8 min read
Purchase orders and landed cost
A purchase order records what you ordered from a supplier. When the stock arrives, you receive it, and two things happen: the units go on your shelf, and each product’s cost is updated to what it really cost you to get it there: the price you paid plus its share of freight, customs duty and clearing. That true cost is the landed cost.
You find all of this under Stock: Purchase orders, Inbound shipments and Suppliers.
What this is for
- Knowing your real margin. A mouse pad bought for $5 does not cost you ₹425 once freight, duty and the clearing agent are paid. It may cost ₹540.
- Buying from abroad in USD, CNY or another currency, at the rate on your Bill of Entry.
- Sharing one container’s freight and customs across several orders and suppliers.
- Adding a bill that arrives weeks later, without redoing anything.
Suppliers
Suppliers have their own page: Suppliers.
Adding products
In the Products card, click Add products. The same picker you use for collections opens: search by name or SKU, filter by collection, type or status, and tick whole products or just some of their variants. Click Add and each ticked variant becomes a line with quantity
- When the order is in rupees, the unit price starts at the product’s current cost, so you only change what is different. A variant that is already on the order is not added twice.
Currency and exchange rate
In the Currency card, pick what the supplier bills in. For anything other than rupees, enter the exchange rate: how many rupees one unit of that currency is. Use the rate on your Bill of Entry (customs uses it) or on your bank’s payment advice. Unit prices on the order are then typed in that currency, and every total is shown in rupees.
The currency is fixed once the order is sent. The rate can still be corrected until the order is finished.
Charges
Everything you pay on top of the goods is a charge. Add them in the Charges card on a purchase order, or as shared charges on an inbound shipment.
| Charge | Part of product cost? |
|---|---|
| Freight and insurance | Yes |
| Basic customs duty (BCD) | Yes |
| Social welfare surcharge (SWS) | Yes |
| IGST paid at customs | No: you claim it back as input credit |
| Clearing agent (CHA) fee | Yes (its GST is input credit) |
| Port and handling | Yes |
| Local freight | Yes |
| Bank and exchange charges | Yes |
| Goods adjustment | Yes. Can be negative, for a supplier credit |
| Other | Yes, unless you switch it off |
For each charge, type the amount before GST and, separately, the GST on that bill. GST on a bill is always input credit, so it is tracked but never added to product cost. IGST paid at customs is marked Claim back as input credit for the same reason. You can switch that on or off for any charge.
How a charge is split across products
| Split | Use it for |
|---|---|
| By weight | Freight and insurance (the default). Heavier products carry more. |
| By value | Customs duty and most other charges (the default). Dearer products carry more. |
| By quantity | An equal share per unit. |
| Only some products | A charge that belongs to a few products only, split by value among them. |
| Amount per product | When the bill already says the amount per product, like duty per line on a Bill of Entry. The amounts must add up to the charge. |
If a product has no weight saved, a by-weight charge is split by value instead, and the Charges card says which products need a weight. Add weights to the products (on the product page) and the split follows.
Splits are worked out in whole paise and always add up to the charge exactly.
Inbound shipments
One container can carry several purchase orders. See Inbound shipments.
Upload bills and let Koomerce read them
Instead of typing every line, upload the bill and let Koomerce read it for you. You always check what it read before anything changes.
- Open the purchase order (or the inbound shipment) and scroll to Bills and documents.
- Pick What is it: Supplier invoice, Bill of Entry, Freight bill, Clearing agent (CHA) bill, Bank or exchange advice, or Other bill.
- Drop the file in, or click to choose it. PDF, JPG or PNG, up to 15 MB. A phone photo of a paper bill works too.
- It shows Reading… for a few seconds, then Ready to check. Click Check and apply.
The check screen shows the file on the left and what Koomerce read on the right. Anything it was not sure about says Check this. Correct any value, untick what you do not want, then press Apply. Nothing is saved until you do, and everything you ticked is saved together.
