➡️ What is Landed Cost?
When you buy materials, the price on the supplier invoice usually isn't the full story. Freight, customs duties, insurance, handling fees, and brokerage charges all add to what a material actually costs your business to get into your hands or into a job.
Landed Cost lets you track those extra costs directly on a Purchase Order and have Ply automatically fold them into your inventory valuation and Cost to Business when you receive the order. Instead of manually padding your material costs after the fact, Ply does the math for you as part of reconciliation.
➡️ Before you turn it on
Landed cost changes the actual cost to the business of your inventory going forward. If what you're really trying to do is log a one-off expense (say, a rental fee or a delivery charge tied to a single job that isn't meant to affect your ongoing material costs), Landed Cost may inflate your regular inventory costs more than you want. In that case, recording the cost manually against that specific purchase is usually a better fit.
Landed Cost is available on the Plus and Enterprise plans. It's not included on Starter. If you're on Starter and want this, reach out to [email protected] so we can walk you through your options.
➡️ Setting up Landed Cost
Go to Settings > Procurement > Purchasing > Landed Cost Settings.
Toggle Enable Landed Costs on.
You'll see six cost components you can configure: Freight, Customs, Insurance, Handling, Brokerage, and Other.
For each component you want to use, choose whether it's:
A fixed dollar amount (good for flat fees that don't change with order size, like a set brokerage charge), or
A percentage of the PO subtotal (good for costs that scale with what you're ordering, like freight or customs duties calculated as a % of the shipment value).
Decide whether each component should apply to all suppliers, or only to specific suppliers (useful if, say, only your overseas or import supplier triggers customs and brokerage fees).
Save your settings.
➡️ Adding Landed Cost to a Purchase Order
Once it's enabled, your default Landed Cost settings will automatically pre-populate on new POs.
Create or open a Purchase Order.
Look for the Landed Cost section (bottom left of the PO). Your defaults will already be filled in based on your settings.
Adjust the PO-level amounts if this particular order needs different numbers than your defaults.
If you need a specific line item to carry a different landed cost than the rest of the order (instead of having the cost split proportionally across all items), open that item and set a per-item override.
➡️ How Landed Cost is applied when you receive
When you receive and reconcile the PO:
Landed costs are automatically allocated into the item's inventory cost, proportionally split across the items on the order (unless you set a per-item override).
The updated cost shows up as the material's new Cost to Business once reconciled.
The landed costs is also included on the PO's printed PDF, in its own section.
Good to know: Right now, landed cost amounts show as their own section on the PO and PDF, but they aren't rolled into the printed order subtotal at the top of the PO. The subtotal still reflects line-item costs only. This is a known limitation we've flagged internally as a product improvement, so keep it in mind if you're reconciling totals against a supplier invoice.
➡️ Tips & Best Practices
Match the cost type to how it behaves. If a fee scales with your order size (freight, customs), use a percentage. If it's a flat charge regardless of order size (a brokerage fee, for example), use a fixed dollar amount.
Scope defaults by supplier when the cost isn't universal. You don't have to apply every component business-wide. If only one supplier triggers customs and brokerage charges, scope those components to that supplier only, and leave your other suppliers unaffected.
If you're receiving a PO in multiple partial shipments, double check the item-level landed cost after each partial reconcile. Percentage-based components recalculate based on what's been reconciled so far, so it's worth a quick sanity check on the numbers as you go.
If you use Cost Layers with the Average costing mode and reconcile directly to a Job (rather than to a warehouse or truck location), be aware that Landed Cost can interact with your catalog pricing differently than a standard warehouse reconcile. If your catalog price doesn't look right afterward, contact Support with the PO number so we can check your specific setup.
Landed Cost is not a substitute for a tax setting. If what you actually need is sales tax applied consistently to every PO, that's a separate setting from Landed Cost. Talk to Support about which approach fits your situation.
➡️ Common Issues
My PO subtotal doesn't reflect the Landed Cost I added.
This is expected behavior today. Landed Costs show in their own dedicated section on the PO and PDF, but they're not currently included in the order subtotal total. We've logged this as a product improvement.
The Landed Cost section is locked or greyed out after I partially received a PO.
If this happens, please don't try to work around it by moving the PO back to Draft, that can make it harder for us to help. Contact Support with your PO number and we'll take a look.
My item costs looked off after a partial reconciliation.
Make sure you're on the latest version of Ply. If you're still seeing landed costs not recalculating correctly across partial receipts, send us the PO number and we'll investigate.
Landed Cost isn't applying to my Ferguson order.
That's expected. Landed Cost isn't currently supported on Ferguson-integrated Purchase Orders.
I'm not sure which QuickBooks account my Landed Cost amounts post to.
This can vary depending on your accounting setup. Reach out to Support with details on your QBO configuration so we can confirm how it flows for your account, and check with your bookkeeper on how you'd like these costs categorized on your books.
Which plans include Landed Cost?
It's included on Plus and Enterprise. It's not available on Starter. If you're on Starter and interested, reach out to [email protected] and we'll walk you through your options.
➡️FAQs
Does Landed Cost work with Cost Layers?
Yes, but if you're on the Average costing mode and reconciling straight to a Job instead of a warehouse location, there are some edge cases worth double-checking. Contact Support if your numbers look unexpected.
Can I set some components as a percentage and others as a fixed dollar amount, on the same PO?
Yes, each of the six components (Freight, Customs, Insurance, Handling, Brokerage, Other) is configured independently.
Is Landed Cost available on mobile?
Yes. Just make sure you're on the latest version of the Ply app, older versions won't have it.
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