Commission costs

Margin commission is only as fair as the cost it uses. The actual item cost in Business Central keeps moving after an invoice is posted, as purchase invoices, item charges and cost adjustments arrive, and many companies pay margin commission on an agreed season or list cost that does not move. Bitta Commission keeps dated costs per item on Commission Costs, and the Cost Basis of a measure decides which cost a margin uses. This page shows you how to choose a cost basis, maintain and import commission costs, and catch lines without a cost.

Before you start

• You need the Bitta Commission Setup Administrator or Bitta Commission Integration permission set to maintain commission costs. The other commission roles can read them. See Permission sets.
• Native capture must be running, because the cost in force is recorded when a line is captured. See Capture posted sales.
• Agree with finance which cost basis each margin plan uses before you publish it.

Choose a cost basis

Cost Basis	Cost used	Changes after posting?
Actual Cost	The actual cost from the item's value entries.	Yes. Later cost adjustments, item charges and revaluations flow through as cost corrections.
Dated Commission Cost	The cost on Commission Costs in force on the line's posting date.	No. The cost is a snapshot taken at capture.
Supplied Cost	A unit cost a companion app supplies when the line is captured.	No. The cost is a snapshot taken at capture.

The cost basis belongs to the measure. It is used by the Gross Margin measure and by the margin pools of the Line Rate model. Choose it in Cost Basis on Edit Commission Component when you create the component's measure defaults. Existing measures show their cost basis on Commission Measures.

Under a snapshot basis, a new cost and a recalculation change nothing for lines already posted: a line keeps the cost it was captured with. Returns and corrections are costed at the snapshot or supplied cost of the original line.

Maintain commission costs

1. Search for Commission Costs and open it.
2. Add one row per item, per variant where needed, and per starting date:

Field	What to enter
Item No.	The item the cost applies to.
Variant Code	The variant. Leave it blank for every variant without its own row.
Starting Date	The first posting date the cost applies to. The row applies until the next row of the same item and variant starts.
Unit Cost (LCY)	The commission cost per base unit of measure, in local currency.
Cost Source	Where the cost came from, for example the season cost list. It is kept for audit.

To start a new season, add rows with the new starting date. The earlier rows stay as history.

Import costs from Excel

1. On Commission Costs, choose Download Excel Template. The workbook has the columns Item No., Variant Code, Starting Date, Unit Cost and Cost Source.
2. Fill in one row per item, variant and starting date.
3. Choose Import from Excel. Rows with an existing item, variant and starting date are updated, and new starting dates add history rows.

The import refuses an unknown item, an invalid date or cost, or a changed header row, and the message names the row.

Fill missing cost snapshots

If lines were captured before their item had a commission cost, choose Fill Missing Cost Snapshots on Commission Costs. Captured lines that had no cost receive the cost in force on their posting date. Lines that already have a cost are never changed.

Missing and zero costs

An item line has a cost only when the cost is known and not zero. A zero cost is treated as a missing cost, so it never reads as a 100 percent margin. A line without a cost under its cost basis is never priced from today's cost:

• On a Gross Margin measure, the calculation stops with an error that names the missing cost.
• On a Line Rate component, the line's rate source shows MISSING-COST, and No-Match Handling decides whether the calculation stops or the line is paid a zero rate with an exception. See Line rates and margin pools.
• The Commission Exception Report lists item invoice lines without any cost.
• On an open order, Commission Line Estimates marks the line Cost Missing. An open line uses the supplied cost, else the dated cost on the as-of date, else the item's unit cost.

To catch these lines when they are captured, add a Zero Cost data quality rule:

1. Search for Commission Source Capture Setup and turn on Quality Rules Enabled.
2. Search for Commission Data Quality Rules and add a rule:

Field	What to enter
Rule Type	Zero Cost. The rule checks item lines only.
Cost Basis	The cost the rule checks: the actual cost, the dated commission cost or the supplied unit cost.
Outcome	Quarantined holds the line for review. Warning only records the finding and accepts the line.
Status	Active. Only active rules run.

A quarantined line is held on Commission Source Review while the other lines of the document are captured. Rows that are invalid for other reasons still reject the document. See Exception handling.

Example

A tulip line of 1,000.00 is posted on a Dated Commission Cost plan when the commission cost is 50.00, so the margin is 50 percent. Later the season cost changes to 80.00 and the period is recalculated. The line keeps its 50.00 snapshot, its margin stays at 50 percent and its rate does not change.

For developers

A companion app supplies costs for the Supplied Cost basis by subscribing to OnAfterBuildSalesInvoiceLineV1 or OnAfterBuildSalesCrMemoLineV1 on BAA Comm Capture Events and setting Supplied Unit Cost and Supplied Cost Source on the capture line. Read posted or dated data only, because the supplied cost is part of the line's snapshot hash. See Developer events.

What's next

See which rate and margin band a line was paid: Why this rate?.