Landed cost: put freight, duty and clearing on each product's cost

Who is landed cost for?

Importers and wholesalers who pay more than the supplier's price to get goods onto their shelves. Freight from the port, insurance on the crossing, customs duty, other import levies, and the clearing agent's fee all belong in the cost of the goods. Without them, every margin report flatters you.

What does it do?

• Adds a Landed costs section to every goods received note (delivery).
• Takes six kinds of cost: Freight, Insurance, Customs duty, CESS / PAL, Clearing / agent and Other, each with an amount and an optional bill reference.
• Spreads them over the delivery's lines by value or by quantity, to the exact cent.
• Shows each product's cost before and after, then updates product costs when you apply.
• Shares one set of costs across several deliveries from the same shipment.

How do I switch it on?

There is nothing to switch on. Landed cost is part of stock and purchasing, so every business that receives goods has it, inside the Goods received screen.

Owners, admins, managers, warehouse managers, finance and accountants can add and apply landed costs. Warehouse staff can see them but not change them.

Why does it matter?

Because the cost a product carries decides the margin every report shows you, and often the price you set. A worked example:

The goods did not get cheaper because the freight bill came separately. Landed cost puts that 84 where it belongs, and the 20% margin you thought you had turns out to be 14.4%. Our guide to markup vs margin explains why that gap matters when you price.

How does the split work?

Value (the usual) shares the costs in proportion to what each line cost from the supplier. A line worth half the delivery carries half the freight. This suits most mixed deliveries, because duty is usually charged on value.

Quantity shares them per unit. This suits deliveries of similar items where space, not price, drives freight.

Weight would share by weight, but products do not have a weight field yet, so this option stays hidden.

The split is rounded to whole cents so the shares always add up to the total exactly, and the uplift per unit is worked out to four decimal places.

Step by step: add freight and duty to a delivery

1. Open Goods received and the delivery the costs belong to.
2. Find the Landed costs section. It says "Freight, duty, insurance or clearing paid on this delivery? Add them to put the true cost on each product."
3. Press Add landed costs.
4. Choose the kind of cost, such as Freight, and type the Amount and the Bill ref.
5. Press Add a cost for each other bill: duty, clearing, insurance.
6. Under Split by, keep Value (the usual) or choose Quantity.
7. Type a Shipment reference if you have one, such as the container or bill of lading number.
8. If other deliveries came in the same shipment, tick them under Other receipts in this shipment.
9. Check the preview. Each line shows "Cost per unit" before and after, for example 1,200 → 1,284.
10. Press Apply. You see "Landed costs applied", with how many product costs were updated.

Which product costs change?

EasyTaskr keeps one current cost per product, set by the latest delivery. When you apply landed costs, a product's cost becomes the delivery line's cost plus its landed share. That only happens when this delivery is the product's latest receipt, so applying costs to an older shipment never overwrites the cost from a newer one. The preview tells you when that is the case. The price history keeps every change.

Units already sold before you apply keep the cost they went out at. Free items given away in promotions are the same: their cost is fixed at the sale.

Can I change my mind?

Yes. Press Edit, change the amounts or the split, and apply again. Only the difference moves, and applying the same figures twice changes nothing. To undo it all, open the ⋯ menu and choose Remove landed costs; the screen says "Landed costs removed. Product costs are back to the receipt cost."

What about my accounts?

If you use EasyTaskr's accounting, applying landed costs adds to the value of your stock and to goods received not yet billed. Enter the freight or duty bill as a purchase against goods received, as the screen reminds you, and the bill clears it like any other purchase. If you enter the bill as an ordinary expense, the cost is counted twice.

What mistakes should I avoid?

The most common one is waiting. If a container is half sold before the freight bill is entered, half the goods went out at the supplier's price and their margin can no longer be put right. Add the landed costs on the day the bills arrive, even if one bill is still missing; you can add the last one later and only the difference moves.

The second is splitting by the wrong thing. Duty is charged on value, so Value (the usual) suits it. Freight on a mixed container is often closer to the number of cartons, so if a delivery mixes cheap bulky goods with small expensive ones, try Quantity and compare the preview before you apply. You can only choose one split for a set of costs, so if the difference matters, enter freight and duty as two separate sets on the same delivery.

The third is the bill itself. Enter the clearing agent's or shipper's invoice as a purchase against goods received, not as an ordinary expense, or your books count it twice.

What does it not do yet?

• No split by weight or volume, because products do not carry a weight yet.
• Units already sold keep their old cost; there is no re-costing of past sales.
• There is no separate shipments list; a shipment is reached from any of its deliveries.

Related features

Landed cost lives inside purchasing and feeds stock and warehouses, where stock value at cost now includes freight and duty. The margin and stock value figures in reports use the new costs. For the thinking behind it, read our guide to stock valuation.