Overview
The Costing application centralises your product cost management, replacing the need for multiple spreadsheets. It provides a structured environment to calculate costs, collaborate with suppliers, and establish accurate pricing for your products, whether for retail or wholesale channels.
The system enables businesses to track all costs from initial component pricing through to landed costs, including materials, labour, freight, duties, royalties, and overheads. With support for multiple currencies, multi-supplier comparisons, and comprehensive audit trails, the Costing application ensures accurate pricing decisions and regulatory compliance.
What You Can Do
- Create costings for retail, import, or component-based products
- Choose from specialised templates to match your pricing model
- Invite multiple suppliers to submit competitive quotes and compare supplier quotes for better negotiation
- Track all costs from components to landed costs in one platform
- Manage multiple currencies with automatic conversions
- Duplicate existing costings for similar products or customers
Key Features Explained
| Feature | What It Means For You |
|---|---|
| Flexible Costing Templates | Choose from three specialised types (Retail, Import, Component) to match your business model |
| Multi-Supplier Quoting | Invite up to 10 suppliers per style to submit quotes, enabling competitive comparisons |
| Private Supplier Discussions | Communicate individually with suppliers without exposing sensitive information to others |
| Centralised Cost Management | Consolidate all cost data—components, freight, duties, royalties—in one organised platform |
| Multi-Currency Support | Handle multiple currencies with automatic conversions and exchange rate management |
| Licence & Royalty Management | Automatically calculate royalties, CMF fees, and marketing costs based on licence contracts |
| Comprehensive Audit Trail | Track all actions, changes, and document access with detailed history logs (retained for 180 days) |
| Collaboration Tools | Internal comments, document management, member assignment, and status tracking |
Admin Setup Required
Before you start creating costings, your admin needs to set up fields like Templates, Freight, Import Duty, and General Settings in Site Settings. This ensures accurate calculations and proper workflow.
Site Settings > Costing
Configure these settings to customise your costing workflow:
Getting Started
Learn how to Create a Costing and discover the various costing types available for different business scenarios.
Core Costing Sections
Details
The Details section establishes the foundational information for your costing, including costing number, description, template, account manager, base currency, trade terms, and purchase currency. These settings drive all subsequent calculations and cannot be changed after creation.
Customer
The Customer section defines the customer or retail channel, arrival zone, and applicable tax rates. Customer selection may trigger automatic pre-configuration of components and cost of sales settings.
Style
The Style section links your costing to product information including style number, season, department, licence, target buy price, estimated quantities, and pricing (RRP for retail, Sell Price for import). This section also displays totals for component costs, cost of sales, and licence royalties with detailed breakdown pop-ups.
Components
The Components section manages all materials and components used in the product. Components can be added from a component library or manually, with automatic currency conversion to base currency. For Component Costing Type, only one component is allowed.
Duty & Freight
The Duty & Freight section captures logistics-related expenses including freight in, port and disbursement charges. These costs are essential for calculating true landed costs, especially for import costings.
Supplier
The Supplier section enables collaboration with external suppliers through quote submission, private comment threads, and approval workflows. Supports multiple suppliers (up to 10 for Retail/Import) for competitive comparison. For Import Costing Type, the Supplier section includes market-specific Import Duty support—you can apply different Import Duty rates per market, plus Country/Region and Tariff fields for greater control over landed costs. See Import Costing Type › Supplier for details.
Internal
The Internal section displays internal financial parameters such as finance costs and production overhead, automatically populated from the costing template configuration.
Costing Types
Retail Costing Type
The Retail Costing Type is designed for calculating costs and margins when pricing products for direct retail sale to end consumers. It focuses on RRP-based margin calculations and supports multi-supplier comparisons to maintain competitive retail pricing.
Key Features: - RRP-focused pricing model for end-consumer sales - Support for up to 10 suppliers per costing - Automatic calculation of retail-specific margins and cost of sales - Customer-specific component pre-configuration (Brand Label, Price Ticket, Swing Tag)
Import Costing Type
The Import Costing Type is specialised for calculating costs and margins when sourcing products from international suppliers. It enables businesses to calculate true landed costs by tracking all expenses from materials to international freight, import duties, and port charges.
Key Features: - Sell Price-focused pricing for wholesale/B2B transactions - Multi-currency support for managing currency risk - Accurate landed cost calculations including duties and freight - Support for up to 10 international suppliers - Regulatory compliance tracking for customs and trade
Component Costing Type
The Component Costing Type is designed for products where the cost structure is centred around a single, primary component. It simplifies complex cost structures and supports focused supplier negotiations.
Key Features: - Single component focus (only one component allowed per costing) - Simplified cost structure for component-driven products - Multiple supplier support for comparison - Component details cannot be edited after selection (ensures calculation integrity)
Additional Features
Total Component Cost
The Total Component Cost field displays the total amount of all component costs. Clicking this field opens a pop-up with a detailed breakdown of all components added to the costing, allowing you to add, view, and manage components.
Total Cost of Sales
The Total Cost of Sales field displays the total cost of sales amount. Clicking this field opens a pop-up where you can view and edit various cost of sales fields including local rework, distribution and handling, licence fees, and outgoing freight.
Total Licence Royalty
The Total Licence Royalty field displays the total licence royalty amount for the costing. Clicking this field opens a pop-up with a detailed breakdown of all licence royalty calculations based on the selected licence contract.
