How product cost changes affect historical orders
When you update a product's cost in Metorik or your store, that change doesn't automatically apply to orders that already exist. Understanding how costs are stored helps explain why historical orders may show different values than you expect.
How Metorik stores product costs
Metorik stores the product cost at the time each order is created. This means:
If you change a product's cost today, only future orders will use the new cost automatically
Historical orders retain the cost that was active when they were placed
This approach reflects the actual cost you incurred at the time of each sale, which gives you accurate historical profit data.
When you update a product cost
If you change a product's cost in Shopify, WooCommerce, or directly in Metorik:
New orders — automatically use the updated cost
Existing orders — keep their original cost value until you recalculate them
Rerunning cost calculations
To apply a new product cost to historical orders, use the Calculate tool at Cost Tools.
Choose what to recalculate
Select one of these options:
Orders missing a cost — applies costs only to orders that don't have one yet
All orders (overriding previous costs) — replaces existing costs with current product cost values
Select the date range
You can recalculate costs for all time or only orders created after a specific date.
Choose which costs to update
If you're overriding all orders, select Product Costs to update order costs from your current product cost settings.
Metorik will email you when the calculation finishes.
When a product has been deleted
If a product no longer exists in your store or Metorik:
Historical orders for that product keep their existing cost value
If an order doesn't have a cost and the product has been deleted, Metorik cannot pull the current product cost because the product record no longer exists
To preserve access to deleted product data in Metorik, set products to draft status or make them unavailable instead of deleting them. See what happens when you delete a product.