Set up MarginOS: the 3-step Express Setup

Express Setup is the three-step wizard that takes a new MarginOS account from empty to a working profit view: Brand Profile → Connection → Defaults. It is the fastest path to a first real number, and each step exists because MarginOS refuses to guess about something it can simply ask you.

Before you start

• Express Setup requires admin privileges. If you were invited as a non-admin you will see an access notice instead — ask an admin to run it.
• Have your Shopify store to hand, and a rough sense of your product costs. Neither has to be exact yet.
• You can leave and come back. Progress is saved as you go, and returning from Shopify drops you back where you were rather than at the start.

Step 1 — Brand Profile

The wizard opens on “Welcome, let’s tailor MarginOS to your brand” and asks a short set of questions about your business: your vertical, your typical reorder cycle, your revenue band, team size and what you are trying to achieve.

This is not a marketing questionnaire. The answers set the starting assumptions used everywhere until your own data replaces them — most visibly the level at which a product counts as a fast seller for a store your size, which is what drives the catalogue flags. A revenue band is the difference between a hero threshold that surfaces a useful handful of products and one that surfaces everything or nothing.

Finish with Continue to data connections.

Step 2 — Connection

Step 2 of 3, “Connect your data”, is where you install the Shopify app. This is the only connection that is genuinely required — everything else is optional and can wait.

The permissions are read-only and connecting puts you on the free plan. The full walkthrough, including what MarginOS reads and what to do if the store is already claimed, is in Connect your Shopify store.

You are returned here automatically once Shopify authorises, and your step 1 answers are still where you left them.

Step 3 — Defaults

The last step captures the baseline assumptions MarginOS uses while it waits for real data: a starting blended acquisition cost and a starting gross margin, alongside cost defaults for your catalogue.

These matter more than they look. They are the difference between a dashboard that shows you something on day one and one that shows N/A everywhere — but they are assumptions, and MarginOS tracks them as such rather than passing them off as measurements. As real costs and real ad spend arrive, evidenced values replace them and the accuracy grading improves on its own. See the Defensible Profit Model for how the two are told apart.

Industry-typical starting values are offered so you are not staring at empty fields. Change any that you know to be wrong for your business; a starting assumption you have corrected is worth considerably more than one you accepted.

What to expect immediately after

1. Revenue appears first. It comes straight from your orders and needs nothing from you.
2. Margins start optimistic. Until real product costs exist, there is little to subtract. This is expected, not a fault.
3. Cost accuracy climbs as you supply evidence. Replacing defaults with real per-item costs is the single highest-value thing you can do next.
4. Acquisition metrics stay N/A until an ad platform is connected. Shopify knows what you sold, not what it cost to find the buyer — see why MarginOS shows N/A.

Common questions

Can I skip a step and come back?

The three steps run in order, because each depends on the one before — but progress is saved, so you can leave mid-flow and resume. Returning from Shopify puts you back on the connection step rather than restarting.

What if I do not know my costs yet?

Use the defaults and correct them later. MarginOS is explicit about which figures rest on assumptions, so an approximate start does not quietly become a wrong number you trust — it stays visibly less exact until you replace it.

I got an access notice instead of the wizard.

Express Setup is admin-only. Ask an admin on your workspace to run it; once setup is complete, everyone can use the resulting dashboards.

Can I change these answers afterwards?

Yes. Everything Express Setup captures is editable later in your business settings — the wizard is a fast first pass, not a one-time commitment.

Why does MarginOS ask for a revenue band instead of working it out?

Because on day one it has nothing to work it out from, and several thresholds need a sense of scale before your history exists. Once your own data is in, measured values take over.

Related

• Connect your Shopify store — step 2 in full.
• Store-wide cost defaults — what step 3 sets, and how to refine it.
• The Defensible Profit Model — how assumptions and evidence are told apart.
• Read the Command Center — where you land when setup is done.