Track net revenue after refunds in marketing reports
Make campaign reporting comparable with settled order economics.
Define what you deduct
Begin with order revenue, then subtract discounts and refunds consistently. Decide whether merchant-collected shipping belongs in revenue and exclude sales tax where appropriate. Record chargebacks or cancellation adjustments in a defined column rather than losing them in an unexplained difference.
Use the right reporting date
For cash, the refund date matters. For acquisition analysis, assign refunds back to the original order cohort when possible. A campaign can look unusually weak in a later month simply because earlier orders were refunded then.
Publish a provisional and a settled view
Keep a fast estimate for daily decisions and a settled view for performance evaluation. Show the expected time to maturity and revise the original cohort when necessary. If you cannot map refunds to campaigns reliably, state the coverage instead of allocating them arbitrarily.
Try a related tool
Compare revenue per advertising dollar with the return needed to cover ad spend. Enter net revenue and contribution margin before ads.
