Lifetimely: Shipping Costs Explained
At a glance: There are multiple ways to get shipping costs into Lifetimely. This article explains the priority order Lifetimely uses when more than one method is active, and the logic behind how each method works.
⚠️ Note: "Shipping costs" here means what you paid your shipping provider. This is different from what your customers paid for shipping, which Shopify calls "shipping charged."
Ways to bring shipping costs into Lifetimely
You can use any of the following methods:
- Integrate ShipStation, ShipBob, or Shopify Shipping to automatically import shipping costs
- Set shipping costs equal to Shipping Charged (what your customers paid)
- Sync via Google Sheets matched to specific Order IDs
- Upload a CSV file matched to specific Order IDs
- Set product-specific shipping rates in the Product Costs tab
- Set flat rates by country
Priority order
When more than one method is active, Lifetimely applies the following priority — higher number wins:
| Priority | Method |
|---|---|
| 1 (highest) | Integration with Shopify Shipping, ShipStation, or ShipBob |
| 2 | Shipping Charged (when "Use Shipping Charged" is selected) |
| 3 | Google Sheets or CSV import (matched by Order ID) |
| 4 | Product-specific shipping costs (set in the Product Costs tab) |
| 5 (lowest) | Country-level flat rates |
💡 Tip: For a step-by-step setup guide, see How to Set Up Your Account.
How Google Sheets and CSV syncs work
When you sync shipping costs via Google Sheets, costs are processed sequentially — one row at a time. Once a shipping cost is synced for an order:
- That value is stored in Lifetimely
- Edits to the same row are not re-processed
- Lifetimely only picks up new rows added after the last synced row
Because of this, shipping costs should be considered final at the time they are imported.
Can I update a shipping cost after it's been imported?
In most cases, we recommend against updating order-level shipping costs after import. If a cost changes later (e.g. due to a reship or replacement shipment), the best practice is to add the additional cost as a separate custom cost rather than modifying the original row. This is more predictable and avoids confusion in reporting.
Advanced: overwriting an existing shipping cost
It is possible to overwrite a previously imported cost, but use this sparingly:
- Do not edit the original row
- Add a new row with the same Order ID and the updated cost
- Lifetimely will overwrite the previous value for that order when it processes the new row
⚠️ This is intended for occasional corrections only. Repeatedly overwriting via duplicate rows makes reporting harder to interpret and is not a recommended standard workflow.
Best practices
- Only import shipping costs once they are finalised
- Use separate custom costs for post-order adjustments (reships, replacements, corrections)
- Do not rely on editing past rows — Lifetimely does not re-process historical rows automatically
Frequently asked questions
How do I ensure uploaded shipping costs take priority over other sources?
The priority order above applies. Manually uploaded costs (CSV or Google Sheets) will override lower-priority sources such as country-level flat rates, as long as the Order ID matches.
What happens if an order has multiple shipping labels (e.g. split shipments)?
Lifetimely does not currently support split shipments. If your upload includes separate rows with modified Order IDs (e.g. #1232-1, #1232-2), they won't match the original order and won't be captured. You'll need to consolidate the total cost under the original Order ID before uploading.
Can I compare shipping costs before and after uploading?
Yes — download your Income Statement before uploading, then compare the Shipping row under COGS after the update.
Amazon note
Amazon integrations in Lifetimely currently only support:
- Shipping Charged (what the customer paid for shipping)
- Country-level shipping (aggregated costs by destination country)
Per-product rates, CSV uploads, and ShipStation/ShipBob integrations are not supported for Amazon orders.