If you've noticed a "No SKU" entry in your A2X costs table, you might be wondering what it means and how to resolve it. This article explains why "No SKU" appears and what you can do to ensure your SKUs are properly categorized in A2X.
Why Does "No SKU" Appear?
A2X retrieves data from your sales channel (such as Shopify or eBay) and organizes it per payout. This means that A2X depends on the information available in your payout data, including SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) details, to categorize and calculate costs accurately.
However, in many cases, sellers do not assign SKUs to their product listings in Shopify or eBay. When this happens, the SKU field in the payout data remains blank. Since A2X can only work with the data provided by the sales channel, it will display "No SKU" in cases where the SKU is missing.
How Does This Affect Cost Calculations?
If a SKU is missing, A2X cannot automatically match a cost to that product. Normally, users can add costs for specific SKUs, allowing A2X to calculate Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) using this formula:
COGS = Quantity Sold × Cost per SKU
When there is "No SKU," the system lacks the necessary SKU data to associate with a cost. This can lead to incomplete or inaccurate cost reporting.
How to Prevent "No SKU" from Appearing
To ensure SKUs are properly recorded and prevent "No SKU" from showing up in A2X:
Assign SKUs in Your Sales Channel – Go to your Shopify or eBay product listings and make sure every product has a unique SKU.
Update Listings Before Future Sales – While adding SKUs now will not backfill previous transactions, it will ensure that future sales include SKU data.
Check Your Payout Data – If you are unsure whether your sales channel is sending SKU data, review the payout reports from Shopify or eBay to confirm.
Handling Historical COGS for "No SKU" Transactions
Historical COGS for transactions with "No SKU" cannot be accurately calculated since the SKU data was missing at the time of sale. As a workaround, users can enter $0.00 for "No SKU" and later adjust the COGS entry in their accounting system after posting. Since "No SKU" may include multiple different listings, the best way to determine which items were sold and how often is by using the COGS export for the month. This report includes listing titles, even if SKUs are missing, making it easier to identify and allocate costs correctly.
Final Thoughts
Seeing "No SKU" in A2X simply means that SKU data was not available from your sales channel’s payout data. While this does not affect transaction recording, it can impact cost tracking and reporting. The best way to prevent "No SKU" from appearing is to ensure all your product listings have SKUs assigned in Shopify, eBay, or your other sales platforms.
By taking this step, you’ll improve the accuracy of your cost calculations and gain better insights into your financial reporting in A2X.