The topics covered in this datasheet include:

Suppliers

Landed Costs handles multiple supplier types:

• Principal suppliers - suppliers who invoice for the bulk of the goods on a shipment
• Normal suppliers - suppliers with standard accounts in Creditors Ledger
• Agents. Purchase orders raised with an agent are processed by Landed Costs and ignored by Purchase Order Processing.
• Manufacturers - suppliers to agents. These can be normal suppliers, another agent or a producer. When the manufacturer is a normal supplier, the invoice is raised by the manufacturer; i.e. the agent is a shipping agent
• Producers - do not invoice directly and purchase orders cannot be placed with them. Invoices are raised by the agent; i.e. the agent is a buying agent. Producers are recorded for pricing and statistical purposes only
• Main carrier/On carrier - suppliers who move a shipment along all or part of its route

Shipment Details

The following are recorded for each shipment:

• Shipment master record, including shipment reference, agent or supplier's name, container, and expected arrival date. The principal method of transport and the method used from customs to final delivery are both recorded
• Shipment lines - one for each consignment of product shipped
• Assignment lines which assign part or all of the goods on a shipment line to a specific line on a purchase order
• Overhead lines which correspond to overhead costs associated with the shipment. There can be any number of these.

Draft shipments can be set up to record invoices for overheads which arrive before shipment details are notified, and later automatically converted to a shipment master.

Shipment Documents

The following document types are supported:

• Shipment Notification or Pro Forma Invoices
• Commercial Invoices
• Bills of Exchange
• Bills of Lading
• GSP Certificates
• Packing lists

Duty Overheads

Overheads can be specified as:

• Duty
• Subject to duty
• Neither duty nor subject to duty.

Duty overheads are always charged to DDP. Landed Costs provides a table of duty rates and sensitivity percentages for use in the calculation of expected duty on shipped goods. These values are held in the Table of Tariff Codes. A tariff code can be specified for each product. A separate table of customs-specific exchange rates can be defined for use in duty calculations.

Overhead Calculations

Overheads can be calculated as a:

• Percentage of ex-works cost, FOB cost or CIF cost
• Unit cost by volume, weight or carton quantity
• Fixed value
• Value specified individually for each shipment

Overhead Allocation

Overheads can be allocated to all or selected lines of a shipment by:

• Weight
• Volume
• Quantity
• Ex-works cost
• FOB cost
• CIF cost
• Equally
• Manually

Alternatively, the cost can be posted directly to a General Ledger account.

Standard Overheads

A Standard Overhead can be set up for each possible type of overhead holding detailed data relating to its calculation, allocation and posting. When entering a shipment, the operator can choose the most suitable Standard Overhead(s) and optionally adjust them as required. If a particular Standard Overhead arises on most shipments, it can be set to generate automatically an overhead whenever a new shipment is started. Overheads which are generated in this way can subsequently be modified if necessary. Standard Overheads can be:

• General purpose
• Supplier-specific
• Product group-specific
• Supplier/product group-specific

Shipment Attributes

Uers can define any number of attributes and associate them with shipments. An attribute can be a simple marker, for example, the attribute 'INSPECT' might be applied to shipments that require inspection, or can have a value or associated list of values, for example, a list of inspectors’ names.

Reports

Standard reports include:

• Shipment Audit Report - an audit trail of cost calculations produced by the apportionment function, including full shipment details ancl goods lines, for one or a range of shipments
• Shipment Details Report - full or summary details of one or more shipments, including or excluding different categories of information
• Stock in Transit Report - lists products on purchase order and the shipments they are due to arrive on, in supplier or product sequence. Shipment lines not yet assigned to purchase orders appear in a separate section
• Purchase Costs Report - shows standard, FIFO, average, and latest cost versus the current standard selling price for a specified date in location/product group/product sequence
• Stock Availability Report - lists products and expected arrivals in date order. Uses the average stock usage (issues) of the past twelve months to calculate an estimated number of months worth of stock in transit and on purchase order (excluding items in transit)

Standard reports can be amended or extended using Global Reporter.

Databases

Global 3000 Landed Costs data can be held in a Btrieve format or (to be announced soon) SQL format database for compatibility with industry-standard office automation and data analysis tools.