Common fixed expenses to add to ProfitMetrics
Fixed expenses are the overheads that keep your business running regardless of order volume. Adding them to ProfitMetrics gives you a true net profit figure after all operating costs, not just gross profit after COGS and ad spend. This article lists the categories most e-commerce businesses include.
How fixed expenses are added
Expenses can be entered in two ways in the expense calendar:
- Single expense — Applied to a specific date or date range. Use this for one-off costs like an annual insurance premium, a software setup fee, or a campaign-specific invoice.
- Monthly recurring expense — Added automatically each month. Individual months can be edited later if the amount changes, for example after a rent increase or a seasonal hire.
Most categories below are best added as monthly recurring expenses, with edits where individual months differ.
Facilities & operations
Costs of running the physical and operational side of the business.
| Expense | Examples |
|---|---|
| Warehouse rent | Lease for storage and fulfilment space |
| Office rent | Headquarters, co-working memberships |
| Utilities | Electricity, water, internet, phones |
| Cleaning & maintenance | Janitorial services, equipment servicing |
Salaries & contractors
Recurring staff costs that don't scale directly with order volume.
| Expense | Examples |
|---|---|
| Warehouse staff | Pickers, packers, fulfilment supervisors |
| Customer service | Support agents, team leads |
| Marketing & creative | In-house marketers, designers, copywriters |
| Management & admin | Founders' salaries, finance, HR |
| Agency retainers | SEO, PR, content, paid media management fees |
Fixed monthly agency retainers belong here. Variable ad spend is tracked separately through the ad channel integrations and does not need to be entered manually.
Software & subscriptions
Recurring SaaS and platform fees. Many e-commerce stacks accumulate dozens of these — review your card statements to make sure none are missed.
| Expense | Examples |
|---|---|
| E-commerce platform | Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, Magento hosting |
| ERP & inventory | NetSuite, Brightpearl, Cin7, Linnworks |
| Email & SMS | Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Attentive |
| Helpdesk | Zendesk, Gorgias, Intercom |
| CRM | HubSpot, Salesforce |
| Analytics & tracking | ProfitMetrics, GA360, server-side tagging hosting |
| Accounting | Xero, QuickBooks, Dynamics 365 |
| Shopify / Magento apps | Reviews, search, loyalty, page builders |
Insurance & professional services
Predictable but often non-monthly costs.
| Expense | Examples |
|---|---|
| Business insurance | General liability, cyber, contents |
| Product liability | Cover for product defects or recalls |
| Accounting fees | Bookkeeping, year-end accounts, audits |
| Legal fees | Retainers, contracts, ongoing advice |
Annual premiums (such as a one-off insurance payment) are best added as a single expense spread across a date range, so the cost is distributed evenly over the year rather than landing in one month.
Banking & finance
Fixed monthly costs from financial services.
| Expense | Examples |
|---|---|
| Bank fees | Account fees, fixed monthly charges |
| Payment gateway fees | Monthly fees for Stripe, Adyen, PayPal Business |
| Loan repayments | Fixed instalments on business loans |
| Currency & FX services | Wise Business, Revolut Business fees |
Per-transaction processing fees are variable and best tracked through your order data, not added here.
Ad spend outside standard integrations
ProfitMetrics pulls ad spend automatically from connected ad channels — Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, Microsoft Ads, and others — and includes it in the contribution margin calculation. If you run paid activity on a platform without a standard integration, you can enter it manually in the expense calendar under the Ad spend category (as a single expense).
| Expense | Examples |
|---|---|
| Influencer payments | Flat fees or monthly retainers for creators |
| Affiliate commissions | Awin, Impact, in-house affiliate programmes |
| Sponsorships | Podcasts, newsletters, event sponsorships |
| Smaller ad networks | Pinterest, Reddit, Spotify, programmatic platforms |
Ad spend works differently to the other fixed expenses on this page. Anything added under the Ad spend category goes into the contribution margin calculation alongside auto-pulled ad spend — not net profit. This keeps your channel-level performance figures accurate.
What not to add as a fixed expense
Some costs are already accounted for elsewhere in ProfitMetrics and should not be entered again as fixed expenses:
- Cost of goods sold (COGS) — Pulled from your product cost data on each order.
- Ad spend from connected ad channels — Pulled automatically from Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, Microsoft Ads, etc. Only add ad spend manually for platforms outside your active integrations (see above).
- Per-order shipping costs — Tracked at order level when shipping cost data is available.
- Payment processing fees per transaction — Variable, tied to order value.
Adding any of these as fixed expenses will double-count them and understate your true profit.