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Expenses let you track every cost associated with your selling business — shipping supplies, card purchases, platform fees, and more. Linking expenses to orders gives you per-order profitability.

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Types of expenses

CardOps supports two expense types:

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Simple expenses

A single line item with a description, amount, and category. Use these for one-off costs like postage, tape, or a box of mailers.

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Purchase orders

An expense with multiple line items. Use these when you buy inventory or supplies from a vendor and want to break down the cost by item.

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Creating an expense

  1. Go to Expenses and click New Expense
  2. Choose Simple Expense or Purchase Order
  3. Fill in the details:
    • Vendor — who you paid
    • Date — when the expense occurred
    • Category — select from system categories or create your own
    • Amount — the total cost (in dollars)
    • Line items (purchase orders only) — add each item with quantity and unit cost
  4. Click Save

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Linking expenses to orders

This is where CardOps gets powerful. By linking expenses to specific orders, you can see exactly how much each order cost you — not just in platform fees, but in actual out-of-pocket expenses. To link an expense to an order:
  1. Open the expense detail page
  2. Click Link to Order
  3. Search for and select the order
  4. Optionally specify a partial amount if the expense covers multiple orders
You can also link from the order side:
  1. Open the order detail page
  2. Scroll to the Linked Expenses section
  3. Click Link Expense and select the expense

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Expense categories

Expenses are organized by category for P&L reporting. System categories include: You can create custom categories under Settings > Categories.

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Tags

Like orders, expenses support tags. Use tags to group expenses by project, vendor type, or any other dimension that matters for your reporting.

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Best practices

  • Enter expenses promptly — the closer to the transaction, the more accurate your records
  • Link to orders when possible — this gives you per-order profit margins
  • Use categories consistently — pick a category for each expense type and stick with it
  • Tag strategically — tags are most useful when they’re consistent across orders and expenses