Troubleshooting

~6 min read

Most issues fall into one of a few categories. Find yours below. If nothing here helps, and we’ll dig in with you.

Data Issues

My cards are showing no data

Check these in order:

Has the initial sync completed? After install, the first data pull can take a few minutes for large stores. Wait 5 minutes and refresh.
Is your Shopify connection active? Go to dashboardSMASHBOARD Settings → Connected stores. If your store shows “Disconnected”, click Reconnect.
Does your SmashGL query return any rows? Open the card editor and click Run query. If there are zero results, your WHERE filter may be too restrictive.

My data looks stale — it’s not updating

Data syncs every 15 minutes. If your data is more than 30 minutes old, the sync job may have stalled. Go to Settings → Connected stores and click Force sync. If the problem persists, disconnect and reconnect your store.

My revenue numbers don’t match Shopify Analytics

dashboardSMASHBOARD uses net_sales from Shopify’s analytics API, which excludes refunds and returns. If you’re comparing to a report in Shopify Analytics that uses gross revenue, switch your SOURCE field to gross_sales. For exact matching, confirm which metric the Shopify report is using before changing your query.

I can’t access the app

dashboardSMASHBOARD is accessed directly through your Shopify admin — there is no separate login. Open the app from the Shopify App Store listing or your installed apps list. If you’re a staff user, ask the store owner to re-send the team invite from Settings → Team.

The app isn’t appearing in my Shopify admin

Try a hard refresh (Cmd+Shift+R on Mac, Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows) in the Shopify admin. If the app has been deleted, reinstall it from the Shopify App Store. Your dashboards and card configurations will be restored from your account.

I see a “Permission denied” error

Your Shopify staff account may not have app installation permissions. Ask the store owner to enable Manage and install apps and channels under Settings → Users and permissions.

Card Configuration Issues

My goal isn’t showing on the card

Check the following:

Goal is set but the progress bar is missing: Make sure you selected a goal type other than “No goal” in the Simple tab. If using the Code tab, confirm a GOAL clause is present.
Progress bar shows “—” for Status: Status requires the RISK flag (or equivalent Simple tab setting). Without it, the Information Bar shows dashes.
Card shows “Early Window”: The first 20% of a calendar period (e.g. the first 6 days of a 31-day month) suppresses Status to prevent misleading signals — this is expected behavior, not an error.

Forecast and Time Left aren’t showing

Forecast and Time Left only work with calendar period windows (This month, This quarter, This year) or fixed date ranges. They are inactive for rolling windows (Last 30 days, Last 7 days) because those windows have no defined end date. Switch to a calendar window to enable them.

My card shows the wrong number format

Open the card editor → Simple tab → Number format. Set it to Currency for monetary values, Percentage for rate metrics (refund rate, conversion rate), or Number for plain counts. For rate metrics that return a raw decimal from Shopify (e.g. 0.018 for 1.8%), select Percentage to display correctly as 1.80%.

SmashGL Issues

My SmashGL query returns an error

Common causes:

GOAL alias mismatch: The alias in GOAL must exactly match the alias in SOURCE AS. For example, GOAL revenue requires SOURCE shopify.sales.net_sales AS revenue — not AS sales or AS rev.
Missing SMASH clause: Every query requires a SMASH <vizType> clause.
Missing time phrase: Every query requires a time phrase — either in the GOAL clause (this month, over last 30 days) or in a standalone WINDOW clause.
Invalid SOURCE path: Use shopify.sales.<column> or shopify.sessions.<column>. If the column doesn’t exist in Shopify’s analytics API, you’ll get a parse error.

My GOAL clause isn’t working correctly

Relative goal with no prior data: A +N% relative goal requires a comparison period. If the comparison period has no data, Status shows “No Baseline” — this is expected, not an error.
Forecast / Risk not showing: These flags only work with calendar windows (this month, this quarter) or fixed date ranges. They are silently inactive for rolling windows which have no defined end date.

My card shows no trend line

Add GROUP BY day and ORDER BY day ASC to the SOURCE block, and make sure the SMASH clause uses sparkline or chart as the viz type — or includes trend in WITH on a metric card. Without daily grouping there is no time-series to draw.

My table card shows only one row instead of ranked items

A table viz requires GROUP BY product_title (or another dimension) in the SOURCE block. Without a GROUP BY, the query returns a single aggregate row and the table has nothing to rank.

Gross profit returns zero

The gross_profit and cost_of_goods_sold fields from Shopify are only populated when COGS (cost of goods sold) is configured in your Shopify product catalog (Products → select a product → a variant → Cost per item). If those fields return zero, set up COGS in Shopify first, then re-query.

Billing Issues

See Billing FAQ for plan, charge, and cancellation questions.

Still Stuck?

If none of the above resolves your issue, . The more detail you include — what you’re seeing, what you expected, and a copy of your SmashGL query — the faster we can help.

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