Profit Guard: find where you're quietly losing money

How Profit Guard scans 90 days of sales to rank your biggest margin leaks, each with a one-line fix.

Profit Guard scans your last 90 days of sales against what each order actually cost you, in cost price, eBay and payment fees, and postage, then ranks the listings that are quietly eating your margin. Use this article to understand what it checks, how to read the ranking, and why some orders never appear in it.

What Profit Guard checks

For every order in the last 90 days, Profit Guard works out the real profit after cost price, eBay fees, payment processing fees and postage are all taken into account. It then groups this by listing (SKU) and ranks the listings that are either loss making or running on a thin margin, ordered by how much money you could recover by fixing them.

Each result on the list comes with a one-line fix, a short, specific suggestion such as raising the price, switching postage service or checking the cost price, so you know what to do next without having to dig through the numbers yourself.

Reading the ranking

Listings are not sorted by how unprofitable they look in percentage terms. They are sorted by recoverable money, the amount you are realistically losing across those orders. A listing that loses a small amount per sale but sells often can rank above a listing that loses more per sale but rarely sells, because the first one is costing you more overall.

Work down the list from the top. Fixing the highest ranked leaks first gives you the biggest improvement in profit for the least

DashVueAsk DashVueAIOVERVIEWShipDashboardCalendarSTOCKStockRepricerSELLINGOrdersOffers3ReturnsMessagesFeedbackFINANCEReportsTax centreExpensesCost of GoodsInsightsSettingsSAccountseller@example.comPROFIT GUARD · LAST 90 DAYSWhere you're quietly losing moneyWe scan every recent sale against its real cost, eBay fees and postage, then rank the leaks so you know exactly what to fix first.MONEY AT RISK£76.00Recoverable across loss-making SKUsLEAKS FOUND42 losing money · 2 running thinLOSS-MAKING ORDERS14£76.00 lost in totalPROFIT VISIBILITY82%738 of 900 orders have a cost priceMONEY AT RISK£76.00Recoverable across 4 leaks in the last 90days - 2 losing money, 2 running thin.82%CHECKEDBiggest leaksSized by money you could recover. Red is a real loss; amber is a thin margin to shore up.£0£15£30£45Vintage Denim JacketRetro Game ConsoleCeramic Plant PotWooden Photo FrameWhat to fix firstOpen repricerRanked by recoverable money. Each leak comes with a one-line fix you can action today.1Vintage Denim Jacket12 orders · £312 revenue · -6% marginFix: Reprice up or stop selling - it has lost money on every batch.Losing money£48.60lost2Retro Game Console5 orders · £455 revenue · -3% marginFix: Reprice up, cut your cost, or retire this listing.Losing money£27.40lost3Ceramic Plant Pot9 orders · £198 revenue · 4% marginFix: Nudge the price up a little - one refund tips this into a loss.Running thin£14.20headroom4Wooden Photo Frame6 orders · £84 revenue · 6% marginFix: Tighten the price or postage to build a safety buffer.Running thin£9.80headroomHow we work it out: Net profit = (sale - refund) - COGS - eBay fees - postage, on VAT-inclusive figures (so a flagged loss is a real loss).Orders without a cost price are excluded and counted under profit visibility.
The full Profit Guard page, with the What to fix first ranking highlighted: listings are ordered by the money you could realistically recover rather than by loss percentage, with a one-line fix on each row. Figures shown are sample data.
effort.

Profit visibility

Profit Guard also shows a profit visibility figure. This tells you what proportion of your last 90 days of sales it could actually analyse for margin leaks, based on how many of those orders have a cost price recorded.

Orders with no cost price are excluded

Profit Guard can only work out true profit when it knows what an item cost you. Orders with no cost price recorded are excluded from the scan entirely, they are not counted as profitable or unprofitable, they simply do not appear. If your profit visibility is low, add cost prices to more of your listings so Profit Guard has enough data to find leaks accurately.

A low profit visibility figure is a signal on its own: it means a meaningful share of your sales are currently invisible to margin checking, not just to Profit Guard but to any true profit figure DashVue shows you. Treat improving it as part of the fix, not a side task.

Acting on a fix

The one-line fix against each listing is a starting point, not an automatic change. Profit Guard does not alter your prices, postage settings or listings for you. If a fix involves changing a live eBay listing, you will need a Full Access eBay connection to publish that change. With a read-only connection you can still see the leak and draft a fix, but you will not be able to push it live to eBay.

DashVue publishes fixed price (Buy It Now) listings, so any suggested fix that involves changing a listing assumes a fixed price format, not an auction.

Last updated 2026-07-06.

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