Seeking Best Practices for Delayed Landed Cost Allocation in iDempiere

[Muhammad Rizwan Anwar]

Hi everyone,

We are looking for advice and best practices regarding the standard Landed Cost functionality when expense invoices are delayed.

The Challenge

When importing products, we receive the vendor's material cost invoice immediately, allowing us to process the Material Receipt and Vendor Invoice. However, third-party logistics invoices (freight, customs duties, etc.) are frequently delayed. By the time these landed costs arrive and are applied to the original Material Receipt, the items have already been sold or issued to production, which distorts current inventory valuations and final product costs.

Our Current Workaround

To manage this, we are considering recommending that users:

1. Receive imported goods into a dedicated "Transit/Import" Warehouse or Locator.

2. Hold the inventory there until all landed cost invoices are received and applied.

3. Move the goods to a regular warehouse location for production or sales utilization only after the true cost is finalized.

Our Questions

1. Has anyone handled this specific business scenario in a more optimal or automated way?

2. What is the standard or recommended workflow in iDempiere to manage delayed landed costs without locking up physical inventory in a temporary warehouse?

We have an internal development team and are fully capable of contributing code back to the community. We need expert opinions for the functionality workflow so we can develop a useful and configurable plugin. 

Thanks in advance for your guidance!

Rizwan Anwar