---
title: "Cost view: definition, formula and example"
description: "One of two ways to cost a past order: with the costs known when it arrived, or with everything known today. They differ whenever a cost was corrected."
url: https://offersuite.io/glossary/cost-view
updated: 2026-10-13
---

# Cost view

One of two ways to cost a past order: with the costs known when it arrived, or with everything known today. They differ whenever a cost was corrected.

## In plain words

A cost view is a choice about which costs to apply to past orders. The as-recorded view uses the costs that were on file when each order came in. The current view uses the costs as they stand now, with every later correction applied.

Both are true, and they answer different questions. As recorded tells you what you believed when you made a decision. Current tells you what really happened. The two differ only for orders whose costs were corrected after the fact, and that difference is the size of the correction.

## Formula

- As-recorded profit = revenue − cost with the entries on file at the order's arrival
- Current profit = revenue − cost with the entries on file today

## Worked example

An order of the coffee bag arrives on 10 February, when the unit cost on file is $12.00. As recorded, it realizes $17.36.

On 5 April a late invoice shows the cost was $13.50 from 1 February. Given the ledger as it stands after that entry, the engine picks the corrected cost for the same order, and the current view shows $15.86.

### The example order

A $40.00 bag of coffee, shipped free, every cost counted

Revenue $40.00 to contribution margin $15.36 (38.4%)

Revenue

$40.00

Cost of goods

−$12.00

Pick and pack

−$1.18

Packaging

−$0.50

Shipping label

−$7.50

Card fee per order

−$0.30

Refunds

−$2.00

Card processing

−$1.16

Contribution margin

$15.36

2 declared kinds cost nothing on this option

Computed by the margin engine in Offer Suite's own code, in whole cents, from a $40.00 bag of coffee with a $12.00 unit cost.

## The current view is not today's cost applied to old orders

It still costs each order at its own date. An order from February takes February's cost, as that cost is now known to have been. Only corrections that reach back to the order's date change it. A price rise that starts next month leaves it alone.

## Using it

Use the current view for decisions: which offer earned more, which product to push. Use the as-recorded view to explain a number someone saw earlier, and to judge a past decision by what was known then. When the two views disagree by a lot for one offer, look at what was corrected. That cost was probably wrong for a while.

## In Offer Suite

Offer Suite keeps every realized figure in two cost views: as recorded, with the costs each order was booked with, and current, with the ledger as it stands now. Experiments are decided in the current view.

Source: Offer Suite's cost ledger.

## Related

- [Glossary **Glossary of offer economics** The terms behind offer profit, defined plainly with their formulas and a worked number: contribution margin, profit per visitor, break-even lift and more.](https://offersuite.io/glossary)
- [Calculator **Subscription first order vs renewal calculator** Margin on a subscription's first order and on each renewal, and the expected profit per subscriber over time at your retention, against a one-time buyer.](https://offersuite.io/calculators/subscription-first-order-vs-renewal)
- [Glossary **Cost restatement: definition, formula and example** Repricing past orders after a cost is corrected or backdated, while keeping what they were booked with. Both numbers stay, so the change is traceable.](https://offersuite.io/glossary/cost-restatement)
- [Glossary **Cost ledger: definition, formula and example** A record of every cost with the date it applies from, added to and never overwritten, so each order is costed at what was true on its date.](https://offersuite.io/glossary/cost-ledger)
- [Glossary **Realized profit: definition, formula and example** The profit orders actually made: revenue net of refunds, minus the cost of every unit shipped, per offer and per option, first orders and renewals apart.](https://offersuite.io/glossary/realized-profit)
- [Glossary **Actual fulfilment cost: definition and formula** What an order really cost to ship, from the warehouse's or carrier's own charge, in place of the estimate the forecast used.](https://offersuite.io/glossary/actual-fulfilment-cost)