Calculating inventory value

Your inventory value is the total cost of the items you currently have on the shelf. Shoporama calculates it automatically based on the costs you’ve entered, so you can easily keep track of how much capital is tied up in inventory and use that figure in your financial statements. The inventory value is also saved every night, so you can see how it has changed over time and what it was on a previous date. Read more in “Inventory Value Over Time.”

When you add items to inventory, you can specify a cost price (the purchase price excluding VAT). Shoporama automatically retrieves the cost price assigned to the product if you do not specify one yourself. The more accurately your cost prices are entered, the more accurate the inventory value will be.

Does Shoporama use FIFO or weighted average cost?

Shoporama uses a rolling weighted average cost, not FIFO. If you’ve purchased the same item at different prices, the value is calculated based on an average weighted by quantity. See the example below.

The average is calculated only for the items that are currently in stock. If you sell out of an item completely, the calculation starts over the next time you restock, so old prices for items that were sold long ago do not affect the value of what’s on the shelf today.

Does the inventory value include or exclude sales tax?

The inventory value is always calculated excluding VAT. It is the cost price excluding VAT that is included in the calculation.

What about items added to inventory without a cost price?

They are included in the cost price you’ve set for the product or variant. If neither a price was recorded at the time of receipt nor a cost price for the item, it isn’t included, and the inventory value will be too low. See “Inventory Value Without Cost ” for instructions on how to correct this.

I just added items to inventory, but the value hasn’t changed yet

The total inventory value you see on the admin dashboard is updated overnight. Items you add to inventory today will be included starting tomorrow. We do this to avoid putting unnecessary strain on the server during the day, ensuring your store runs quickly.

The same nightly run saves today’s inventory value, so you can view it later under “Inventory Value Over Time.” If you click “Update Inventory Value” under “Inventory” → “Cost Prices,” the number on the front page will change immediately, but the change won’t appear in the history until the next night’s update.

How is the value calculated if I’ve changed the cost price along the way?

Shoporama calculates a quantity-weighted average.

Example: You added 10 units to inventory at 80 DKK each and then 5 units at 70 DKK each. In total, you purchased 800 + 350 = 1,150 DKK worth of inventory. The average price is (10 × 80 + 5 × 70) / 15 = 76.67 DKK. Shoporama therefore reports the inventory value as 15 × 76.67 = 1,150 DKK.

This example applies as long as all 15 items are still in stock. If you sell some of them, the average price of 76.67 DKK remains and is multiplied by the number you have left. The system does not keep track of whether the expensive or the cheap items were sold first.

If you later correct a cost price, it does not change the data already saved in “Inventory Value Over Time.” The correction will appear in the next night’s report at the earliest.

How are products with variants counted?

Inventory is managed per variant, but the inventory value is calculated at the product level. All variants of the same product are therefore added together and included in the product’s total value. See Synchronizing Inventory with Variants for more information on inventory management per variant.

I share inventory between two shops. Are the items counted twice?

Not in the individual store. If you share inventory across multiple stores, they’re selling from the same physical shelf. The items count at their full value in each shop that shares the inventory, because they are actually available for sale in each shop. This applies to both the current inventory value and the value saved each night in “Inventory Value Over Time.”

If you combine your shops yourself—for example, for the annual financial statements—the shared inventory will be counted multiple times. Instead, use the “Shared Inventory ” tab under “Statistics” → “Inventory Statistics.” It combines the shops and counts an item that appears in multiple shops only once. The tab appears in shops that share inventory with at least one other shop. The shops must be live and have a subscription with shared inventory.

How the figure is calculated:

• Items with the same SKU across multiple shops are considered the same item. This also applies when only the SKUs of the variants are the same. These are the same SKUs that shared inventory uses to keep inventory levels consistent.
• Items found in only one store are counted in that store. The same applies to items without an SKU; Shoporama cannot find these in the other stores.
• If the quantity or cost price differs across stores, the lowest value is used, and the item is listed under “Discrepancies” with an explanation. If the item is in stock in only one of the stores, the value from that store is used. The same applies if the item is missing a cost price in one of the stores: in that case, the value from the store with a cost price is used.

Review the discrepancies before using the figure. If “No stock” or “Different quantities” is listed for one of the stores, the inventory is typically not synchronized. Open Inventory → Synchronize Inventory in the store that has the incorrect quantity, and synchronize from the store that has the correct inventory. If you correct the quantity manually, the sister store will be updated immediately, so the discrepancy will remain. Read more in “Shared Inventory Across Webshops.” If “Cost Price Missing” appears in one of the shops, enter the cost price for the item in that shop. If “Different Cost Price” appears, the items have been added to inventory at different prices in the shops. This will not change if you adjust the cost price of the item, as items in stock retain the price at which they were originally entered. If “Same Item Number” appears for multiple items, assign each item its own unique item number. Changes to quantity and cost price will appear in the next night’s report at the earliest. If you correct an item number, the new item number will also be applied to earlier dates. The page shows the largest discrepancies, and the CSV file lists them all.

Select the date, e.g., December 31, and click View. Using the button with the date, e.g., CSV: Split Inventory as of 12/31/2026, you can retrieve all items with their quantities and inventory values in each store, along with the items that have been counted. You can provide this to your accountant. The tab can only display dates for which all stores have a report. If you select a different date, the tab will show the most recent date prior to that for which all stores have a report. The figure is still based on what you’ve recorded, so for the annual financial statements, you’ll need to reconcile it with a physical inventory count.

You must have access to Inventory Statistics with the Cost Prices and Markup add-on enabled in all stores to view this figure. If the stores use different currencies—for example, a Danish and a Swedish store—the inventory values cannot be combined, and the tab will not display a total figure.

Do bundle packages count toward the inventory value?

Bundles do not have their own inventory value when you use the recommended setup with a shared inventory. The value is assigned to the individual products to prevent double counting. Read more in the article about bundles.

What happens when I issue a credit memo for an order?

When you create a credit memo, you can choose whether to return the items to inventory. If you do, the inventory level increases again, and the items are included in the inventory value at today’s cost price.

Do deleted products count toward inventory value?

No. Deleted products are not included in the inventory value, even if they still have inventory records in the system. The same applies to products in the trash.

However, in “Inventory Value Over Time,” you can still see them for earlier dates when they were in stock. They appear in the item list marked as “Deleted” or “In the Recycle Bin.”

Can the inventory value be negative?

No. If a product were to have a negative value (e.g., because more were sold than were in stock), its value is considered 0 in the calculation, so the total inventory value never becomes negative.

In “Inventory Value Over Time,” you can see how many items had negative inventory on a given date. They appear in the product list labeled “Negative Inventory” and are counted as 0 DKK.

Where can I see the total inventory value?

You’ll find the figure under “Inventory” in the admin panel, where it appears at the top of the page: “Your inventory is worth X DKK (excl. tax) at cost.” Keep in mind that this figure is updated overnight.

If you need the inventory value as of a specific date—for example, at the end of the year—you’ll find it under Statistics → Inventory Statistics on the “Inventory Value Over Time” tab. The history begins on the day the feature was activated. The figures are based on what you’ve recorded in Shoporama, so for your annual financial statements, you’ll need to reconcile them with a physical inventory count. If you share inventory across multiple stores, you’ll find the total value on the “Shared Inventory” tab.

If you have any questions about inventory value, please feel free to contact us at support@shoporama.dk.