Open the live view
Open Balanik and choose the Live tab. It always shows today, in your reporting time zone. Orders come straight from WooCommerce, so a new paid order shows up without an import.
What you keep today
The large figure is today’s profit so far. It starts from your paid sales and takes off product, shipping and payment costs, the ad spend imported so far today, and your overhead up to now. Refunds made today are included.
Overhead builds up through the day. At noon, half of today’s daily overhead is counted. By midnight, all of it is.
Next to the figure, a chip shows how far you’re ahead of or behind your comparison at the same time of day. Below it, Orders, Revenue and Yesterday by now give the same comparison in numbers.
A blank figure is on purpose. A product cost, a cost rule or today’s ad import may be missing. Then the live view shows a note instead of a number. Add the missing costs or import your ad spend, and the figure returns.
“Some costs or ad imports are missing, so the kept figure is hidden rather than guessed.”
Choose what to compare with
Use Compare with, at the top of the live view, to choose what today is measured against:
- Yesterday, the default.
- The same weekday last week, for example Last Sunday.
- 4-week average: the last four of the same weekday, averaged. It evens out one odd day.
The chip, the race chart, the six figures and the hour chart all follow your choice, and your browser remembers it. The last two options appear once those days are inside your imported order history.
The race
This chart builds what you keep order by order through the day. Today is the solid line and your comparison is the dashed line. A Now marker shows the current time, and the gap between the lines at that point is your lead.
Ads and overhead are spread across the day. Today’s ad spend so far is spread from midnight to now, and the comparison’s full-day spend is spread over its 24 hours. Refunds count in the day total but not in the race. Under the chart, you can see where the comparison finished.
The race appears once today’s costs and ad spend are complete.
Six figures for the day
Under the large figure, six tiles show how the day is going:
- On pace to keep. An estimate of what you’ll keep by midnight. The rest of the day follows your comparison, scaled by how today is going so far. Ads continue at today’s rate, and the full day’s overhead counts. It shows from 03:00.
- Last hour. Paid sales and orders in the last 60 minutes.
- Average order. Today’s average, against your comparison by the same time.
- Kept margin. The share of today’s revenue you keep.
- Ads share of sales. Today’s ad spend as a share of revenue. The bar turns red past the limit: the point where ads take all the margin left after product, shipping, fees and overhead.
- Last order. How long ago the latest paid order came in.
Hour by hour
Hour by hour shows paid sales for each hour today, in violet, over your comparison, in grey. It names your best hour so far. The current hour is still filling.
Set a daily target
Under the ring, open Edit daily target.
Choose a Measure: Paid sales or What you keep.
Enter the Daily amount in your reporting currency. Enter 0 to turn the target off.
Press Save target.
The ring fills as you get closer and reads Target hit when you get there. If you measure what you keep, the target also shows as a line on the race chart.
The target lives in your browser. It is saved in the browser you set it in, not in your WordPress account. Another computer or browser starts without one.
Recent orders, sources and today so far
Recent orders lists today’s latest paid orders, up to six. Each row shows the time, the first product, the order number and how many items it had. On the right you see the sale and what the order kept after product, shipping and payment costs. If a cost is unknown, the row says cost missing. If the order has a refund, it says refund recorded. The heading shows how many orders came in during the last hour.
Where today’s orders come from lists up to five sources, such as Meta ads, Google Ads, email or organic search. They come from the source WooCommerce records with each order, and the Channels doc explains how. Under them, you see how many of today’s customers are new and how many have bought before.
Below that, Today so far is a small ledger. It runs from revenue after refunds through product costs, shipping and fees, ad spend so far and overhead to the current time, and ends with You keep.
Selling today
Selling today lists your five best sellers by revenue. Each shows what it keeps after product, shipping and payment costs, before ads and overhead. If WooCommerce tracks the product’s stock, you see how many are left. The number turns red when it would run out within about three days at today’s pace.
When orders go quiet
If orders stop for much longer than usual at this hour, a note appears at the top, such as “No orders for 2 h 10 min”. “Usual” comes from the same hour on recent days of the same weekday. The note only appears in hours that normally bring at least one order. It shows on screen only and doesn’t send anything.
A quiet note is worth a quick look at your checkout and your ads.
Sale notices, sound and the celebration
- New sale notice. When a paid order arrives, a notice shows the product, the amount and what it kept. It stays for a few seconds.
- Sound. Sound is off at first. Press Sound off to switch it on, and each new sale plays a short chime. Your browser remembers the choice.
- Celebration. Celebrate target is on at first. When you cross your daily target, a short celebration plays. It plays once a day, and only when you cross the target. A target you have already passed when you set it won’t trigger it.
If your system asks for reduced motion, the confetti is left out.
Big-screen mode
Press Big screen to fill the screen with the live view. It suits a monitor in the office or the warehouse. On screens wider than about 1,200 pixels, it fits without scrolling. Compare with is hidden there, so choose your comparison first. Press Exit big screen or the Escape key to leave.
How it updates
The live view updates every 30 seconds while the tab is visible. The status next to the buttons reads Updates every 30 s. In a background tab it pauses and says so. It catches up as soon as you come back.
Ad spend in the live view is whatever has been imported for today. It moves when the dashboard or the hourly background refresh imports new spend.
Busy days: the 200-order limit
The live view reads up to 200 paid orders since the start of yesterday, and up to 200 refunds today. Above that, it pauses the live totals rather than show a partial number. You’ll see this message:
“More than 200 orders or refunds since yesterday: live totals are paused to avoid showing a partial number. Overview has the full report.”
For the full day, open Overview and choose Today.
The shopping floor (optional)
At the bottom of the live view is a collapsed panel, Shopping floor · optional visitor activity. It shows how many recent visitors are browsing, viewing products, building a cart, at checkout or paid. It is off by default. An administrator can switch it on with Enable consent-based tracking.
It only records visitors who allow statistics in a supported consent tool: CookieYes, Complianz or the WP Consent API. Activity drops out after 15 minutes. Your sales and profit figures don’t depend on it. Read Privacy and your data before you switch it on.