About Assembly Costs

Assembly Costs enable you to add associated external costs to your production process, when you are manufacturing assembled products. The additional costs will increase the total value of the assembly and will therefore increase the overall value of the assembled stock and their calculated Average Landed Costs (ALC). In doing so, the margins calculated for the sale of the assembled goods will include the Assembly Costs, providing a more accurate view of product's profits.

Anything that relates to the assembly or processing of an assembled product but isn't a diminishing product can be considered an associated external cost. Some examples of the type of associated external costs are;

• services
• transport
• labor
• packaging 

Assembly Costs can be added to an Assembly by either including a Never Diminishing Product (NDP) as a component or by adding the value as a Supplier Cost, per Assembly. 

Example of Assembly Costs

If you are making wine, the process of bottling and labeling might be done by a third party contractor. This means the component products for a bottled wine are;

• wine
• wine bottle
• bottle labels

As a third party contractor is completing the manufacturing process (bottling and labelling), a charge for their services will be incurred and attributed to the Assembly, therefore adding additional value to the assembled product.

To account for these charges in Unleashed, add the charges to the Assembly as either an NDP component or a Supplier Cost, increasing the Total Cost of the Assembly, providing a more accurate calculation of the assembled product's ALC and subsequently more accurate margins at the point of sale.

Never Diminishing Products vs Supplier Costs

Add the Assembly Cost as a Never Diminishing Product (NDP) to the BOM if:

• The Assembly Cost is an expected cost that will be incurred for each Assembly of the assembled product
• The Assembly Cost is proportionally valued based on the quantity being assembled
• The Assembly Cost is an internal expense, not charged to a Supplier

For more details on including NDP's on Assemblies, see Never Diminishing Products.

Add Assembly Costs as a Supplier Cost if:

• The Assembly Cost is only known at the point of Assembly 
• The Assembly Cost is a fixed value regardless of the assembling quantity
• The Assembly Cost is incurred from a Supplier

Supplier Costs

By adding external costs to an Assembly with the Supplier Costs function, you will have the ability to track the costs incurred within Unleashed's reports; Costing Analysis Report and Transaction Enquiry. Similarly, if integrated with an accounting provider, the Supplier Costs will export as a bill to pay to be managed and processed accordingly. 

Prior to adding Supplier Costs to an Assembly, the Supplier the costs have been incurred from must be setup as a Supplier in your Unleashed account. For more details, see Add Supplier.

Adding Supplier Costs to an Assembly

Once an Assembly has been created (either manually or automatically) and is in Parked status, the Supplier Costs tab will show next to your Assembly Lines. 

1. Select the Supplier Costs tab in the Assembly
   
   
   
2. Find and select the appropriate Supplier the cost has been incurred from, in the Supplier field. Use the magnifying glass icon to refine the Supplier search, if needed.
   
   
   
3. In the Cost field, enter the tax exclusive value of the Supplier's cost and fill in the remaining fields. Once all the fields have been populated, select Add.
   
   
   
   • Taxable: Tick the checkbox if tax is due to be added to the Supplier Cost. The Supplier's default tax rate will apply.
   • Exchange Rate: If the Supplier's default currency is different to your account's base currency, the Exchange Rate field will auto-populate with the Currency Rate provided in your System settings but can be edited per Assembly. 
   • Cost Date: Select the date the Cost has been incurred. This date will export to your accounting provider with the Supplier Cost's bill (this can be a historic date).
   • Reference: Advise the Supplier's reference number, if provided (this will export to the accounting provider). 
   • Currency: Displays the Supplier's default currency.
   • Tax: Displays the tax rate applied, if Taxable is ticked. The Supplier's default tax rate will apply.
   • Comments: Enter any further details or comments relating to the Supplier Costs
     
     
4. Once added, the Supplier Cost will update the Assembly's Total Cost. You can add multiple Supplier Costs to a single Assembly, for various Suppliers and purposes to help further manage the Costs that have been incurred. Each cost added is counted in the Supplier Cost tab's header.
   
5. Whilst the Assembly is Parked, the Supplier Costs can be edited at any time. They ca also be deleted by using the bin icon in the Supplier Cost's line.
   
   
   

Export Assembly Costs to your accounting provider

If you are integrated with an accounting provider (Xero or Quickbooks), any additional costs included on an Assembly will export to the respective provider.

Tracking Assembly Costs in Unleashed

You can use a number of Unleashed's reports to track the additional costs that have been included on your assemblies. In these reports, the totals on the report pages now include the Supplier Cost value in the total transaction value. This provides you with a more accurate and greater breakdown of costs!

Costing Analysis Report

From the main menu, under Reports, Purchases, you have the Costing Analysis Report. This report allows you to review how the Average Landed Costs have fluctuated over time, based on the transactions that have influenced their re-calculations. This shows the impact of each transaction has on the cost of a product.

For Transaction Type: Assembly, the Trans Unit Cost in the report displays the assembly's cost per unit, including the Supplier Costs that were added. By comparing the Pre and Post Avg Cost values are, based on the Trans Unit Cost, it's possible to see how large an impact the Supplier Cost had on the assembled product's value.

Transaction Enquiry Report

From the main menu, under Reports and Inventory, select the Transaction Enquiry for a breakdown of the stock movements that have been actioned in Unleashed. The Transaction Enquiry lists the transactions that have been completed, per affected product and shows the total quantity and value adjusted. 

If filtered for Transactions Type: Assembly In, the Transaction Enquiry will show the products that have been assembled. The Value column will show the total cost for assembling the product, which includes the assembly's Supplier Costs, 

If an Assembly Cost has been added to an Assembly as an NDP component, the NDP's value will be included in the Transaction Enquiry when filtered for Transaction Type: Assembly Out. 

For more details, see Transaction Enquiry.

View Assemblies 

Use the View Assemblies page, found in the main menu from Production, Assemblies, View Assemblies to review both open and completed Assemblies. The View Assemblies page displays the Total Cost column, which includes any Supplier Costs added to the Assembly, if there are any.

For more details, see Manage and view Assemblies.