Once you subtract every order-level cost you get net profit per order. But your business also has costs that aren't tied to any single sale — rent, salaries, software. Take those out too and you get operating profit: whether the business as a whole makes money. Both matter, for different decisions.
Net profit (per order)
Net profit = Revenue − COGS − fees − shipping − ad spend − returns
This is the profit tied directly to a sale — your true profit on that order. It answers: is this product, campaign or customer profitable?Sum it across a period and you have total net profit from orders.
Operating profit (per period)
Operating profit = Total net profit − operating expenses
Operating expenses (opex) are your fixed running costs — rent, wages, apps and tools, subscriptions. They don't move with a single order, so they only make sense over a period (a month, a quarter). Subtract them from your total net profit and you get operating profit: the real bottom line of the business.
The difference, side by side
| Net profit (orders) | Operating profit | |
|---|---|---|
| Level | Per order | Per period |
| Subtracts | Direct order costs | + fixed operating expenses |
| Answers | Which sales pay off? | Does the business make money? |
Worked example
In a month you do 200 orders with $4,000 of total net profit. Your operating expenses — rent, one salary, apps — come to $3,200. Operating profit = $4,000 − $3,200 = $800. The orders are profitable, but the business only just clears its overheads — a signal to raise volume, lift margins, or trim fixed costs.
It's common for order-level profit to look healthy while operating profit is thin or negative — exactly the blind spot that makes a growing store feel busy but broke.
Which should you watch?
- Net profit per order — to steer products, pricing and ad spend day to day.
- Operating profit — to know if the whole business is viable, and by how much.
See also net vs gross profit and how to calculate profit margin.
See both automatically
ProfitVault computes net profit on every order, then lets you add operating expenses to roll it up into true operating profit for any period — so you always know both the per-order and the whole-business picture.