General Settings Overview

The General Settings page is your central hub for configuring how Alpha Insights calculates profit, tracks costs, and integrates with your WooCommerce store. This guide explains every setting available and helps you optimize your configuration for accurate profit tracking.

Accessing General Settings

1. Go to Alpha Insights → Settings in your WordPress dashboard
2. You’ll land on the General Settings tab by default
3. This is the main settings page with most configuration options

Initial Configuration – Default Prices

These settings provide fallback values for costs when you haven’t entered specific values for products or orders. They help ensure every order has cost data for accurate profit calculations.

Default Cost Price (%)

What it does: Sets a fallback cost for products that don’t have a specific cost price entered

How it works: Calculated as a percentage of the product’s retail price

Example: If set to 40% and a product sells for $100, the default cost would be $40

When to use:

• When first setting up Alpha Insights and you don’t have all product costs yet
• As a temporary measure until you can enter actual costs
• For low-volume products where precise tracking isn’t critical

Recommendation: Start with a conservative estimate (like 50-60%) then add actual costs using the Cost of Goods Manager

Payment Gateway Costs

What it does: Configures payment processing fees for each of your payment gateways

How it works: Alpha Insights automatically detects ALL enabled payment gateways in your WooCommerce store and displays them in a table.

Configuration:

• Percent Of Order Value: Percentage charged by payment processor (e.g., 2.9 for 2.9%)
• Static Fee: Fixed fee per transaction (e.g., 0.30)
• Default: Applies to any payment method not specifically configured or newly enabled gateways

Formula: Payment Fee = (Order Total × Percent) + Static Fee

Common rates:

• Stripe/PayPal: 2.9% + $0.30
• Square: 2.6% + $0.10
• Direct Bank Transfer: 0% + $0.00
• Cash on Delivery: 0% + $2.00 (handling fee)

Calculation example: Order of $100 with 2.9% + $0.30 = ($100 × 0.029) + $0.30 = $3.20 fee

Automatic Detection:

• Payment gateways are detected automatically from WooCommerce settings
• Only enabled gateways appear in the list
• Enable/disable gateways in WooCommerce, and the list updates automatically
• Each gateway can have different fee structures

Actual Fee Override: If your payment gateway plugin stores the actual fee charged (e.g., _stripe_fee, _paypal_fee, HitPay_fees meta keys), Alpha Insights will use that exact amount instead of the calculated fee. This ensures maximum accuracy.

Default Shipping Cost

What it does: Sets default shipping costs you pay to carriers

Configuration:

• Percent Of Order Value: Cost as percentage of total order value
• Percent Of Shipping Charged: What percentage of the shipping fee you charged is your actual cost (e.g., if you charge $10 and it costs $7, enter 70)
• Static Fee: Fixed fee per shipment (e.g., $6.00)

Example scenarios:

• Flat rate shipping: You charge $9.99, USPS costs you $7.50 → Use 75% of shipping charged
• Fixed cost per order: Always costs $6 → Use static fee of $6.00
• Percentage based: Costs roughly 3% of order value → Use 3% of order value

Tip: You can override these defaults on individual orders when you have the actual shipping cost

Report Settings

These settings control which orders are included in your profit calculations and reports.

Paid Order Status For Reporting

What it does: Defines which WooCommerce order statuses should be counted as “paid” for profit calculations

Available statuses:

• Processing – Orders being prepared (recommended)
• Completed – Fulfilled orders (recommended)
• Pending Payment – Awaiting payment (usually not included)
• On Hold – Awaiting action (usually not included)
• Refunded – Required, handled separately in calculations
• Cancelled – Should not be included
• Failed – Should not be included

Recommendation: Include “Processing” and “Completed” statuses. This gives you the most accurate picture of actual revenue from confirmed orders.

Important: The Refunded status is required as Alpha Insights handles refunds with special calculations

Profit Calculation Settings

These settings fine-tune how Alpha Insights calculates your profit.

Costs to Include When an Order is Fully Refunded

What it does: By default, when an order is fully refunded, all costs are set to $0 (since you get your money back). This setting lets you specify which costs should still be counted as expenses even when refunded.

Options:

• Product Cost Of Goods: The cost of the products (usually not recovered)
• Product Custom Costs: Any custom product-level costs
• Shipping Costs: Shipping fees you paid (usually not recovered)
• Payment Gateway Fees: Processing fees (often not refunded by payment processors)
• Custom Order Costs: Any custom order-level costs

Common scenario: Customer orders a product, you ship it, then they request a refund. You refund their money, but you still paid for:

• Shipping to them ($7)
• Payment gateway fee ($3)
• Return shipping ($7)

Recommendation: Enable “Shipping Costs” and “Payment Gateway Fees” as these are typically not recovered on refunds

Note: Partially refunded orders have different calculations – only costs for the refunded items are adjusted

Custom Order & Product Costs

Create additional cost fields beyond the standard costs. These are powerful features for tracking business-specific expenses.

