Digital TransformationERPERP Planning
When you think about the cost of your inventory, what comes to mind first? Probably the price you paid your supplier. That’s understandable; it’s the number on the invoice. But if you’re only accounting for supplier price, you’re missing a big piece of the picture.
The truth is, the real cost of getting a product into your warehouse involves a lot more than just the purchase price. Shipping. Customs. Insurance. Port fees. Handling. These are real expenses that impact your margins and profitability.
If you’re struggling with landed cost tracking, you’re likely making decisions based on incomplete data—and that can lead to pricing mistakes, misallocated costs, and reduced profit.
This is where Acumatica’s Landed Cost functionality comes into play. In our short video overview, we walk through a real-life example of how Acumatica makes landed cost tracking simple, accurate, and fully integrated into your inventory and financial systems.
Curious what landed cost automation actually looks like?
Watch the embedded demo below to learn how Acumatica captures and applies landed costs directly into your inventory and financials.
What Are Landed Costs (and Why Should You Care)?
Landed costs represent the total cost of getting a product to your warehouse, including:
Freight and transportation
Customs duties
Insurance
Brokerage and port charges
Miscellaneous handling or documentation fees
These costs are often spread across multiple vendors and transactions, and unless they’re correctly allocated to the item’s cost in your system, your financials will be off. That means:
Your inventory valuation is inaccurate
Your cost of goods sold (COGS) is understated
Your product pricing might not reflect true profitability
You may be reporting misleading gross margin figures
Even more critically, decisions about product mix, vendor relationships, and pricing strategy are all influenced by your understanding of landed cost. If that number is wrong, your decisions will be too.
What Happens When You Don’t Track Landed Costs Properly?
Let’s say you import 100 units of a product for $1,000. You expense the $200 in freight and $99 in customs as general overhead. On your books, the product appears to cost $10 per unit—but in reality, it’s $12.99.
If you’re pricing your products based on that $10 assumption, you’re slowly bleeding margin. And when you go to analyze profitability or run a report on average cost, the numbers simply don’t add up. That’s a problem, especially as your business scales.
How Acumatica Simplifies Landed Cost Management
In the demo, we walk through a practical example of how Acumatica’s landed cost features work, everything from receiving inventory to applying customs costs. Here are the stand–outs:
1. Flexible Allocation Methods
Quantity
Weight
Volume
Manual overrides
This gives you full control over how costs are distributed across multiple products or receipts, so you can match the method that best reflects your business logic.
2. Multiple Vendors, One Process
Freight charges from your carrier, customs from your broker, insurance from another provider—it’s all handled in a single landed cost document in Acumatica. Each vendor can be tracked independently, but the costs are brought together in one process, giving you a consolidated view of all associated expenses.
3. Real-Time Inventory Cost Updates
Once your document is released, Acumatica automatically updates inventory values. In the demo, we see how the item cost updates from $100 to $199.99 after the customs charge is added. Because the system uses average costing, this updated figure flows directly into COGS and financial reports, keeping everything accurate and up–to–date.
4. Fully Integrated with Purchasing and Inventory
Landed costs in Acumatica aren’t managed in isolation. They’re tied to purchase orders, receipts, and vendors—ensuring traceability and reducing manual entry. You’re not creating separate journal entries or spreadsheets to “make the numbers work.” It’s all in the one system.
Let’s Get Landed Costs Right—Together
At The Answer Company, we help businesses like yours make the most of Acumatica; that includes optimizing how you manage landed costs. Whether you’re importing products from overseas, managing multiple cost layers across complex supply chains, or simply trying to improve margin visibility, we can help.
Want to see how it works in your business?
Let’s talk. Our team of Acumatica experts is ready to help you implement a smarter, more accurate way to manage landed costs and every other aspect of your ERP strategy.
Let’s schedule a discovery session.
Landed Cost Management FAQs
Landed costs refer to the total cost of acquiring a product, including the purchase price, freight, insurance, customs duties, and handling fees. Accurately calculating landed costs helps manufacturers and distributors understand true product profitability and make better pricing decisions.
Tracking landed costs ensures your inventory valuation is accurate, your cost of goods sold (COGS) reflects all related expenses, and your pricing strategies are based on true cost—not just supplier invoices. This is essential for retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers managing tight margins.
Acumatica ERP automates landed cost allocation by linking freight, duty, and other charges directly to inventory items. Costs can be allocated based on quantity, value, weight, or volume. Once released, landed costs update inventory value and flow into financial reporting automatically.
Yes. Acumatica supports landed cost documents that aggregate expenses from multiple vendors—such as freight carriers, customs brokers, and insurers—and allocates those costs across multiple purchase receipts or inventory items.
Without proper landed cost tracking, inventory values are understated, gross margin reports are inaccurate, and pricing decisions may lead to reduced profitability. It can also result in compliance issues if financial reporting doesn’t reflect the true cost of inventory.
Yes. When a landed cost document is released in Acumatica, it automatically updates the inventory value of affected items. These adjustments are reflected in your cost of goods sold and financial statements in real time.
Acumatica supports a wide range of landed costs, including:
- Freight and shipping charges
- Customs duties and tariffs
- Port or terminal handling fees
- Insurance and compliance fees
- Broker or service charges
All of these can be tracked and allocated accurately through the system.
Yes. Acumatica is built for growing businesses with complex global supply chains. It supports multi-currency, multiple locations, and variable landed cost allocation methods—making it ideal for importers, wholesalers, and international manufacturers.
Absolutely. Acumatica eliminates the need for spreadsheets or separate journal entries by integrating landed cost workflows into purchasing and inventory management. This reduces errors, improves efficiency, and saves time for accounting and operations teams.
The best way to get started is to speak with an Acumatica implementation partner like The Answer Company. We’ll assess your landed cost requirements and configure Acumatica to match your supply chain, cost allocation, and reporting needs.
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