Is there a Whatnot profit tracker?

Yes. Backstage tracks profit for Whatnot live shows. You put what you paid for your stock in Prep, as a cost per item or as a bulk purchase, and Backstage matches every sale from your live show to it. The profit report shows what you sold, Whatnot's fees, what you pay consignors and your show runner, your cost of goods and your profit, by show, by item and by bulk purchase.

How do I work out my profit on Whatnot?

Start with what Whatnot paid you after its fees, which is on each order's Receipt and earnings details in Seller Hub. Subtract what you paid for the item, any consignor's share, anyone you pay to run the show, and supplies. Backstage does this for every sale in a show and adds it up for any dates you pick.

How do I track profit on a bulk purchase or random pulls?

Log the bulk purchase in Prep with what you paid and roughly how many pieces it holds, and Backstage works out your cost per piece. The profit report then shows each bulk purchase: what you paid, how many pieces have sold, what they sold for, and how many dollars came back for every dollar you spent. It also adds up each store you buy from.

Does the profit include consignor splits and show runner pay?

Yes. Each consignor's share comes out before your profit, worked from what the item earned after Whatnot's fees. If someone runs your shows for pay, add them under Show runners with their rate: dollars per hour, a percentage of sales, or a flat amount per show. Their pay comes out of your profit only, never out of a consignor's share.

Can I give my profit numbers to my accountant?

Yes. The profit report has a Download spreadsheet button for any dates you pick, and the Year-end summary report puts sales, fees, cost of goods, stock value, consignor payouts and any runner you paid $2,000 or more in one place. Backstage isn't tax advice, so check with your accountant how to use them.

Does Backstage connect to Whatnot's API?

No. Backstage isn't a Whatnot partner app. It works alongside the show you're running, never signs in as you, never posts, and never changes your listings.

Whatnot Profit Tracker: What You Really Made on Each Show, After Fees and What Your Stock Cost

Your profit on Whatnot is what Whatnot paid you after its fees, minus what the item cost you, minus anything you pay consignors or a show runner. Whatnot shows the first part on each order. Here's what a Whatnot profit tracker needs to know, why a spreadsheet struggles with fast shows and bulk buys, and how Backstage joins every sale from your live show to what you paid for it, by show, by item and by bulk purchase.

Your profit on Whatnot is what Whatnot paid you after its fees, minus what the item cost you, minus anything you pay consignors or a show runner. Whatnot shows the first part on every order. The rest needs to know what you paid for each piece, and which piece each sale was. Backstage joins every sale from your live show to what you paid for it, so you see your real profit by show, by item and by bulk purchase.

What a Whatnot profit tracker needs to know

Four things, for every sale:

What sold, and for how much. Every auction and Buy It Now sale in the show.
Whatnot’s fees on that sale. Commission plus payment processing, which differ by category and by your sales tier. Whatnot shows them on each order’s Receipt and earnings details; see what each item earned after fees.
What you paid for the item. One price per item, or a share of a bulk purchase.
Anyone else’s share. A consignor’s split, your show runner’s pay, and supplies like mailers and tape.

Take 2 away from 1 and you have what Whatnot paid you. Take 3 and 4 away from that and you have your profit.

Why a spreadsheet struggles with this

A spreadsheet works if you sell a few things a week. It gets hard in a live show:

Sales come fast. A busy show can sell an item every few seconds, and nobody can type a cost next to each one while they’re on camera.
Bulk buys don’t have one price per item. If you paid $200 for a bag of 60 pieces, each piece cost about $3.33, and you’d have to work that out and carry it to every sale by hand.
Random pulls and sized items share one listing. Ten sales of the same listing can come from ten different pieces.
Fees aren’t final right away, and some sales sit pending until the buyer’s card goes through.

So most sellers end up working out profit once a month, if at all, from Whatnot’s reports and a rough guess at cost.

How Backstage tracks your profit

Put what you paid in Prep. Give an item a Cost per item, or log a Bulk purchase with what you paid and roughly how many pieces it holds, and Backstage works out your cost per piece. This works in Prep on the web, in the Chrome extension, and in the Backstage app on iPad and iPhone.
Run your show as normal. Backstage records every sale the moment it happens, by buyer, and matches it to your stock.
Teach it once. If it can’t tell which item a sale came from, the show’s profit page asks What does each listing come from? Pick the item, a consignor’s item, or “Not from inventory”, and Backstage remembers your answer.
End the show. Your stock counts update when you end the show, so Left now is what’s really on your shelf.
Open your profit report in your Backstage account.

What the profit report shows

Pick this week, this month, the last 30 days, this year, or your own dates. At the top is one line: what you made over those shows. Under it, where the money went:

Sold
minus Whatnot fees
= What Whatnot paid you (after fees)
minus what you pay consignors
minus your cost of goods
minus your show runner
minus other costs
= Profit

Then the detail:

By show: sold, fees, consignors, cost, runner and other costs, and profit for each show. Tap a show to see its own profit page.
By item: how many sold, what they sold for, what Whatnot paid you for them, what they cost you, your profit after fees, how many are left now, and the share of that stock you’ve sold.
Bulk purchases: what you paid, how many pieces have sold, what they sold for, and how many dollars came back for every $1 you spent.
Where to shop: the same payback for each store you buy from, so you can see which stores are worth the trip.
Consignors: what each consignor’s items sold for and their share.

Download spreadsheet saves it all as a file you can open in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.

Each show’s own profit page

Every show has a profit page with the same breakdown, plus:

Costs for this show: supplies, other stock that isn’t in your inventory, and anything else you spent.
Who ran this show? If someone runs your shows for pay, add them under Show runners with dollars per hour, a percentage of sales (total sales or sales after Whatnot’s fees), or a flat amount per show. Their pay comes out of your profit only. Consignors aren’t affected.

A few honest notes

Whatnot’s fees are Whatnot’s own numbers. Until Whatnot confirms a sale, its fee is an estimate, and the real one replaces it.
A pending sale isn’t counted until it clears. A sale waiting on the buyer’s card is listed separately, held in its bin, and joins your totals once it’s paid.
No cost yet means no cost yet. An item you haven’t given a cost shows “No cost yet”, never $0, so it can’t make your profit look bigger than it is.
Profit starts from when you set up your stock. Shows from before that aren’t re-costed.
It isn’t tax advice. If you’re a US seller over the IRS or state reporting threshold, Whatnot sends you a 1099-K; your accountant can tell you how to use these numbers.

Backstage and Whatnot

Backstage isn’t a Whatnot partner app. It works alongside the show you’re running, in Chrome or in the Backstage app on iPad or iPhone. It never signs in as you, never posts, and never changes your listings. It’s built by a working Whatnot seller and is not affiliated with Whatnot.

Profit and inventory come with plans that include Prep. See pricing for the plans.

Next steps

What one sale earned after Whatnot’s fees: the Whatnot fee calculator.
Where each after-fees number lives in Whatnot: Whatnot earnings after fees.
If you sell for other people: consignment payout tracking.
Every job in one place: Whatnot seller tools.