# Profit tracking

> How BuyingGroupPro calculates the profit on each buying group order from the cost, the payout, cashback and gift card savings, and the reports by month, group, card, store and account.

BuyingGroupPro calculates the profit on each order from what you paid, what the buying group paid you, and the cashback and gift card savings you earned. It adds the orders up by month, buying group, credit card, store and retailer account.

## The formula

Profit = payout + cashback + gift card savings − cost − shipping − insurance

- **Cost** is the receipt total you paid the store.
- **Payout** is what the buying group paid you (the reimbursed amount).
- **Cashback** is a percent of the part of the cost you paid by card. If you paid part with a gift card, the gift card amount is not in the cashback base.
- **Gift card savings** is what you saved by buying the gift card below face value. It is added straight to profit.
- **Shipping** and **insurance** are your own extra costs on the order, if any.

ROI is profit divided by cost, as a percent.

BuyingGroupPro does not add shopping portal commissions, bank account bonuses or sales tax as separate items. Put portal cashback into the cashback percent if you want it counted.

## Where the cashback percent comes from

A new order gets its cashback rate from the order page, when the Chrome extension read one, or from the defaults you set in Settings for a retailer account, a store, a credit card or all orders. When orders from a store have no rate, the dashboard asks you for one. BuyingGroupPro warns you when a value looks like dollars typed into the percent field.

## What counts in your profit totals

- Only orders with a payout recorded are counted.
- An order whose payout looks incomplete shows as **Awaiting Payout** and is left out until you mark it complete.
- Cancelled and returned orders are counted only when they lost money.

Before the payout is known, the order row shows an estimate from the expected payout, when there is one.

## Profit reports (Pro and Concierge)

The Profit page has tabs for:

- **Month:** profit and ROI by month.
- **Group:** profit by buying group.
- **Card:** spend, cashback and ROI by credit card, with the card that would have earned the most and the cashback missed by not using it.
- **Merchant:** profit by store.
- **Account:** profit by retailer account, with orders placed, cancelled and the cancel rate.

You can export the profit report to CSV.

## Before you buy: the deal calculator

The free [deal calculator](https://www.buyinggrouppro.com/deal-calculator/) works out the profit on a deal before you buy: enter the store price, the buying group payout, your cashback percent and the quantity. It needs no account.

Source: https://www.buyinggrouppro.com/docs/profit-tracking/ (updated 2026-10-30)