The supplier's invoice says a mug costs 2.50. Then the freight invoice arrives, and the customs bill, and the insurance. This landed cost calculator splits each of them across the lines of the shipment and shows what one unit really cost you.
| Item | Quantity | Unit price | Weight of one unit kg |
|---|
| Kind | Amount | Split by |
|---|
| Item | Goods value | Share of the costs | Landed cost of one unit | Above the invoice price |
|---|
The calculator runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. It rounds each share to the cent, like an invoice does.
Landed cost of one unit = (goods value of the line + its share of the extra costs) ÷ quantity
The hard part is the share. Each extra cost is split on its own basis:
Two rules keep the total right. When a basis comes to zero — no line has a weight — the cost is split by quantity, and when that is zero too, evenly across the lines. A cost is never dropped. And the cent left over from rounding goes to the largest share, so the shares add up to the amount you paid, to the cent.
These are the rules of the landed cost section on a Golden Inventory receipt. The calculator uses the same ones.
A homeware shop receives one shipment: 200 mugs at 2.50, 50 cast-iron pans at 18.00 and 400 tea towels at 1.25. The supplier's invoice is 1,900.00.
Three more invoices follow. Freight: 380.00. Duty: 152.00. Insurance: 19.00. That is 551.00 more — 29 % on top of the goods.
The owner wants to set the shelf prices. Which item carries how much of the 551.00?
| Item | Weight | Freight (by weight) | Duty (by value) | Insurance (by value) | Landed cost of one unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mug | 80 kg | 132.17 | 40.00 | 5.00 | 3.3858 |
| Cast-iron pan | 110 kg | 181.74 | 72.00 | 9.00 | 23.2548 |
| Tea towel | 40 kg | 66.09 | 40.00 | 5.00 | 1.5277 |
The pan is heavy, so it takes almost half of the freight. Its real cost is 23.25, not 18.00.
Now the shortcut that many spreadsheets take: all 551.00 split by quantity.
| Item | Landed cost, split by quantity | The right split |
|---|---|---|
| Mug | 3.3477 | 3.3858 |
| Cast-iron pan | 18.8476 | 23.2548 |
| Tea towel | 2.0977 | 1.5277 |
The pan now looks 4.41 cheaper than it is. The owner prices it from 18.85 and loses money on every pan that sells well. The tea towels carry the freight of the pans, and their price goes up for no reason.
Split each cost the way it was charged: freight by weight, duty and insurance by value.
Put one line of the shipment in each row: quantity in column B, unit price in C, weight of one unit in D. Then:
=B2*C2=Freight*B2*D2/SUMPRODUCT($B$2:$B$4,$D$2:$D$4)=Duty*E2/SUM($E$2:$E$4)=(E2+F2+G2)/B2Round the shares with ROUND(…,2) and check that they add up to the invoice. If they are one cent off, move the cent to the largest share. A spreadsheet does this for one shipment. The next shipment needs the same work again.
The price of the goods plus everything you paid to get them onto your shelf: freight, duty, insurance and other charges of that shipment. Divided by the quantity, it is the real cost of one unit.
Only when the units are about the same size and weight. When they are not, a split by quantity loads the light, cheap items with freight that the heavy items caused, and the heavy items look cheaper than they are.
No. The supplier's invoice stays what it is. The freight and the duty arrive on their own invoices; landed cost puts them into the cost of the goods, not into the invoice total.
Split it between the shipments first — by weight, when the carrier charged by weight — and then enter each part here with its own lines.
Leave it out when you can reclaim it: it is not a cost of the goods. Include it only when your business cannot reclaim it.
In Golden Inventory you add the freight, the duty and the insurance to the receipt of the goods and choose how each one splits. The item cost includes them from that moment; the supplier's invoice stays as it is. On the free plan, no card.