SALES & ORDER MANAGEMENT
Spot every order slipping below an acceptable margin. The filters set a from and to range on gross margin and gross profit.
PROFIT AND FULFILMENT
Every order carries its own cost, gross profit, and margin. The same list launches a four-step pick and pack run.
Compare gross margin from one order to the next, order by order. Channel, quantity, order total, gross profit, and gross margin show for every order. That comparison reaches back to orders taken long before you installed Inventory Alpha, right through to the ones placed last week.
Pick the orders that need to go out in this run. The pick list for the run comes next. Packing sheets follow, one card per order. Open a single order's packing sheet to see its items and shipping address, then tick each line as it's packed.
Work out which line in a mixed order made money and which barely covered its cost. Cost, Gross Profit, and Gross Margin appear against every product listed on the order. Order COGS, Gross Profit, and Gross Margin total the same figures across every line combined.
Set any order's channel to whatever fits, from Amazon and eBay to POS and Website. Every order already carries the channel it came through, tagged automatically as soon as it's placed.
Set gross margin from 50% to filter straight to a band of high-margin orders. Add an upper limit and the same range narrows to a tighter band.
PICK AND PACK
Combine every open order into one continuous run for the day. Many orders become one list, then many sheets.
Read the order list to see which orders are open and where they came from. Check the Ready to Ship count in the banner for how many orders sit in Processing. Click Generate Pick List to launch the picking run.
Tick the orders going into this run. Everything in the pool is open work, with orders already claimed by another run absent entirely. Generate Pick List shows the exact count selected before it creates the session.
Open the Consolidated Pick List to one row per product, quantity summed across every order in the run. Narrow by SKU, product name, or quantity when the run is large. Export CSV or print the list, then advance with Packing Sheets.
Work through the order cards on Packing Sheets, then open one for its items alongside the customer and shipping address. Tick each line's Packed checkbox as each item is packed. The pager arrows carry the run to the next order, with position saved as it goes.
EVERY ORDER, EVERY RUN
Revenue, Ready to Ship, Gross Margin, and Return Rate line up with whatever is filtered.
Warehouse staff handle picking; COGS, Gross Profit, and Gross Margin remain a separate grant for the owner.
What to collect for a product, every variation gathered from every order at once.
Which printout to reach for: one pick list for the whole run, one sheet per order.
The Resume pick list names which run to continue, by date, orders, and step reached.
Know a partially refunded order still ships, its line already carrying the reduced count.
WHERE THE COST COMES FROM
A product bought in several deliveries, each at a different price, still gets its own cost on the order that sells it. A merchant reading gross profit sees the cost of the delivery selling down right then, rather than a figure smoothed across every delivery ever made. Two orders for the same product, weeks apart, can carry two different costs, each matching the stock that shipped.
Every delivery is recorded at the price paid when the purchase order for it was received. A sale draws on the oldest of those recorded prices still held against the product, matching the cost to whichever batch is being sold down. That cost is fixed onto the order the moment the sale reduces stock. A default cost set on the product during onboarding covers stock held before the first purchase order was received.
HOW IT COMPARES
What the orders screen gives you out of the box versus what you piece together in a spreadsheet.
| Capability | Default WooCommerce | ATUM Inventory | Shelf Planner | Inventory Alpha |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost, profit, and margin on every order | – | – | – | |
| FIFO cost per line, fixed at the sale | – | – | ||
| Filter orders by margin and profit range | – | – | – | |
| Sales channel recorded per order | – | – | ||
| Live KPI bar over the filtered orders | – | – | ||
| One pick list across selected orders | – | – | ||
| Packing sheets ticked off as you pack | – | – | ||
| Cost figures hidden from picking staff | – | – | – |
WORKS WITH YOUR STACK
No data migration, no separate dashboard. Inventory Alpha installs as a standard plugin and reads your existing WooCommerce orders and products.
FAQ
The Cost, Gross Profit, and Gross Margin columns on that order line show a dash, not £0.00. A dash means no cost exists to calculate from; a zero would falsely claim the product cost nothing and report a 100% margin that isn't real. Set a Default Cost on the product, or receive stock for it on a purchase order, and the dash is replaced with a real figure.
Yes, for the whole order history, however far back it goes. Enter a cost on a product, either typed in as a Default Cost or arriving from a purchase order, and every past order containing it fills in with COGS, Gross Profit, and Gross Margin.
Gross Profit is worked out again on the order once a refund is entered, rather than left at its pre-refund value. Restocking the refunded units brings the recorded cost down, and Gross Profit moves with it, both on the order edit screen and in the Orders list. Deleting the refund puts the revenue, the cost, and the stock back, and Gross Profit returns to its original figure.
No. Completing a pick run closes the pick list and takes it off your Resume list, nothing more. The order sits exactly where WooCommerce left it, whether that's Processing, On Hold, or anything else. Marking it Completed is still your call, made in WooCommerce, on your own timing.
A pick list belongs to the login that made it. Two people on the same login can hand a run back and forth: one starts on the shop computer, the other picks it up on a tablet on the floor, with progress saved as it goes. On separate logins, you each run your own list over different orders and pick at the same time.
No. There's no shipping-label printing, no carrier integration, and nowhere to put a tracking number. What prints instead is a consolidated pick list for the whole run, and a packing sheet per order with its customer and destination. Your existing shipping or label plugin keeps doing that job untouched.
Yes. Beside the Channel picker on the order screen sits an Add new channel option, where you give it a name and a short key and save. It then appears in the Channel picker alongside Amazon, eBay, POS, and Website. You can rename or delete it later, and deleting one still in use asks you to move its orders to another channel first.
No. The Orders list has no CSV or Excel download of its own. What does export is the pick list: its CSV covers SKU, product name, and quantity for everything currently filtered, not just what's on screen. For pulling order-level numbers, Reports is the export route.
Have a question we didn't cover? Contact our team →
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Each order carries its own cost, profit, and margin, worked out per line. Open orders turn into one pick list, then a packing sheet per order.
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