What the Returns metric is
Returns come straight from Shopify's sales reversals. TrueProfit doesn't calculate or adjust it — it syncs the exact value Shopify records.
Shopify renamed this field from "Returns" to "Sales reversals". Same data, new name.
What Returns includes
Sales reversals bundle four different kinds of events into a single figure:
Refunds — money given back to a customer
Returns — items sent back to you
Cancellations — orders cancelled
Order edits — items swapped, quantities changed, or products added and removed before fulfilment
Only some of these involve money actually leaving your account. An order edit never does — the customer simply ends up with something different.
Because of that, Returns is not a measure of money refunded. How much of your Returns figure represents real money varies a great deal between stores, depending on how often orders get edited.
This is also why the number can look different from a particular Shopify screen: that screen is usually showing one piece — refunds only, for example — rather than all four.
When it's recorded
By default, each event counts on the day Shopify processed it. Change this in Settings → Calculation Preferences → Recording date → Returns.
Setting | What happens |
Return date (default) | The event counts on the day Shopify processed it. Past reports stay unchanged. Matches Shopify. |
Order date | The event moves back to the original order's date, and TrueProfit restates that past period. |
What this row does not control
Each row under Recording date covers a different kind of event, and they work independently. Changing one never changes the others.
The Returns row covers genuine returns and refunds from your customers. It does not control:
Order edits — these follow the Substitute row, even though edits are counted in the Returns total.
Chargebacks — these follow the Chargeback Loss and Fee row.
If you choose Order date
These Dashboard metrics change, moving into the order's month: Returns, Revenue, COGS Return, Net Profit, Net Profit Margin, ROAS, and POAS.
Two of them can be compared against Shopify and will no longer match: Returns and Revenue. Shopify always counts an event on the day it was processed, so the two systems put it in different months.
Example — an order placed in March for $100; in April the customer returns $30 of it.
Return date (default): March keeps its full $100, and April shows the −$30.
Order date: the −$30 moves to March, so March restates to $70, and April shows nothing for this order.
What isn't covered
Returns are not money refunded. It measures value removed from orders, not cash that left your account.
You can't break Returns down by event type. The four kinds arrive as one combined figure.
There's no drill-down to individual transactions. The figure is a total and can't be traced to specific refunds.