Plain Reckoner
EN

A refund can cost more than the sale.

Compare kept and fully refunded orders. Set the costs your own fee schedule actually retains.

Sources and limits
This models full product refunds with no customer-paid shipping for one product/order pattern. It does not predict returns, model partial refunds or replace a cohort profit report. The same rate can hide very different recovery and handling costs. Tax, overhead and unentered costs remain excluded. Read the data and method ↗ How to use the tools
Free publisher workspaceFree to use · No signup

Worked example. Check all costs before using your result.

Your figures

Main figures
Other costs and assumptions

USD throughout. Your fee schedule, tax treatment and order dates matter. No store connection or upload.

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What these figures show

The return rate and cost recovery are assumptions to test, not a forecast.

Scenario contribution per original order

$13.12

Conditional on the entered costs. This is not a demand forecast or net-profit report.

Contribution when the order is kept
$17.90
Contribution on a fully returned order
-$29.90
Contribution lost per full return
$47.80
Scenario contribution per 100 original orders
$1,312.00
Cost break-even full-return rate
37.44%
Original fee retained on a return
$2.10
Check every input used
Product selling price
60 USD
Product cost
24 USD
Outbound shipping and packing
6 USD
Fully returned order rate
10 %
Ad cost per original order
10 USD
Original percentage selling fee
3 %
Original fixed selling fee
0.3 USD
Return shipping paid by you
5 USD
Extra return handling
2 USD
Product cost recovered into stock
80 %
Original fees refunded to you
0 %
Formula, source and limits

Every original order incurs its entered outbound cost, original payment fee and ad cost. A full return refunds all product revenue.

Returned-order contribution subtracts unrecovered product cost, outbound cost, retained original fees, return shipping, extra handling and original ad cost. Recovered cost is stock value, not immediate cash.

Scenario contribution = kept-order contribution × kept-order share + returned-order contribution × full-return share. The cost break-even return rate rounds down to two decimals.

This models full product refunds with no customer-paid shipping for one product/order pattern. It does not predict returns, model partial refunds or replace a cohort profit report. The same rate can hide very different recovery and handling costs. Tax, overhead and unentered costs remain excluded.