GL Accounting for Landing Factors

This topic describes how to account for the cost of Landing Factors in the General Ledger when Receipts Accrual is initiated in Company Control Initialization (CC00/Purchasing).

A choice needs to be made as to whether to record most of the activity in the Liabilities section of the Balance Sheet OR in the Cost of Goods Sold section of the Income Statement. A further choice needs to be made as to whether to record the Landing Factor activity in a single account (resulting in a 'net' value representing the over or under-absorption of the landing charges) or to record the Landing Factor activity in multiple accounts (thereby retaining the 'gross' activity involved in absorbing landing charges into Inventory and subsequently paying for the actual charges).

The following example represents the 'net' approach in the Liability section of the Balance Sheet. It begins when Product is received and landing charges are added to the cost of the Product:

Impact on General Ledger

Debit

Credit

Receive Product, $1000 plus $50 Freight = $1050 Landed    
Inventory 1050  
Accrued Receipts   1000
Landing Costs Absorbed (Liability section)   50
     
Post Supplier Invoice; Match to Receipt    
Accrued Receipts 1000  
Accounts Payable   1000
     
Sell Product for $1250    
Accounts Receivable 1250  
Sales   1250
Cost of Goods Sold 1050  
Inventory   1050
     
Post Freight Invoice for $55 (instead of $50)    
Landing Costs Absorbed 55  
Accounts Payable   55

The net result of the above is a Debit balance of $5.00 in the Landing Costs Absorbed account. This should be written off monthly/quarterly to an Expense account:

Write-Off Variance in L.C. Absorbed Account

Debit

Credit

Landing Costs Variance (Expense account in COS section) 5  
Landing Costs Absorbed   5

Alternate Method of Recording Landing Costs:

You might wish to keep the landing costs (absorbed, actual and variance) in separate accounts to provide a history of the gross amounts. If so, instead of using a single GL account for Landing Costs Absorbed, you set up two accounts (if you choose to have these in the COS section of the Income Statement) or three accounts (if you wish to have them in the Liabilities section of the Balance Sheet) and the entries are set up as follows:

a) If you want to maintain the accounts in the Liabilities section of the Balance Sheet:

Impact on General Ledger

Debit

Credit

Receive Product, $1000 plus $50 Freight = $1050 Landed    
Inventory 1050  
Accrued Receipts   1000
Landing Costs Absorbed (Liability Account)   50
     
Post Supplier Invoice; Match to Receipt    
Accrued Receipts 1000  
Accounts Payable   1000
     
Sell Product for $1250    
Accounts Receivable 1250  
Sales   1250
Cost of Goods Sold 1050  
Inventory   1050
     
Post Freight Invoice for $55 (instead of $50)    
Landing Costs Actual (Liability section) 55  
Accounts Payable   55

Write-Off Variance in L.C. Absorbed Account

Debit

Credit

Landing Costs Variance (Expense account in COS section) 5  
Landing Costs Adjustment (Liability section)   5

b) If you want to leave the accounts in the Cost of Goods Sold section of the Income Statement:

Impact on General Ledger

Debit

Credit

Receive Product, $1000 plus $50 Freight = $1050 Landed    
Inventory 1050  
Accrued Receipts   1000
Landing Costs Absorbed (COS section)   50
     
Post Supplier Invoice; Match to Receipt    
Accrued Receipts 1000  
Accounts Payable   1000
     
Sell Product for $1250    
Accounts Receivable 1250  
Sales   1250
Cost of Goods Sold 1050  
Inventory   1050
     
Post Freight Invoice for $55 (instead of $50)    
Landing Costs Actual (COS section) 55  
Accounts Payable   55

No further entries are required as the net impact on the Cost of Goods Sold is a debit of $5.00, representing the under-absorption of the landing charge.

 
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