What is total sales?

Total sales is everything customers paid you in a period after refunds and coupons, including the tax and shipping they were charged.

How WooCommerce calculates it

Analytics › Revenue shows Total sales as its last column. The formula is:

Total sales = net sales + taxes + shipping

And net sales is gross sales minus returns minus coupons. So total sales is the closest Analytics number to the money that reached your payment provider, before its fees. It still follows the Analytics rules: refunds count on the refund date, and orders with an excluded status are left out.

A worked example

Say in June your store had:

• Net sales: $8,000
• Taxes collected: $640
• Shipping charged: $560

Total sales: $8,000 + $640 + $560 = $9,200.

Why it matters

Total sales is useful for checking deposits and cash flow, but it's a poor measure of how the business is doing. Tax belongs to the tax authority, and shipping charges mostly pass through to carriers, so a change in tax rates or shipping prices moves total sales without any change in what you sold. For growth, compare net sales. If total sales doesn't match what you see in the Orders list, the guide on why Analytics doesn't match your orders lists the usual causes, and net sales vs gross sales vs total sales compares all three.