Importing goods should create opportunity. Yet for many businesses, global trade introduces a different reality: uncertain costs, delayed visibility and margins eroded long after goods are sold. Here's how Clever Landed Costs changes the game.

The challenge rarely sits with the supplier price. It’s everything that follows, including freight, insurance, customs duties, port charges, agent fees and inland transport. These costs are often spread across multiple invoices, suppliers and time periods. Without a structured way to manage them, businesses are left relying on estimates, spreadsheets and manual journal adjustments.

For Business Central partners, landed costs are often one of the first areas where customers see that real‑world importing is far more complex than their spreadsheet‑driven legacy processes ever suggested.

Clever Landed Costs for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central helps demystify these costs. With the latest release, it does so more accurately and more flexibly than ever before.

The challenge with landed costs in the real world

Landed costs and the challenges mentioned above can impact upon several areas of business.

For finance teams, landed costs affect inventory valuation, margin accuracy, and cashflow forecasting.

For operations teams, landed costs determine procurement decisions, supplier comparisons, and fulfilment profitability.

For partners and consultants, true management of landed costs are often one of the first functional gaps customers encounter when moving from legacy systems or spreadsheets to Business Central.

The challenge isn’t just calculating landed costs, it’s managing them as part of an end‑to‑end import process:

•    Costs arise at different stages of the goods journey
•    Some costs are proportional (weight, volume, value), others are fixed
•    Responsibility for costs changes depending on Incoterms
•    Invoices often arrive weeks after goods are received
•    Variances are common, but hard to analyse

How can Clever Landed Costs help with these challenges?

Clever Landed Costs extends Business Central with a purpose‑built framework for handling import costs accurately and consistently.

At a high level, it enables organisations to:

•    Define all relevant landed cost types (freight, duty, insurance, handling, documentation)
•    Allocate expected costs using real‑world logic (weight, volume, quantity, value, fixed)
•    Accrue costs at the appropriate stage of the goods journey
•    Track containers across multiple purchase orders
•    Match actual supplier invoices against expected costs
•    Identify and analyse cost variances with full transparency

What’s new in Clever Landed Costs Version 5 and why does it matter?

The latest release of Clever Landed Costs introduces some of the most significant functional enhancements since the solution was first released. Here's all you need to know about what's new.

Transfer order support Supporting shipping terms (e.g. FOB) where goods move through temporary (e.g. “On the Water”) locations before final receipt is crucial for importers and with the ability to create/update a Transfer Order from a Purchase Order, Clever Landed Costs ensures accurate costs flow from procurement to sale.
	Incoterm Allocation Control where and when landed costs are accrued based on Incoterms. Different Incoterms dictate when responsibility for costs transfers from supplier to buyer and with Clever Landed Costs you can ensure that the costs you incur are recognised at the correct stage of the import journey.
Fixed Costs No more guesses for fixed cost apportionment! Allocate Purchase, Transfer or Container level fixed costs (such as clearance, freight or documentation fees) once and let Clever Landed Costs apportion across items using weight, quantity, or other allocation rules. Fixed costs are no longer hidden or averaged incorrectly, improving unit cost accuracy and margin confidence.
	Charge item cost treatment Accrual and actual costs now flow from Purchase to Sale ledgers for total accuracy. Charge Items can be used to post Expected Landed Costs, ensuring both Expected and Actual Costs are maintained accurately throughout the supply chain and aligned with Business Central inventory costing principles. This keeps costs visible at every stage and supports reporting on true margins. Cost traceability has never been easier.
Purchase invoicing made simple An Invoice Wizard designed to make life easier for your finance team. Create and assign Landed Cost Invoices in seconds using the new step‑by‑step Invoice Wizard. Identify the relevant document, select the Cost Type and enter the Invoice Amount. Clever Landed Costs handles the rest, ensuring invoices are posted correctly, expected costs are reversed and any variances are applied to the correct inventory.

Why these changes matter for finance, operations, and partners

For finance teams, Clever Landed Costs delivers:

•    More accurate inventory valuation
•    Earlier and more reliable cost accruals
•    Clear variance identification
•    Stronger audit confidence

For operations teams, it provides:

•    Better sourcing and supplier decisions
•    Improved pricing accuracy
•    Shipment‑level visibility
•    Reduced manual effort

For Business Central partners, it offers:

•    A proven solution to a common customer pain point
•    Faster implementations without custom development
•    Scalable import‑cost handling for growing customers

Turning global trade into a competitive advantage

Global importing is complex but that doesn’t mean your landed cost solution inside of Business Central has to be.

Clever Landed Costs helps organisations move beyond assumptions and spreadsheets to a structured, transparent, and scalable approach to managing the true cost of goods.

The new features in the latest release of Clever Landed Costs have been built to allow you to align landed cost recognition with real‑world supply chains which helps to protect margin, improve decision‑making and operate with confidence in a volatile market.

Clever Landed Costs Version 5.0.0 is available to download from AppSource now – so what are you waiting for? More information can be found by visiting our product page. Feel free to get in touch if you have any queries.