Where to see your sales in WooCommerce: reports, analytics and what the numbers mean

You want to know how much you sold this month, which product leaves the shelf fastest and where customers come from. WooCommerce keeps all of it, but shows it in different places depending on the version, and the totals do not always agree with the bank or with your accountant. First, where to look; then, why the numbers seem to lie.

Where each thing is

What you want to know Where to look
Sales overview WooCommerce, Analytics (recent versions), the Overview page. On older versions, WooCommerce, Reports.
Best-selling products Analytics, Products. You can sort by units or by revenue.
Sales by category Analytics, Categories.
The effect of coupons Analytics, Coupons.
Tax collected Analytics, Taxes.
Stock and products running out Analytics, Stock. It complements the alerts in stock and low-stock alerts.
New and returning customers Analytics, Customers.

Getting the analytics working

1 Open WooCommerce, Analytics. If the menu is missing, your version is old or the analytics feature is switched off; update the shop on a quiet day (see updating without breaking anything).
2 Pick the date range at the top and, if you like, compare with the previous period. Without a comparison, a lone number says nothing.
3 Import the history if it is missing. In the Analytics settings there is an option to import data from past orders. It can take a while on shops with many orders, because it runs in the background.
4 Choose which statuses count. The Analytics settings let you exclude statuses such as cancelled or failed. Decide once and leave it, so months stay comparable.
5 Export to CSV when you have to hand the figures to someone. Every table has the option.

Why the numbers do not match

The gap The usual cause
More than in the bank The report counts orders awaiting payment or on hold; only those with a paid status count as money.
Less than in the till Orders created by hand that did not go through the analytics, or history that was never imported.
Different from your accountant Your accountant looks at the payment date, WooCommerce at the order date. Check that the tax basis is the same, too.
Old numbers change A refund made later changes the month of the refund, not the month of the sale.
These analytics are a map, not your accounts. For taxes, returns or invoices, the documents your accountant asks for count, not the shop screen. See invoices for your shop customers.
Always read two things together: sales and visits. A shop that sells little with few visits has a traffic problem; with many visits it has a buying problem, and for that the page is checkout errors. Visits are measured with Google Analytics.

Analytics shows nothing, or the page loads forever? Tell us the shop address and the WooCommerce version, and we will see whether it is the server.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Order statuses explained

Google Analytics: setting up and what to read first

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