total |
|---|---|
| Gross Margin % | The ratio. |
| Revenue Booked into GL | The other half. |
| Margin by SKU | Per-SKU breakdown. |
| Landed Cost Avg | Upstream cost. |
| Inventory Turnover | COGS ÷ avg inventory. |
| Total Inventory Value | What’s left after COGS flows. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in NetSuite:Reports → Financial → Income Statement (COGS line) Reports → General Ledger → All Activity filtered to COGS accountsThe Income Statement COGS line should match this card to within rounding. Why our number may legitimately differ:
| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| GL account mapping | Either | Non-standard chart of accounts may map COGS to non-5000-range accounts. Verify field map. |
| Freight-out classification | Either | Some accounts book to COGS; some to OpEx. |
| Write-down timing | Either | Period of write-down may differ from period of slow-moving identification. |
| FX cadence | Small | |
| Subsidiary scope | Either |