About Item Costs

Many of the cost fields on the Item Costs form are dynamically populated and enabled based on variables such as cost method and cost type.

Unit Costs Fields

The Material, Freight, Duty, and Brokerage cost fields only apply to items using the Standard cost type. These fields are only updated when the Roll Current Costs to Standard procedure is performed. These four fields are only enabled when:

Cost Type is Standard
Quantity on Hand = 0
No material transactions exist for the item

The sum of these fields equals the value of the Material Cost field.

The sum of the Material Cost, Labor Cost, Fix Ovhd Cost, Var Ovhd Cost, and Outside Cost fields equals the value of the Total Unit Cost field. Typically, the Total Unit Cost value is the value of the next material to come from inventory. For example, if you are using FIFO costing, the Total Unit Cost value is the cost value of the next stack to be used. Unit cost components are updated when miscellaneous receipts and issues are posted. Unit cost fields are also updated when a purchase order is received in one of these ways:

Specific and LIFO: The Material Cost is set to the sum of the Material, Freight, Duty, and Brokerage costs.
FIFO: If the material being received becomes the first FIFO stack, the Material Cost is set to the sum of the Material, Freight, Duty, and Brokerage costs.
Average: After the material is placed into inventory, all of the costs fields are updated based on the new average values.

Note: The Unit Cost group label changes to Std Unit Cost when the cost type is standard.

Current Unit Cost Fields

The Current Unit Cost fields are automatically populated when a new purchase order is received with the matching values placed on the PO line. These cost values are also used by default on the next PO line that is generated for the item. These fields are always enabled if the user has access to view costs.

Standard Costs

When viewing a standard costed item, the Unit Cost section of the form shows standard costs. When you run the Roll Current Cost to Standard Cost utility for items using Standard costing, the total Standard cost is displayed at the Items level.

Typically, you will run the Roll Current Cost to Standard Cost utility on a periodic basis, perhaps annually. Throughout the remainder of the period, the Standard costs (displayed on the Item Costs form) are used for calculating variances and reporting costing.

Note: You can update the Cost Detail tab on the Item Costs form at any time without affecting its standard counterpart. All of the fields on this tab default when you run the Roll Current Cost to Standard Cost utility.