Create Custom Order Costs

What it does: Adds custom cost fields that appear on every order

Use cases:

• Commission fees (marketplace fees, affiliate commissions)
• Fulfillment fees (3PL warehousing, pick & pack fees)
• Platform fees (Etsy, Amazon, eBay fees)
• Customer acquisition costs
• Gift wrapping or special packaging costs

Configuration:

• Name: What to call this cost (e.g., “Marketplace Commission”)
• Percent Of Order Value: Percentage fee (e.g., 15% for Etsy)
• Static Fee: Fixed amount per order (e.g., $2.50 fulfillment fee)

Example: Etsy charges 6.5% transaction fee + $0.20 per listing

• Name: “Etsy Fees”
• Percent: 6.5
• Static Fee: 0.20

Result: Every order will have an “Etsy Fees” field calculated automatically. You can override the calculated value on individual orders if needed.

To add a new custom cost:

1. Fill in the fields in the “new” row at the bottom of the table
2. Click “Save Changes”
3. The cost will appear on all future and past orders

To delete a custom cost: Click “Delete” next to the cost you want to remove

See the Custom Order Costs guide for detailed examples

Create Custom Product Costs

What it does: Adds custom cost fields that appear on every product

Use cases:

• Packaging materials (boxes, bubble wrap, inserts)
• Assembly or customization labor
• Import duties or tariffs
• Storage or warehousing fees per unit
• Quality control costs
• Labeling or branding costs

Configuration:

• Name: What to call this cost (e.g., “Packaging Materials”)
• Percent Of Sell Price: Percentage of product price (e.g., 5%)
• Static Fee: Fixed amount per unit (e.g., $2.00 per box)

Example: You sell custom mugs. Each mug needs:

• Special packaging box: $2.50
• Tissue paper and card: 5% of sale price

Configuration:

• Name: “Custom Packaging”
• Percent: 5
• Static Fee: 2.50

Result: Product cost fields will include this cost, and you can set different values per product when needed

How it works:

• Custom product costs are set on each product (like regular product costs)
• When an order is placed, the product’s custom costs are applied to that line item
• You can override custom product costs at the order level if needed

See the Custom Product Costs guide for detailed examples

Alpha Analytics & Event Tracking

Alpha Insights includes a comprehensive analytics system for tracking visitor behavior and product performance.

Enable WooCommerce Event Tracking

What it does: Tracks product views, add-to-carts, and other eCommerce events

Enables tracking of:

• Product page views
• Product clicks on category pages
• Add to cart events
• Cart abandonment
• Purchase events with campaign attribution
• Visitor sessions and page views

Options:

• True: Full analytics tracking enabled
• False: Analytics disabled (only order-level profit tracking)

Performance note: Enabling this adds minimal server load. Events are tracked efficiently using cookies and stored in optimized database tables.

Recommendation: Enable this for complete insights into customer behavior and campaign performance

Exclude These Roles From Tracking

What it does: Prevents specific WordPress user roles from being tracked

Common use case: Exclude your own browsing (Administrator) and your team (Shop Manager) from analytics to get accurate customer-only data

To configure:

1. Select the roles you want to exclude from the dropdown
2. Common choices: Administrator, Shop Manager, Editor
3. Logged-in users with these roles won’t have their sessions tracked

Recommendation: Exclude at minimum: exclude_administrator

WordPress Admin Display Extensions

Alpha Insights adds helpful columns to your WordPress admin screens. Control which columns appear here.

Product Admin Columns

Available columns for Products → All Products page:

• Cost: Product cost of goods
• Profit Margin: Calculated margin percentage
• Total Revenue: Lifetime revenue from this product
• Total Profit: Lifetime profit from this product
• Units Sold: Total quantity sold
• Stock Value: Current stock value (cost × stock quantity)

How to configure: Select which columns you want to see. Selected columns will appear in the products list.

Recommendation: Enable Cost and Profit Margin at minimum for quick product profitability overview

Order Admin Columns

Available columns for WooCommerce → Orders page:

• Order Profit: Profit for the order
• Order Margin: Profit margin percentage
• Order Cost: Total cost breakdown
• Payment Gateway: Which payment method was used
• Campaign Source: Marketing campaign attribution

How to configure: Select which columns you want to see in the orders list

Recommendation: Enable Order Profit and Order Margin to quickly spot low-profit or negative orders

User Admin Columns

Available columns for Users page:

• Customer Lifetime Value: Total revenue from this customer
• Total Orders: Number of orders placed
• Average Order Value: Average spend per order
• Total Profit: Total profit generated by this customer
• First Order Date: When they first purchased
• Last Order Date: Most recent purchase

How to configure: Select which columns to display in the users list

Use case: Identify your most valuable customers for VIP programs or targeted marketing

Other Settings

Additional configuration options for customizing your Alpha Insights experience.

