Allocate freight and customs with landed costs
Quick summary: A freight bill records what you owe the supplier; a landed-cost allocation adds the approved charge to the value of the relevant goods. Recording the bill alone does not allocate it to receipts.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”Complete and verify the receipt first. Identify the freight, customs duty, insurance, or handling charge that accounting has approved for inclusion in inventory value. Do not allocate recoverable VAT or unrelated operating expenses as landed costs merely because they appear on the same bill.
Use a Service product with Is a Landed Cost enabled on its Purchase tab. The product owner should configure its expense account and default split method. Do not change a goods product to a service or switch its costing method to bypass an error.
A freight provider can issue a separate bill from the goods supplier. Select the receipts that the charge actually covers, within the correct company. Check whether someone has already created an allocation for the same charge.
Prepare the allocation
Section titled “Prepare the allocation”- Open or enter the vendor bill for the charge. Use the landed-cost service product and verify the quantity, untaxed amount, currency, taxes, and company. Avoid creating another bill if it was already imported.
- Save the bill and click Create Landed Costs. If the Landed Costs smart button already exists, inspect those records before creating another allocation. Creating an allocation does not itself confirm or pay the bill.
- In the landed-cost record, check Date, Journal, and Transfers. Select the completed receipt or receipts covered by the charge. Follow accounting’s period and posting-date rules.
- Under Additional Costs, review every charge, account, amount, and Split Method. Charges copied from a foreign-currency bill are converted to company currency; compare them with the bill rather than copying its foreign-currency total again.
- Click Compute, then open Valuation Adjustments. Check the products, quantities, original values, additional costs, and resulting values before confirming.
Alternatively, an authorized user can create the allocation under Inventory > Operations > Landed Costs > New and enter the approved charges manually. Linking a vendor bill is not a substitute for entering and checking those cost lines. Do not enter the same charge both manually and through Create Landed Costs.
Charges copied from the bill are a snapshot. If you later change the bill’s quantities, prices, discounts, or currency, compare the draft allocation with the final bill and update its cost lines before validation. Compute redistributes the entered costs; it does not reload them from the bill.
Choose the split method
Section titled “Choose the split method”Choose the basis that matches the charge and your accounting policy. Different charges on the same allocation can use different methods.
| Method | Allocation basis | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Equal | Equal share per eligible receipt movement. | A product appearing on several receipt movements may receive several shares; this is not an equal amount per unit. |
| By Quantity | Received quantities. | The units being compared must be meaningful for this charge. |
| By Current Cost | The original values shown for the selected movements. | Higher-value goods receive a larger share. |
| By Weight | Product weight multiplied by received quantity. | Product weights must be accurate and complete. |
| By Volume | Product volume multiplied by received quantity. | Product volumes must be accurate and complete. |
For example, one receipt contains 10 units of product A and 30 units of product B, with one movement per product. A €120 freight charge split By Quantity allocates €30 to A and €90 to B. Equal allocates €60 to each movement instead. Both total €120, but produce different product values.
Missing weights or volumes can give misleading results. If the entire selected weight or volume is zero, Odoo falls back to an equal split; if only some values are missing, those products may receive no share. Fix the data or choose an approved alternative, then compute again.
Try the allocation
Section titled “Try the allocation”Change the charge, quantities, or method to see how the allocation changes. Weight and volume inputs appear when that method is selected. Use fictional values; entries stay in this page and are not sent or saved.
This is an illustrative estimate, not a posting tool. In Odoo, use Compute > Valuation Adjustments to verify the actual allocation before Validate. Negative corrections, tax treatment, and the accounting split between sold goods and remaining stock are outside this example.
Check the inputs: quantities must be positive; other values must be zero or positive. Maximum: 1,000,000 per field. Use up to two decimal places for money and three for quantities and measurements.
Illustrative allocation
Equal-split fallback: the selected basis totals zero, so the charge is divided equally between the two receipt lines. Check missing data before using this method in Odoo.
Missing basis: one line has a zero value for this method and receives no proportional share. Check whether the missing value is intentional.
Product A · receipt line 1
- Allocated charge
- €30.00
- Added cost per unit
- €3.00
- New line value
- €130.00
Product B · receipt line 2
- Allocated charge
- €90.00
- Added cost per unit
- €3.00
- New line value
- €390.00
Total allocated: €120.00
A cent-rounding difference has been assigned to the last receipt line.
Estimate for one non-negative EUR charge and two receipt movements. Original values are line totals, not unit prices. Amounts are rounded half up to cents, with any difference assigned to the last line; added cost per unit is displayed to at most four decimals. Actual Odoo line order, currencies, and valuation configuration can change the result.
Confirm and check the result
Section titled “Confirm and check the result”- Verify that all allocated additional costs add up to the approved charge, allowing for currency rounding. If you change the receipts, charge amounts, or split methods, click Compute again and review the revised allocation.
- Click Validate only after the review. The landed-cost record becomes Posted and updates valuation; it is no longer a draft calculation.
- Review the affected goods using inventory valuation. Depending on the products’ valuation configuration, an accounting entry can also be created and posted; open Journal Entry when present and check its accounts and date.
- Complete the vendor bill’s normal confirmation and payment workflow separately. If some goods were already delivered, ask accounting to check the treatment of the sold portion as well as the remaining stock.
A posted landed cost cannot be cancelled or deleted through the normal workflow. Ask accounting to prepare an appropriate negative landed-cost correction, review its allocation, and handle any supplier credit separately. Do not add a second positive allocation to repair an incorrect first one.
If no eligible goods are found, check the selected completed receipts, nonzero quantities, and FIFO/AVCO costing. If the action is missing, check the service product, the landed-cost flag, existing allocations, and your permissions with the administrator.