What each bill does
| Bill | What it can apply |
|---|---|
| Supplier invoice | On a draft order: the quantities and prices per product (new products found by their SKU are added), and the currency and exchange rate. On an order you already sent: a goods adjustment for any price difference, because the order itself is locked. Freight or insurance printed on the invoice becomes a charge. |
| Bill of Entry | The exchange rate customs used, onto every order in the shipment priced in that currency; the BE number, date and port, onto the shipment; and BCD, SWS and IGST as charges. When every line is matched, each product gets exactly the duty printed for it. IGST stays out of cost (input credit). |
| Freight, CHA, bank or other bill | One charge with its amount before GST and the GST (input credit). You can change which kind of charge it is. |
How products are matched
For each line on the bill, Koomerce looks for the product on your order by the supplier’s code or SKU first, then by HSN code and name. If it cannot tell, the line says Not matched: pick the product yourself, or leave it unticked. Koomerce never creates new products from a bill.
Differences are shown on each line, for example Order says 100 @ $12.50, this says 98 @ $12.40. On a sent order, quantity differences are settled when you receive: receive what arrived and close the order.
Good to know
- Each bill applies once. To apply it again (say you removed what it added by hand), open it and click Allow applying again. That does not undo anything.
- The file stays private to your store. It is never on a public link.
- Reading a bill counts as one AI request in your monthly allowance (Settings → AI). Turn Read bills with AI off there to keep files without reading them.
- If a bill could not be read, click Read again, or upload a clearer photo or the original PDF.
Print or email the purchase order
Once the order is saved, the ⋯ menu at the top has:
- Print: opens the purchase order as a PDF in a new tab, ready to print.
- Download PDF: saves the same file.
- Email to supplier: sends the PDF to the supplier from your store’s email address.
The PDF shows your business (with the GSTIN of the warehouse it is going to), the address to deliver to, the supplier, each product with its SKU and HSN code, quantity and price in the order’s currency, the total, the date you want it by, the supplier’s payment terms and your notes. Freight, duty and other charges are not on it: those are your own costs.
To email it, check the supplier’s address (it is filled in from the order), add a message if you like, for example Please pack the sleeves separately, and click Send. On a draft, Also mark as ordered is ticked, so the units start showing as incoming at the same moment. If the email cannot be sent, nothing changes and the draft stays a draft. Replies from the supplier come straight to your inbox.
The email goes from the sender address you set up under Settings › Notifications. Until that address is verified, it goes from the platform’s address with replies set to your store’s email.
Receiving
Click Receive items. For each product, enter how many you accept (they go on hand) and how many you reject (damaged or wrong; they stop showing as incoming but are not stocked). The dialog shows what the product’s cost becomes before you confirm.
How the product cost changes
The new cost is the weighted average of what you already had and what just arrived:
new cost = (units on hand × current cost + units accepted × landed cost) ÷ (units on hand + units accepted)
If you had none on hand, the landed cost simply becomes the cost.
Example. You have 10 pads at ₹500. You receive 10 more that landed at ₹800 each. New cost = (10 × 500 + 10 × 800) ÷ 20 = ₹650.
A bill that arrives later
Clearing agents and freight forwarders often bill after the goods are in. Just add the charge to the order or shipment, even if it is already received. The landed cost is worked out again, and the extra cost is added to the units still on your shelf. Units you already sold keep the cost they were sold at.
Example. You received 10 pads at ₹1,000 and sold 4. A ₹1,000 CHA bill arrives: that is ₹100 a pad. The 6 still on hand go up to ₹1,100. Fix or remove the charge later and the cost moves back the same way.
Cancel, close and reopen
- Cancel order: for an order nothing has arrived on yet. It stops showing as incoming and stops sharing any shipment’s charges.
- Close: stop waiting for the rest of a partly received order.
- Reopen: undo a close (if something is still outstanding) or a cancel.
Good to know
- Old purchase orders: their Shipping and Taxes fields became charges. Shipping counts as cost; Taxes were GST, so they are marked as input credit.
- Stock received before landed cost existed keeps its old cost. Only receipts from now on are averaged in.