Log Shipping Expense onto Delivery and Invoice in Odoo

Efficient logistics and accurate cost tracking are crucial for businesses aiming to streamline their operations. Steersman’s delivery cost module for Odoo enhances shipping cost management, ensuring that delivery expenses are transparently logged and allocated adequately to invoices. This ensures precise profit calculation, especially when shipping costs differ from customer shipping charges.

Background and Purpose for Shipping Expense Attribution App for Odoo

Shipping costs are a critical factor in profitability analysis, but they can be complex to track and allocate in Odoo or any other ERP system. Businesses often pay shipping fees that differ from what customers are charged (or may offer free shipping). Steersman’s module for shipping expense logging addresses this by:

1. Shipping Cost vs. Price Clarity: Separates the shipping cost incurred by the business from the price charged to the customer.
2. Comprehensive Cost Tracking: Allows logging of delivery costs and flagging deliveries based on shipping cost expectations:
   • Billed to the business, customers, or third-party accounts.
   • Made via various carriers (UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL, etc - with shipment purchased via Odoo) or methods, including drop shipping, and external shipment systems like LTL or ShipStation.
3. Transfer of Cost from Delivery to Invoice: Known costs from the shipment automatically transfer into the invoice as an expense.
   • Shipping fees billed by a vendor are logged into an “unallocated shipping expense” account. When a customer invoice is created, an expense line moves the expense from the “unallocated” account to the final shipping expense account.

Key Features

1. Delivery Cost Logging on the inventory picking
   • Cost Field on Delivery Records: Adds a dedicated, editable field in the “Additional Info” tab on delivery picking for specifying delivery costs.
   • Automatic Cost Capture:
     • For shipments via Odoo-integrated carriers (via Steersman’s EasyPost integration), costs are auto-logged upon delivery validation.
     • Manual entry remains possible for external shipment systems.
   • Editable by Purchasing Managers: Users with appropriate permissions can update costs before or after delivery validation.
   • Billing Type Identification:
     • Recognizes deliveries billed to the sender, third party, or receiver.
     • Automatically sets cost to $0 for “collect” shipments billed to customers or third parties.
   • Chatter Logs: Tracks all changes to delivery cost fields, including user details and before-and-after values.
2. Invoice Profit Integration
   • Delivery Cost Allocation:
     • Delivery costs are seamlessly pulled into invoices during creation.
     • Costs are itemized for each delivery on multi-delivery invoices, ensuring clarity and accurate journal entries.
   • Cost Applicability Rules:
     • Prevents double-counting: If a delivery’s cost is logged in one invoice, subsequent invoices exclude it from the total.
     • Marks $0 cost for “collect” shipments where the business incurs no shipping expense.

3. Journal Entry Automation

   • Expense and Balance Accounts:
     • Delivery costs are logged as expenses against the shipping product’s “product category” expense account.
     • Balancing journal entries are created using:
       • A specific account set on the delivery method.
       • A fallback account from inventory settings if no override is provided.
   • Dynamic Updates:
     • Journal entries update if delivery costs are edited on an invoice, unless the accounting period of the invoice is locked.

4. Enhanced Visibility and Filtering

   • Tracking Gaps in Shipping Cost Attribution to Invoices in Odoo:
     • Enables filtering for deliveries and invoices where shipping costs are missing but the shipping method used is expected to have a price (not collect, or not customer pickup).
   • Dropship Inclusion: Ensures visibility of drop-shipped orders within cost and invoice tracking workflows.

Business Benefits for Odoo Users

• Accurate Profit Margins: By ensuring that delivery costs are allocated correctly, businesses can trust their profit calculations.
• Streamlined Accounting: Automates journal entries and integrates seamlessly with Odoo’s financial modules.
• Operational Flexibility: Supports a variety of shipping scenarios, from standard deliveries to complex drop shipping and third-party billing arrangements.
• Audit Trail Compliance: Logs all changes, ensuring accountability and simplifying reconciliation processes.

The Odoo delivery cost feature, developed by Steersman, transforms shipping cost management, making it more accurate, transparent, and efficient. By integrating detailed cost tracking, automated journal entries, and validation rules, businesses can confidently manage their logistics expenses and focus on optimizing profitability. Whether handling internal shipments, vendor drop shipping, or third-party billing, this feature ensures no delivery cost goes unaccounted for. Let this module work for your business analytics and commission calculations, where the true profit on a sale must be known.