Prepare marketplace CSV data for a reliable margin audit
A practical checklist for product, order and inventory CSV records: identifiers, currencies, missing costs and reconciliation.
By Power CM Software · Product workflow guide
Agree on identifiers and scope
Choose a stable SKU shared by products, orders and inventory. Avoid using a product title as a join key: titles change and may not be unique. Keep identifiers as text when leading zeroes matter.
Select the market, channel, currency and date range you intend to review. Start with a small representative file rather than mixing several sources with different accounting conventions.
Map the cost components
For orders, identify revenue, discounts, returns, units and each cost component used in contribution: product costs, fees, fulfilment, logistics, advertising and other costs. Define whether a value is per unit or for the order before mapping it.
Do not fill unknown costs with zero just to finish an import. A zero should mean that the component was checked and no cost applies. Keep source evidence so the team can resolve missing values later.
Check currency and stock assumptions
Use consistent currency codes and review each currency separately. Stock & Margin does not silently convert currencies. A product unit cost in one currency cannot safely fill an order cost in another without a separately reviewed conversion.
For inventory, reconcile stock, allocations, daily sales, lead days, target days and minimum order quantity. A blank daily-sales field and a confirmed zero have different meanings. Keep stock snapshots aligned to the reporting date.
Validate a sample before scaling
Use the application import workflow and its validation feedback to map and check the CSV. Reconcile several known orders by hand, including a return, a discounted sale and an order with a missing cost. Compare record counts and totals to the export.
Once the sample agrees, import the wider dataset and review the unresolved items. Assign owners for cost corrections and keep a dated explanation of material changes. The Audit assessment supports 500 records; Growth and Scale limits are shown on the pricing section.