See the full Business Central landed cost of every import

How Business Central landed cost works with item charges

An item charge is a small master record, such as ocean freight or customs duty. It has its own posting groups. You enter it as a line on a purchase invoice. Then you assign it to one or more posted receipt lines. The assigned amount becomes part of the stock value of those items.

The charge attaches to the original receipt, so it follows the goods. Say half of the shipment is already sold. Then that share of the freight moves to cost of goods sold when cost adjustment runs. Nothing sits in a general freight account where it hides the true margin per product.

Splitting Business Central landed cost across many items

A container rarely holds one product. The Item Charge Assignment page can spread a charge across the receipt lines you pick. You can split it equally, by amount, by weight or by volume. Duty usually follows value. Freight follows weight or volume. So the best method depends on the charge.

Weight and volume methods only work if the item cards hold gross weight and unit volume. That is often the first gap we find. So we fill in that data and agree on a method for each charge type. Then we write it down. That way, two buyers get the same result for the same kind of bill.

When the freight invoice arrives after the goods

The forwarder's bill often arrives well after receipt. It also comes from a different vendor than the goods. That is fine. You enter the charge on its own purchase invoice. Then you assign it to the posted receipts with Get Receipt Lines. This works even across several purchase orders that shared the container.

The harder question is what cost the items carry in the meantime. Standard Business Central has no separate estimate for landed cost. So until you post the bill, stock holds the purchase cost only. We explain the effect on margins. Where the gap is too large, we look at accrual journals or an add-on.

What Business Central landed cost does to inventory value

Each assigned charge creates a value entry that links to the item ledger entry of the receipt. For FIFO, average and specific costing, this raises the actual unit cost. For standard cost items, the charge posts as a purchase variance. So the standard should already include an allowance for freight and duty.

The Adjust Cost Item Entries job carries the added cost forward. It reaches sales and consumption that already happened. We check that automatic cost adjustment or a scheduled job queue entry is in place. We also show finance how to see charges per item in the value entries.

Where an add-on handles import costs better

Item charges are solid, but they are manual. They do not track containers, shipment stages or vessel dates. They also do not estimate costs at order time and match them later. Importers with many containers on the water at once usually want those features from the start.

In that case, we compare AppSource add-ons for landed cost and container tracking against your process. We test them in a sandbox with real purchase orders. We also look at how each one posts. An add-on that writes through standard item charges keeps your costing and reports in line with the rest of the system.

Business Central landed cost questions

Does Business Central have a landed cost module?

There is no module by that name. The standard feature is item charges. They assign extra purchase costs to receipts and add them to stock value. That covers most needs. Dedicated add-ons extend it with estimates and container tracking. We help you decide whether Business Central landed cost with item charges is enough for your imports.

Can one freight invoice cover several purchase orders?

Yes. On the freight invoice, you enter an item charge line. Then you use the assignment page to pull receipt lines from as many posted receipts as the shipment held. After that, you split the amount by weight, volume, value or equally. We set the default method per charge, so the split stays the same each time.

What if goods were sold before the freight was assigned?

The assignment still works. The cost adjustment job passes the extra cost through to the sales already posted. So cost of goods sold and margin for those sales get fixed. Your inventory period settings decide the date of the adjustment. We check those settings first, so a closed month stays closed.

Can item charges be used on sales as well?

Yes. Say you bill outbound freight to a customer. You can assign that charge to sales shipment lines, where it counts as revenue for those items. That keeps profit per item complete on both sides. We set up the sales charges next to Business Central landed cost on the purchase side.

How are duty and freight in a foreign currency handled?

You post the charge invoice in the vendor's currency at the exchange rate of its posting date. The system converts it to local currency for costing. The goods invoice and the charge invoice can use different currencies. You need no extra setup. We test one real import in a sandbox to prove it.

Related costing and purchasing pages

Landed cost sits between purchasing and inventory valuation. These pages explain the purchasing process it starts from. They also cover the costing methods that decide how an added charge flows through. Read them next if you want your Business Central landed cost to feed clean margins and a stock value that ties to the ledger. For the product detail, see Microsoft Learn: use item charges for added costs.