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Landed Cost Autocost Manual Override Enhancement with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management

James Miller

Sep 16 2024

3 min read

Supply Chain Management has become much more different to forecast and manage recently. I remember when a supply chain professional could have negotiated logistics rates for all movement, handling, and storage of product, and reasonably expected the negotiated rates would hold firm for the length of the agreements, frequently rolling into multi-year contracts that were stable and predictable.

Those times have passed.

To be a great supply chain professional requires not only knowledge of the ever-changing world environment, it also requires a way to capture, apply, and easily modify the costing structure for the application of the landed cost portion of your marketable goods.

Using the Autocost Manual Override Enhancement in Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain (D365 F&SCM) provides the platform for the capture and application of these fluctuating costs via the Landed Cost module, but the maintenance of the costing portion within the module could be more efficient. Updating the Autocost tables for the newly applicable costs is a manual process that needs to occur before creating a new Voyage if these costs have changed once again. Often, the supply chain professional is only made aware of the changes at the time a shipment is tendered. Normally this would require the user to go into the associated Landed cost tables and manually update each before the Voyage record could be created with the new charges.

The new Autocost manual override enhancement in Dynamics 365 removes the need to update all the Autocost tables before Voyage creation. This is done by having a function trigger during Voyage creation that will open a popup modification table once the From and To shipping ports are selected. This popup searches the Autocost tables and displays all matching Journey template Autocost records. These records display the existing cost criteria and can be edited on the fly for the new applicable charges. No prework needed. The newly applied cost data is then saved to the associated Autocost records. This works for both Purchase order Voyages and Transfer order Voyages. If this enhancement is applied in conjunction with the Transfer order automation enhancement, it will also create all the associated sub-records such that no prework is ever required for a Transfer order voyage to be created.

Below are the sequential images of the Autocost enhancement process in Dynamics 365 F&SCM.

Showing the Voyage creation screen:

1) Add to new shipping container

2) Create shipping container(s):

3) Popup window that allows direct entry of the Autocost amounts, category, apportionment method, and Minimum charge amounts. The cost area allows the user to move between all applicable cost areas within the same popup screen to modify all desired charges in one place.

4) Once the user selects OK, the new charges are saved to the Autocost table and applied to the newly created Landed Cost voyage container.

Sikich helps distributors automate and manage your key processes with ERP, CRM, and Supply Chain technology. Contact our experts today to see how this technology could impact your business.

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About the Author

James Miller

A Senior Supply Chain Consultant At Sikich and Licensed Customs Broker with over 30 years of functional Supply chain/Logistics/Warehouse experience. As a Sikich consultant, James utilizes his extensive business experience to guide clients in D365 F&SC implementations for the most efficient, practical, and sustainable operation.