Understanding the Contribution Report

Overview

The Contribution Report is one of Finzite's most powerful reports. It helps you understand the true profitability of your business by showing how much money remains after all variable costs have been deducted from your revenue.

Unlike traditional sales reports that only show revenue, the Contribution Report answers the question:

"How much money did my business actually make?"

This gives you a clear picture of what each sale contributes towards covering your fixed business expenses and generating profit.

What Does the Contribution Report Include?

The Contribution Report combines data from your connected integrations to calculate your true contribution.

Depending on your setup, this can include:

• Revenue

• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

• Shipping & Delivery Costs

• Transaction Fees

• Platform Fees

• Variable Cost Rules

• Advertising Spend

• Contribution

• Contribution Margin

All of these costs are automatically brought together to give you an accurate view of profitability.

Why is the Contribution Report Important?

Many businesses measure success by looking only at sales revenue.

However, sales revenue doesn't show how much money your business actually keeps after covering the costs of making those sales.

For example:

• Two businesses may each generate R500,000 in sales.

• One business may keep R150,000 after costs.

• The other may only keep R25,000.

Although sales are identical, the profitability of each business is completely different.

The Contribution Report helps you understand this difference.

How Can the Contribution Report Help My Business?

The Contribution Report helps you:

• Measure true profitability instead of just revenue.

• Understand how advertising impacts profitability.

• Identify products or channels with low contribution.

• Compare profitability across different sales channels.

• Monitor changes in costs over time.

• Make informed pricing decisions.

• Understand whether your business can scale profitably.

When Should I Use the Contribution Report?

The Contribution Report is ideal when you want to:

• Measure business profitability.

• Review marketing performance.

• Analyse contribution by channel.

• Compare different stores.

• Understand the impact of rising costs.

• Identify opportunities to improve margins.

Many businesses review their Contribution Report daily to monitor financial performance.

Best Practices

For the most accurate reporting:

• Keep your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) up to date.

• Configure your transaction fees correctly.

• Add Variable Cost Rules where applicable.

• Connect all advertising platforms.

• Regularly review your contribution trends.

The more complete your financial data, the more accurate your Contribution Report will be.

Summary

The Contribution Report gives you a complete view of your business profitability by combining your sales, costs, and advertising spend into a single report.

Instead of asking "How much did I sell?", the Contribution Report answers "How much did I actually make?", helping you make better financial decisions and grow your business profitably.