Costing Report
Forecasting Margin
The Costing Report provides a comprehensive view of costing data, including the Forecasted Margin section which displays key financial metrics. The Forecasted Margin section shows values that are automatically calculated and updated from the corresponding fields in the Costing:
| Field | Source Location |
|---|---|
| Quantity | Costing > Supplier > Quantity |
| Buy Price Factory | Costing > Supplier > Quote (Approved) |
| Buy Price Local | Costing > Final Buy Price |
| Component Total Local | Costing > Style > Total Component Cost |
| Landed Cost | Costing > Supplier > Landed Cost |
| Gross Margin % | Costing > Supplier > Gross Margin % |
| Total Cost | Costing > Supplier > Total Cost |
| Total Cost (including Overheads) | Costing > Supplier > Total Cost + Overhead Costs + Direct Selling Costs |
| Gross Profit | Costing > Supplier > Gross Profit $ |
| Required EBIT % | Costing > Widget > Required EBIT % |
| Actual EBIT $ | Costing > Supplier > Actual EBIT $ |
| Actual EBIT % | Costing > Supplier > Actual EBIT % |
Data Accuracy
All values in the Forecasted Margin section are automatically synchronised with the corresponding fields in the Costing, ensuring the report always reflects the most current costing data.
Report > Costing Quotes
The Report > Costing Quotes report provides a comprehensive view of supplier quote data from all costings. This report displays quotes for all suppliers in each costing, enabling you to compare supplier quotes across multiple costings.
Field Mappings and Data Sources
The report displays data that is aligned with the Costing > Supplier data for each supplier quote. All fields are automatically calculated and updated from their respective source locations:
| Field | Source/Calculation |
|---|---|
| Buy Price Local | Costing > Supplier > Buy Price Local |
| Buy Price Local (Qty) | Buy Price Local × (Supplier) Quantity |
| Landed Cost | Costing > Supplier > Landed Cost |
| Landed Cost (Qty) | Landed Cost × (Supplier) Quantity |
| Gross Margin % | Costing > Supplier > Gross Margin % |
| Total Cost | Costing > Supplier > Total Cost |
| Total Cost (Qty) | Total Cost × (Supplier) Quantity |
| Gross Profit % | Costing > Supplier > Gross Profit % |
| RRP (Qty) | Costing > Style > RRP × (Supplier) Quantity |
| RRP Local (Qty) | Costing > Style > RRP Local × (Supplier) Quantity |
Display All Suppliers
The report displays quotes for all suppliers in each costing, not just one supplier. This enables comprehensive comparison of supplier quotes across your costings, supporting better decision-making and supplier negotiations.
Data Accuracy
All values in the Report > Costing Quotes are automatically synchronised with the corresponding fields in the Costing, ensuring the report always reflects the most current costing data.
Costing Search View
The Costing Search view displays costing data with accurate field values pulled from their respective source locations:
- RRP correctly displays from Costing > Style > RRP
- Department correctly displays from Costing > Style > Department
For approved costings, the following fields correctly populate from the Costing > Supplier section:
- Agent (from Costing > Supplier > Agent)
- Factory (from Costing > Supplier > Factory)
- Final Buy Price (from Costing > Supplier > Final Buy Price)
- Final Quantity (from Costing > Supplier > Final Qty)
- Landed Cost (from Costing > Supplier > Landed Cost)
- Gross Margin % (from Costing > Supplier > Gross Margin %)
- Total Cost (from Costing > Supplier > Total Cost)
- Gross Profit % (from Costing > Supplier > Gross Profit %)
- Quote Status (displays as blank or Approved)
Sidebar Actions
The Costing sidebar provides quick access to various actions and information:
- Costing Status
- Costing Comments
- Costing History
- Costing Documents
- Costing Files
- Costing Members
- Costing Exchange Rates
- Costing Dates
- Costing Preview Image
- Costing Order History
- Costing Advanced Details
- Duplicate Costing
- Delete Costing
Quick Links
Essential Actions
Costing Management
Collaboration & Documents
Best Practices
Tips
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Choose the Right Costing Type Before You Start: Selecting the correct costing type (Retail, Import, or Component) and template is critical—these cannot be changed after creation. Retail focuses on RRP for end-consumer sales, Import handles international sourcing with Sell Price for wholesale transactions, and Component simplifies single-component cost structures. Taking time upfront to select the right type ensures accurate calculations throughout the costing process.
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Leverage Multi-Supplier Comparisons: Invite multiple suppliers (up to 10 for Retail/Import costings) to submit quotes and use private comment threads for individual negotiations. This approach enables you to compare quotes side-by-side, negotiate better terms without exposing sensitive information to other suppliers, and make informed decisions based on competitive pricing. Remember that only one supplier quote can be approved per costing.
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Maintain Accurate Settings and Review Regularly: Keep your Site Settings current, particularly Freight, Import Duty, and Template configurations, as these directly impact landed cost calculations. For international costings, verify exchange rates before approval. Regularly review the History log to track changes and maintain compliance. Use the Duplicate feature for similar costings to save time while ensuring consistency across customers, departments, or seasons.
Avoid Spaces in Costing Numbers
Costing numbers should not contain spaces. Spaces in identifier fields can cause inconsistent search results and make filtering less reliable. Use a hyphen (-) or underscore (_) as a separator instead (e.g., CST-001 rather than CST 001).