Add freight and duty to product cost
What this does
A container of profile costs more than the invoice from the mill: there is freight, insurance, customs and handling. Landed costs spread those charges over the goods that incurred them, so the cost you sell against is the real one.
Before you start
- Enable Landed Costs under Inventory › Configuration › Settings, in the Valuation section.
- The products receiving the cost must be in a category valued at Average Cost or FIFO with automated valuation — a standard-cost product has nowhere to put the extra.
Steps

In WindoorERP, the Landed Costs feature is used to take additional costs into account when calculating the valuation of a product. This includes the cost of shipment, insurance, customs duties, taxes, and other fees.
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01
Create a service product for the charge — Sea freight, Customs clearance.
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02
On its Purchase tab, tick Is a Landed Cost and choose a Default Split Method.
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03
Receive the goods as usual and validate the receipt.
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04
Go to Inventory › Operations › Landed Costs and click New.
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05
Pick the transfer the cost belongs to, add the landed-cost product and the amount.
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06
Click Compute to see the split per product, then Validate.
Configuration
To add landed costs to products, the Landed Costs feature must first be enabled. To enable this feature, navigate to Inventory app › Configuration › Settings, and scroll to the Valuation section.
Tick the checkbox next to the Landed Costs option, and click Save to save changes.
Once the page refreshes, a new Default Journal field appears below the Landed Costs feature in the Valuation section.
Click the Default Journal drop-down menu to reveal a list of accounting journals. Select a journal for which all accounting entries related to landed costs should be recorded.
Create landed cost product
For charges that are consistently added as landed costs, a landed cost product can be created in WindoorERP. This way, a landed cost product can be quickly added to a request for quotation (RfQ) or a vendor bill as an invoice line, instead of having to be manually entered every time a new vendor bill is created.
To do this, create a new product by going to Inventory app › Products › Products, and clicking New.
Assign a name to the landed cost product in the Product Name field (i.e. International Shipping). In the Product Type field, select Service as the Product Type.
Important
Landed cost products must have their Product Type set to Service.
Click the Purchase tab, and tick the checkbox next to Is a Landed Cost in the Vendor Bills section. Once ticked, a new Default Split Method field appears below it, prompting a selection. Clicking that drop-down menu reveals the following options:
- Equal: splits the cost equally across each product included in the receipt, regardless of the quantity of each.
- By Quantity: splits the cost across each unit of all products in the receipt.
- By Current Cost: splits the cost according to the cost of each product unit, so a product with a higher cost receives a greater share of the landed cost.
- By Weight: splits the cost, according to the weight of the products in the receipt.
- By Volume: splits the cost, according to the volume of the products in the receipt.
When creating new RfQs, this product can be added as an invoice line as a landed cost. This product can also be added to vendor bills that are in the draft state.
Important
To apply a landed cost on a vendor bill, products in the original PO must belong to a Product Category with a Costing Method of either AVCO or FIFO.
Create purchase order
Navigate to Purchase app › New to create a new RfQ. In the Vendor field, add a vendor to order products from. Then, click Add a product, under the Products tab, to add products to the RfQ.
Once ready, click Confirm Order to confirm the order. Then, click Receive once the products have been received, followed by Validate.
Create vendor bill
Once the vendor fulfills the PO and sends a bill, a vendor bill can be created from the PO in WindoorERP.
Navigate to the Purchase app, and click into the PO for which a vendor bill should be created. Then, upload the bill or click the Bill Matching smart button to match with an existing bill. This opens a new Vendor Bill in the Draft stage.
In the Bill Date field, click the line to open a calendar popover menu, and select the date on which this draft bill should be billed.
Click Add a line. Add the landed cost product to the vendor bill.
Click the (Save) icon to manually save and update the draft bill.
In the Landed Costs column, the product ordered from the vendor does not have its checkbox ticked, while the landed cost product's checkbox is ticked. This differentiates landed costs from all other costs displayed on the bill.
Additionally, at the top of the form, a Create Landed Costs button appears.
Add landed cost
Click Create Landed Costs at the top of the vendor bill.
Doing so automatically creates a landed cost record, with a set landed cost pre-filled in the product line in the Additional Costs tab.
From the Landed Cost form, click the Transfers drop-down menu, and select which transfer the landed cost belongs to. Only validated transfers can be selected.
Tip
In addition to creating landed costs directly from a vendor bill, landed cost records can also be created by navigating to Inventory app › Operations › Landed Costs, and clicking New.
After setting the picking from the Transfers drop-down menu, click Compute (at the bottom of the form, under the Total: cost).
Click the Valuation Adjustments tab to see the impact of the landed costs. The Original Value column lists the original price of the PO, the Additional Landed Cost column displays the landed cost, and the New Value column displays the sum of the two, for the total cost of the PO.
Once ready, click Validate to post the landed cost entry to the accounting journal.
Note
Each journal entry created for a landed cost on a vendor bill can be viewed in the Accounting app.
To locate these journal entries, navigate to Accounting app › Accounting › Journal Entries, and locate the correct entry, by number (e.g. STJ/2025/XXXXX).
Click into the journal entry to view the Journal Items, and other information about the entry.
How the cost is split
- Equal — the same share to each product line, whatever the quantity.
- By Quantity — per unit received.
- By Current Cost — expensive goods carry more.
- By Weight — the honest one for freight on profile and glass.
- By Volume — for goods that fill a container before they fill the weight limit.
Common mistakes
- Applying the landed cost after the goods have been sold — the cost of sale is already recorded and the correction lands in the wrong month.
- Splitting freight equally across a receipt of glass and screws. Use weight or volume.
- Booking the freight bill as an ordinary expense as well, so the cost is counted twice.
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