Ancillary purchase costs

Amir project documentation for open-source Laravel accounting.

Ancillary purchase costs

Use an ancillary cost to record freight, insurance, or another cost related to a purchase. It can be attached only to a purchase invoice.

Invoices → Purchases → Ancillary Cost List → Add

Before you start

  • The purchase invoice must be approved.
  • Define the cost counterparty and its accounting subject.
  • Use a unique document number.
  • Choose a date within the active fiscal year.
  • For product-based allocation, the invoice’s product lines and their costs must be processable.

Allocation types

After an ancillary cost is saved and approved, one of two allocation types applies:

Product-based

The cost is allocated among product lines of the selected invoices and changes inventory cost. After approval, cost of goods sold is recalculated from the cost date onward.

Invoice-based

The cost is recorded at invoice level and an accounting document is created, but it is not allocated to the cost of each product unit.

Fields

  • Title: required, at most 255 characters.
  • Date: required, within the fiscal year, and equal to the purchase invoice date.
  • Document number: required, positive, and unique within the company.
  • Ancillary-cost type: required.
  • Cost subject and counterparty: required.
  • At least one purchase invoice: required.
  • Amount for each invoice: nonnegative.
  • Tax for each line: nonnegative and no more than that line’s amount.
  • Total cost: greater than zero.
  • Description: optional, at most 500 characters.

Selected invoices must be approved purchases for the same counterparty.

Approval lifecycle

The cost starts in pending status. On approval, the app creates its accounting document, records line allocations for product-based costs, and recalculates inventory cost. Revoking approval removes the document and allocations and reverses the recalculation.

Limitations

A later approved invoice or an incompatible dependency can block editing, deletion, or a status change. Review the chronological order of purchases, sales, returns, and ancillary costs to resolve the error.

Checks after saving

  • The correct purchase invoice and counterparty were selected.
  • The cost type matches the nature of the expense.
  • Each line’s amount and tax are correct.
  • The cost document balances.
  • For product-based allocation, inventory cost was recalculated.