---
title: "Row labels that don't match their formulas"
description: "A row's label is typed text and its formulas are whatever was copied. A tier that says three units and costs two shows margin the offer never had."
url: https://offersuite.io/articles/row-labels-that-do-not-match-their-formulas
updated: 2026-10-13
---

# Row labels that don't match their formulas

A row's label is typed text and its formulas are whatever was copied. A tier that says three units and costs two shows margin the offer never had.

Spreadsheet mistake 8 of 9

## The mistake

A row's label is typed text. Its formulas are whatever was there when the row was copied. Nothing ties the two together, so a row can say three bottles and compute two.

It happens when tiers are edited after the table is built. A tier is relabelled instead of rebuilt, a row is inserted and only some of its cells are fixed, or the quantity lives in the label while a different one sits in a hidden column.

## A worked example

A row labelled "3 bottles, 10% off each". Its price cell is right: $102.48 plus $9.29 shipping. Its cost cells were copied from the two-bottle row above and still multiply by two.

The row shows costs of $43.04 and a margin of $68.73, or 61.5%. Three bottles cost $55.20 to buy, pick, ship and charge, and the order keeps $56.57, or 50.6%.

The three-bottle row, as the sheet costs it and as three bottles cost

| Line | The sheet, costed for two | Three bottles |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Customer pays, with shipping | $111.77 | $111.77 |
| Unit cost | −$20.94 | −$31.41 |
| Pick, pack and label | −$12.97 | −$14.66 |
| All costs | −$43.04 | −$55.20 |
| Margin | $68.73 | $56.57 |
| Margin % | 61.5% | 50.6% |

The order's figures are computed by the margin engine in Offer Suite's own code, in whole cents. The sheet's are the same order with the mistake applied.

## What it does to the decision

The sheet overstates this tier by $12.16 an order. A team that sees 61.5% on its three-pack has room, on paper, for a deeper discount or a gift, and gives away margin that was never there.

When a take mix is simulated on a table like this, the error spreads. Shares meant for one tier are multiplied by another tier's economics, and the blended figures are wrong with no single cell to blame.

## What prevents it

In an [offer document](https://offersuite.io/features/offer-documents) an option has no label apart from its contents. Its lines state the product and the quantity, and the price, the cost and the cart are all derived from those lines. Change the quantity and all three change together.

The [real-cart check](https://offersuite.io/features/publish-and-verify) closes the loop. The cart Offer Suite builds for an option holds the quantities the document states, and each line is compared with the offer, priced exactly as the buy box shows it.

A spreadsheet is still the right tool for some of this. Where it is, and where it stops: [Offer Suite vs a spreadsheet](https://offersuite.io/compare/spreadsheets).

## Where the numbers come from

The example is not a real brand's offer. Every input is sourced below, or marked there as an assumption.

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Price | $37.95, a bottle of supplements. [Nature's Sunshine homepage, read 23 September 2026](https://www.naturessunshine.com/) |
| Unit cost | $10.47. [Nature's Sunshine, fourth quarter and full year 2025 results, read 23 September 2026](https://ir.naturessunshine.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/267/natures-sunshine-reports-strong-fourth-quarter-and-full) |
| Refund reserve | 5%, Offer Suite's default assumption for consumables. NRF's all-category figure for online sales is 19.3%, but consumables are rarely returned; use your own rate. |
| Pick and pack | $3.20 per order and $0.48 for each extra item. [Fulfill.com, 3PL pricing benchmarks (The Fulfillment Advisor 2025 survey of 600+ warehouses), read 23 September 2026](https://www.fulfill.com/3pl-pricing) |
| Shipping label | USPS Ground Advantage, commercial, Zone 5, by weight rounded up to the pound: 1 lb $9.29 · 2 lb $10.50 · 3 lb $12.12 · 4 lb $13.89 · 5 lb $14.53. Packed weight is an assumption: 0.5 lb per unit. [USPS Notice 123, USPS Ground Advantage Commercial, Zone 5 (effective 4 October 2026), read 13 October 2026](https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm) |
| Card fees | 2.9% + $0.30 per order: Shopify Payments' online rate for a standard card on the Basic plan in the United States. Higher plans pay a lower rate, and premium cards a higher one. [Shopify's pricing page for the United States, online standard card rates, read 12 October 2026](https://www.shopify.com/pricing) [Rates by plan and country](https://offersuite.io/fees/shopify-payments/united-states) |

## Related

- [Articles **Spreadsheet mistakes that misprice offers** Nine mistakes that turn up in offer spreadsheets, each worked on a sourced order: what the sheet shows, what the order earns, and what prevents the error.](https://offersuite.io/articles)
- [Calculator **Bundle pricing calculator: shipping, subscriptions** Price a bundle against a single unit, one-time and subscribed, with the shipping and pick costs it saves, and the conversion it can lose and still earn as much.](https://offersuite.io/calculators/bundle-pricing)
- [Calculator **Offer option calculator: profit per visitor** Compare up to three offer options on profit per visitor, margin per order times conversion, and see the conversion lift each one needs to match the best.](https://offersuite.io/calculators/offer-option-profit-per-visitor)
- [Comparison **Offer profit in a spreadsheet vs Offer Suite** Where a spreadsheet is the right tool for offer profit, and where it breaks: costs that change, renewals, refunds, and a price that has to match checkout.](https://offersuite.io/compare/spreadsheets)
- [Article **A sign error in a free trial's first order** A free trial's first order earns zero. A sheet that books it as minus the price charges the trial for the product twice, and a trial that pays back is rejected.](https://offersuite.io/articles/sign-error-in-a-free-trial)
- [Feature **Offer documents: one validated document per offer** An offer is one validated, versioned document your agent writes: tiers, bundles, subscriptions, gifts and prices, with no offer types to pick from.](https://offersuite.io/features/offer-documents)