Assembly costs allow you to include associated external costs in your production process, ensuring the value of your finished goods is accurately calculated. Adding these costs increases the total value of the assembly, which in turn increases the Average Landed Cost (ALC) of the assembled stock. As a result, the margins calculated when selling assembled goods will reflect the assembly costs, giving you a more accurate view of product profitability.

Any cost related to the assembly or processing of a product that is not a diminishing component can be treated as an associated external cost. Common examples include:

Services
Transport
Labour
Packaging

Assembly costs can be added to an assembly in two ways:

By including a Never Diminishing Product (NDP) as a component in the Bill of Materials (BOM).
By adding the value as a Supplier Cost directly on the assembly.

Example of assembly costs

If you are producing wine, the bottling and labelling process may be carried out by a third-party contractor. In this case, the component products for a bottled wine are:

Wine
Wine bottle
Bottle labels

Because a third-party contractor is completing the manufacturing process, a charge for their services will be incurred and attributed to the assembly. This adds additional value to the assembled product.

To account for these charges in Unleashed, add them to the assembly as either an NDP component or a Supplier Cost. This increases the total cost of the assembly and provides a more accurate calculation of the assembled product's ALC, and subsequently more accurate margins at the point of sale.

NDPs vs Supplier Costs

Use the guidance below to determine the most appropriate method for recording your assembly cost.

Add the assembly cost as a Never Diminishing Product (NDP) in the BOM if:

The cost is a standardised, expected cost that will be incurred for each assembly of the product.
The cost is proportionally valued based on the quantity being assembled.
The cost is an internal expense, not charged by a supplier.

Add the assembly cost as a Supplier Cost if:

The cost is only known at the point of assembly.
The cost is a fixed value regardless of the quantity being assembled.
The cost is incurred from a supplier.

Export assembly costs to your accounting provider

If you are integrated with an accounting provider such as Xero or QuickBooks, any additional costs included on an assembly, whether Supplier Costs or Never Diminishing Products (NDPs), will export to the respective provider.

🤓 Tip: Check that your assembly includes either Supplier Costs or NDPs, as these are necessary for generating exportable journal entries.

Accounting Provider	Supplier Cost	NDP Component
Xero	Creates a draft payable per Supplier Cost. Stock on Hand account increases.	A credit is created in the allocated Expense account. A debit is created to the Stock on Hand account.
QuickBooks	Creates a bill per Supplier Cost. Stock on Hand account increases.	A credit is created in the allocated Expense account. A debit is created to the Stock on Hand account.

Supplier Costs

By adding external costs to an assembly using the Supplier Costs function, you can track those costs within Unleashed's reports: the Costing Analysis Report and Transaction Enquiry. If you are integrated with an accounting provider, Supplier Costs will also export as a bill to pay, to be managed and processed within your accounting platform.

📌Note: The supplier must already exist as a supplier record in Unleashed before an assembly cost can be added for them.

Add 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 appear next to the Assembly Lines.

To add an incurred cost as a Supplier Cost:

Select the Supplier Costs tab in the assembly.
In the Supplier field, find and select the appropriate supplier the cost has been incurred from. Use the magnifying glass icon to refine the supplier search.
In the Cost field, enter the tax-exclusive value of the supplier's cost, then complete the remaining fields:
- 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 differs from your account's base currency, this field will auto-populate with the current Currency Rate in your settings. You can edit this per assembly.
- Cost Date: Select the date the cost was incurred. This date will export to your accounting provider with the Supplier Cost bill. A historic date can be used.
- Reference: Enter the supplier's reference number if provided. This will export to your accounting provider.
- 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 Cost.
Click Add.

The Supplier Cost will update the assembly's total cost. You can add multiple Supplier Costs to a single assembly, across various suppliers and purposes, to help manage all incurred costs. Each cost added is counted in the Supplier Costs tab header.

Whilst the assembly is in Parked status, Supplier Costs can be edited at any time. They can also be deleted using the bin icon on the Supplier Cost line.

📌Note: If you add or adjust Supplier Costs before adding or adjusting products on the assembly, the costs will be adjusted accordingly prior to completion.

Complete the assembly

Once all Supplier Costs have been added and the assembly process is finished, select Complete on the assembly. Along with the Stock on Hand quantities being updated for the components and assembled goods, the assembled product's ALC will be updated to account for both the component costs and the Supplier Costs.

For more details on managing an assembly, see Assemblies and Sub-Assemblies.

Track assembly costs in Unleashed

You can use several of Unleashed's reports to track the additional costs included on your assemblies. Report totals now include the Supplier Cost value in the total transaction value, providing a more accurate and detailed breakdown of costs.

📌Note: Assembly cost tracking only reflects updates after a transaction affecting the assembly has occurred, such as a completed assembly.

Costing Analysis Report

The Costing Analysis Report shows how the Average Landed Costs of a product have fluctuated over time, based on the transactions that have influenced their recalculations. It shows the impact each transaction has on the cost of a product.

To use the Costing Analysis Report to track assembly costs:

From the main menu, select Reports.
Select Purchases, then Costing Analysis Report.
In the Transaction Type filter, select Assembly.
The 'Trans Unit Cost' column displays the assembly's cost per unit, including any Supplier Costs that were added. Compare the Pre and Post Avg Cost values against the Trans Unit Cost to see how significantly the Supplier Cost has affected the assembled product's value.

Transaction Enquiry Report

The Transaction Enquiry provides a breakdown of the stock movements that have been actioned in Unleashed, listing completed transactions per affected product and showing the total quantity and value adjusted.

To use the Transaction Enquiry to track assembly costs:

From the main menu, select Reports.
Select Inventory, then Transaction Enquiry.
In the Transaction Type filter, select Assembly In.
The 'Value' column displays the total cost for assembling the product, including any Supplier Costs.

🤓 Tip: If an assembly cost has been added as an NDP component, the NDP's value will be included when the report is filtered for Transaction Type: Assembly Out.

View Assemblies

The View Assemblies page includes a Total Cost column, which reflects any Supplier Costs and NDPs added to the assembly.

Assembly Costs