Limit Plugin Visibility

What it does: Controls which WordPress user roles can see and use Alpha Insights

Default: All roles can see it

Use case: If you have multiple user roles in WordPress (shop managers, editors, etc.) and you only want certain roles to access profit data

Configuration: Select which roles should have access to Alpha Insights

Note: Administrators always have access regardless of this setting

Load Modern WP Admin Skin

What it does: Loads a custom stylesheet that modernizes the WordPress admin appearance

Options:

• True: Modern, clean admin interface
• False: Standard WordPress admin styling

What changes:

• Cleaner button styles
• Modern form inputs
• Improved spacing and typography
• Better color contrast

Recommendation: Enable if you like a more modern look. Disable if you have conflicts with other plugins or prefer the default WordPress styling

Prevent Annoying WordPress Notices

What it does: Hides update notices, plugin ads, and other admin notifications when viewing Alpha Insights pages

Options:

• True: Clean Alpha Insights interface without other plugin notices
• False: Show all WordPress notices normally

What gets hidden:

• Plugin update notices
• Theme notices
• Other plugin promotional banners
• WordPress update notifications

Note: Alpha Insights’ own notices will still display

Recommendation: Enable for a cleaner reporting experience

Debugging, Tools & Cache

Maintenance and troubleshooting tools for Alpha Insights.

Delete All Report Caches

What it does: Clears all cached report data to force fresh calculations

When to use:

• You’ve manually updated costs or order data
• Reports seem inaccurate or outdated
• You’ve changed calculation settings
• After importing bulk cost data

How it works:

1. Click “Delete Cache”
2. All cached order and product data is cleared
3. Next time reports load, they’ll calculate fresh data
4. Background process will rebuild cache over next few minutes

Note: This is non-destructive – it only clears cached calculations, not your actual order or product data

Delete All Order Calculation Overrides

What it does: Removes any manual overrides you’ve made to order calculations

Background: On each order’s admin page, you can manually override calculated costs (like shipping cost, payment fees, etc.). This tool removes all those overrides.

When to use:

• You want to start fresh with automated calculations
• You’ve updated default cost settings and want them to apply to all orders
• Testing different calculation methods

Warning: This permanently deletes overrides. There’s no undo.

What it doesn’t affect: Your actual WooCommerce order data remains unchanged

Delete All Order Line Item COGS Overrides

What it does: Removes product cost overrides at the line item level

Background: Sometimes you override the cost of a product on a specific order (because you got a special price from supplier, for example). This tool removes all those overrides.

When to use:

• You’ve updated product costs and want current costs to apply to all past orders
• Cleaning up after testing
• Resetting to use standard product costs everywhere

Warning: This permanently deletes line item cost overrides

Upgrade Database

What it does: Manually triggers a database structure update

When to use:

• After plugin update if database wasn’t automatically upgraded
• If you see errors about missing database tables or columns
• Support asks you to run this

Displays:

• Installed Version: Your current database version
• Required Version: The version needed by your plugin version

How to use: Click “Update Database” and wait for confirmation

Note: Usually happens automatically – only use if you encounter issues

Saving Your Settings

After making changes:

1. Click Save Changes button (appears at top and bottom of page)
2. Wait for confirmation message
3. Some changes (like tax settings or cost defaults) may trigger automatic cache refresh
4. Check that your changes have been applied

Settings Impact

Settings that trigger recalculation:

• Changing default cost settings
• Adding/removing custom order or product costs
• Changing refunded order cost settings

When these change, Alpha Insights will clear the cache and recalculate historical data in the background. This may take a few minutes depending on your order volume.

Recommended Settings for Different Store Types

Physical Product Store

• Default product cost: 0% (use actual costs via Cost of Goods Manager)
• Payment gateway: Configure for your processor (e.g., 2.9% + $0.30)
• Shipping cost: 75% of shipping charged (typical carrier vs customer cost)
• Order statuses: Processing + Completed
• Refunded costs: Enable Shipping + Payment Gateway fees
• Tax: Exclude from profit calculations
• Analytics: Enabled

Dropshipping Store

• Default product cost: 0% (enter supplier costs per product)
• Payment gateway: Configure for your processor
• Shipping cost: 0% (usually included in supplier cost)
• Order statuses: Processing + Completed
• Custom order cost: Add “Dropship Fee” if supplier charges per order
• Refunded costs: Enable Payment Gateway fees only
• Analytics: Enabled (important for ad tracking)

Digital Products / Services

• Default product cost: 0% or actual cost of delivering service
• Payment gateway: Configure for your processor
• Shipping cost: All zeros (no shipping)
• Order statuses: Completed only (or Processing if you fulfill manually)
• Refunded costs: Enable Payment Gateway fees only
• Tax: Depends on your jurisdiction

Marketplace Store (Etsy, Amazon, etc.)

• Default product cost: 0% (use actual costs)
• Payment gateway: Set to 0% (marketplace handles payments)
• Custom order cost: Add marketplace fees (e.g., “Etsy Fees” at 6.5% + $0.20)
• Shipping cost: Configure based on your fulfillment
• Order statuses: Completed only
• Refunded costs: Enable Custom Order Costs (marketplace fees often not refunded)