Overview
For most DTC businesses, ad spend is a huge component of overall spending, but it’s certainly not the full picture. Most brands have a myriad of other expenses that cannot be tracked via API, and all too often, the only tool available for tracking those expenses is a spreadsheet.
The Custom Expenses feature was created to eliminate the need for such spreadsheets. With this feature, you can input all your additional costs directly into Triple Whale, ensuring that your net profit calculations are comprehensive and accurate. Whether it’s office supplies, third-party services, or additional advertising costs, the Custom Expenses tool allows for a detailed and organized accounting of every expense. By considering these additional expenses, Triple Whale offers a more realistic view of profitability, helping you better understand the true financial health of your business.
Types of Custom Expenses
Typically, businesses encounter two primary types of additional expenses: Fixed Expenses and Variable Expenses.
Fixed Expenses encompass the consistent costs associated with running your business, such as rent, utilities, and salaries. These are predictable and remain relatively constant regardless of your business activities.
On the other hand, Variable Expenses fluctuate in direct correlation with your ad spend. These include costs like advertising fees, commissions, and other marketing-related expenditures that vary depending on the extent of your promotional efforts.
By effectively modeling and tracking both fixed and variable expenses, businesses can achieve a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of their financial landscape. You can also categorize your expenses, further streamlining your financial management.
Below, We will explore how the Cost Settings page allows you to set up and track each type of custom expense.
Creating a Custom Expense
When setting up a new Custom Expense, you will first input the cost and select the date range that this expense affects.
If you are creating a Variable Expense, you will also select the metric upon which the variable expense will be based.
When creating a Fixed Expense, marking the expense as Recurring will indicate that the same cost amount should be continuously reflected across a specific number of days or months as selected. This ensures that the expense is automatically applied at regular intervals without needing manual input each time.
For example, if you input a $1000 expense to be applied from 6/1/2024 to 6/5/2024, this equals $200 per day. Marking this expense as Recurring will replicate this $200 daily expense across the chosen recurring interval (e.g., every month).
If the cost should be divided out over the course of a month, click Recurring and do not select an End Date. This will distribute the expense evenly over each month.
If the cost should be divided out over a specific time frame, click Recurring and do select an End Date. This will ensure that the expense is applied only within the designated period, and not beyond. This functionality allows you to efficiently manage both fixed and variable expenses, making your financial tracking more accurate and streamlined.
Marking Custom Expense as Ad Spend
By assigning an Ad Spend value to any incoming traffic source and/or campaign, you can generate a ROAS report even for traffic sources that lack an API connection with Triple Whale.
Select the Source and/or Campaign from either dropdown menu to assign this ad spend towards a specific traffic source. In the screenshot below, I've assigned $3,600 of Ad Spend to the Source entitled test. Click Save.
Returning to the Pixel attribution dashboard, I can now see the $3,600 Custom expense correctly assigned to test. Any traffic and conversions tracked to that source will be added to that row, at which point Triple Whale will be able to assign a source-specific ROAS, CPA, and other revenue-related metrics.
Time Assignment
Variable Expenses will be recognized in real-time, as your ad spend increases over time.
When it comes to Fixed Expenses, there are three options for how to actualize the expense over time
Daily: Fixed Expenses are recognized at the beginning of each day at 12:00 AM (in your shop's time zone). Fixed Expenses that span multiple days will see their expense accrue evenly across the days.
Hourly: Use this model to have 1/24 of a Fixed Expense be recognized every hour.
Smart Distribution: Expenses are recognized at the average rate of your shop's sales per hour over the last 90 days.
Select your preferred model from the Settings dropdown on the Cost Settings page.
Sync Fixed Expenses with Google Sheets
Connect with Google Sheets to sync expenses from a template Sheet right into Triple Whale. On the Cost Settings page, simply click Import Fixed Expenses from Google Sheets.
Once you've connected a Google account, click Create Google Sheet.
Use the generated Google Sheet to organize your costs and sync your data straight into Triple Whale. If you have previously created Custom Expenses in Triple Whale, the sheet will include all of your existing fixed custom expenses already, so you can edit everything within the sheet. This sheet is synced once per day (at the same hour the sheet was initially created), but you can also sync whenever you want by clicking Sync Now.
NOTE: Please ensure the cost column is in plain text. There should not be any commas or currency symbols applied.
Editing Existing Data in Google Sheet
As you add expenses to the Sheet, this data will get imported to Triple Whale on an hourly basis. Editing a row from the sheet will not edit the expense as it appears within Triple Whale. Similarly, deleting a row from the sheet will not delete the expense from Triple Whale. To edit or remove an expense, you must make these changes from within the Cost Settings page.
Understanding the Google Sheet Columns
Please review the brief explanations of how each column in the Sheet is meant to be used.
ID: This field will be populated by Triple Whale upon sync. Do not edit.
Title: Input the title of the spend here.
Cost (in your shop’s currency): Input the custom expense cost amount here.
Category: Create a new category name, or use an existing category name. (This field is case-sensitive and is optional.)
Start Date: Format the date as
YYYY-MM-DD.End Date: Format the end date as
YYYY-MM-DD.Recurring (Y/N): Must input
yesornoto indicate whether or not this expense is recurring.Recurring interval (day/month): If the input for Recurring was
yes, input here whether the recurring interval should bedayormonth.Recurring interval frequency: If the input for Recurring was
yes, input here whether the amount of days/months (as defined in 8) per interval.Ad Spend (Y/N): Must input
yesornoto indicate whether or not this expense should be assigned as an Ad Spend.Source: If the input for Ad Spend (Y/N) was
yes, use the dropdown menu to select the Pixel source you'd like this spend to be attributed towards.
Expense Metrics
See how your custom expenses impact profit margins by tracking your Net Profit on the Summary page.
Review your Custom Expenses (including or excluding any marked as Ad Spend) in the Expenses section of the Summary page.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can I sync more than one Google Sheet with Triple Whale for custom expenses?
Each Triple Whale account supports one synced Google Sheet for custom expenses. If one user creates the Sheet and wants other users to have access to the sheet, the Sheet creator will need to share access to the Sheet.
2. Is there a limit to the number of custom expenses I can track?
There is a maximum limit of 5000 custom expenses per shop.
3. Can I delete or edit Custom Expenses?
Yes, you can easily edit or delete Custom Expenses. However, note that these changes will impact past, present, and future data.
3. If I add line items to my Custom Expenses Google Sheet and then I wish to delete them, can I simply remove them from the Sheet?
As you add expenses to the Sheet, they will get imported to Triple Whale. But, if you delete a row from the sheet, that will not delete the expense from Triple Whale. To remove an expense, you must delete the expense from the Cost Settings page.
4. Which users in my account can access Custom Expenses?
Administrators on the account may limit which user accounts have access to Expense data. Edit permissions from the Store Settings page. Users without Expenses access will not be able to see the
Net Profitmetric, theExpensessection on the Summary page, or access the Cost Settings page.
