Receive Items
In this section of the document, you can see the guidance to receive items from Purchase Orders and Transfer Orders that are linked with a consignment document.
This document assumes that you are already familiar with posting Purchase Orders and Transfer Orders in Business Central. You may receive quantities in full or partially, and this app manages both scenarios.
Purchase Order Receipts
Per Consignment Types
We assume that the relevant purchase order is already linked to a consignment document, with the Consignment type Per-Consignment.
You can change the Quantity to Receive in the Purchase Order Line Item and enter the actual receipt quantity for partial receipt.
You can change the posting date and enter the Vendor Shipment Nos. etc. in the Purchase Order header.
Post the Purchase Order, with the Receive option.
Business Central will create a Posted Purchase Receipts document and update the Inventory.
The Direct Unit Cost and Predicted Charge(Item) cost relevant to the Purchase Order line item will update the Inventory value/Inventory Account. If the Expected Cost posting is Turned on then the Inventory account will use the Expected Cost.
The Advance Landed Cost App will create Value entries with the Posted Predicted Cost amount.
Initially, the consignment status will be Open. It will be changed to Fully Received if the Purchase Order is posted on all receipts. If you post partial order quantities then the Consignment status remains Open.
View Posted Predicted Cost
In the Purchase Order lines, move to the Total Item Charge Cost (LCY). This app will display the Charge(Item) cost related to the Item received. You can click on the Total Item Charge Cost (LCY) and view the Expected Consignment Lines entries that are posted with the Predicted Cost Amount, by each Charge(item) for this Purchase Order.
The Expected Consignment Lines will provide you with the following information, for the Purchase Order Line Item. • Consignment Document No. • Consignment Line No • Assignment Method • Calculated Amount • Predicted Amount • Posted Predicted Amount • Vendor No & Vendor Name • Country Code.
Posted Entries in Consignment Document
You can move to the relevant Consignment Document, from the Purchase Order, by clicking on the Expand FactBox Pane. Click on the Consignment No. displayed on the Consignment Details.
You can view the Consignment Document after posting the Purchase Order receipt.
• Move to the Navigation Menu in the Consignment Document and click on the Related Documents.
• Click on the Purchase Order to see the relevant Purchase Order that is linked to this Consignment.
• Move to the Navigation Menu and click on the Related Posted Documents.
• Click on the Posted Purchase Receipts to see the relevant Posted Purchase Receipt Lines in the Purchase Order which is linked to this Consignment.
You can refer to the Predicted Cost in this document to learn more about the following in the Consignments.
• Total Cost Items, Total Costs (Charge Items) & Total Costs in the Consignment Header. • Value Entries • Show Details in the Consignment Lines – Per Consignment
Subcontracting Purchase Orders
Purchase order lines that are linked to a subcontracting work center (i.e. where the Work Center No. is specified) have limited support in Advanced Landed Cost.
You can use a consignment to track the subcontracting purchase order against the shipment, but this is a tracking-only scenario. Advanced Landed Cost does not calculate, post, or allocate landed costs against subcontracting purchase order receipts.
The following rules and restrictions are enforced by Advanced Landed Cost:
- Mixed orders are not supported: A purchase order must not contain a mix of standard lines and subcontracting lines when you want to use Advanced Landed Cost. Split these into separate purchase orders instead.
- Header-level consignment assignment: When a consignment number is set on the purchase order header, it will only cascade to lines where the Work Center No. is blank. Subcontracting lines are skipped automatically.
- Line-level consignment assignment: You can manually specify a consignment number on a subcontracting purchase line only when the target consignment was created manually and has no consignment cost lines. When you do this, the app shows a confirmation message explaining that the consignment will be used for tracking only.
- No consignment cost lines: After a subcontracting purchase line has been linked to a consignment, you cannot add consignment lines, predicted costs, or item-charge-based landed cost allocation to that consignment.
- Receipt line assignment: When assigning receipt lines to a consignment (from the consignment card), receipt lines originating from subcontracting purchase orders are excluded and will not appear in the receipt line assignment page.
Do not use a single purchase order for both standard and subcontracting lines when Advanced Landed Cost is involved. If you need landed cost support for standard purchases and tracking-only support for subcontracting purchases, create separate purchase orders.
Advanced Landed Cost does not currently integrate with the subcontractor extension released in July 2026. That Microsoft extension supports item charges on subcontractor purchase orders, but Advanced Landed Cost does not yet extend that workflow.
If you are using that extension, do not assume that subcontractor purchase orders with item charges will work with Advanced Landed Cost in the same way as standard purchase or transfer orders.
Alternative Approach for Subcontracting Shipping Costs
If you need to track shipping costs when a third-party supplier handles logistics for subcontracting, consider representing the subcontractor as a separate Location in Business Central rather than using a subcontracting work center. With this approach:
- Create a Transfer Order to move raw materials from your warehouse to the subcontractor location. Assign a consignment to this transfer to capture the shipping costs for sending raw materials to the subcontractor.
- Create a second Transfer Order to move the finished goods from the subcontractor location back to your warehouse. Assign a consignment to this transfer to capture the return shipping costs.
This gives you full visibility of landed costs in both directions and allows you to use consignment templates, predicted costs, and charge invoicing as normal.
Microsoft is introducing new logistics handling for subcontracting in Business Central. Before changing existing subcontracting processes to adopt the location-based approach described above, review the latest Microsoft documentation on subcontracting to ensure alignment with the platform direction.
Transfer Order Receipts
Advanced Landed Cost supports linking Transfer Orders to consignments for tracking landed costs on inter-location movements. The workflow is similar to purchase orders, with key differences noted below.
Assigning a Consignment to a Transfer Order
You can assign a consignment to a Transfer Order in the same ways as a purchase order:
- Create from template: Use the Create Consignment action on the Transfer Order page. The app will match a consignment template based on the Shipment Method Code, Transfer-from Country/Region, Transfer-to Country/Region, Transfer-from Location, and Shipping Agent.
- Assign an existing consignment: Set the Consignment No. field on the Transfer Order header. The value will cascade to all transfer lines.
- Per-line assignment: Each transfer line can have its own Consignment No. if items are arriving on different consignments.
Container numbers can also be assigned to transfer lines, either individually or in bulk via the Assign Consignment Containers action on the transfer order subform.
Posting a Transfer Receipt
Once the Transfer Order is linked to a consignment, ship and receive the transfer as normal in Business Central.
When you post the receipt (at the Transfer-to location), the following occurs:
- Business Central creates a Posted Transfer Receipt and updates inventory at the receiving location.
- The Advance Landed Cost app creates Value Entries with the Posted Predicted Cost amount against the received item ledger entries.
- The consignment status will be updated to Fully Received once all linked transfer lines are fully received. If you post partial quantities, the consignment status remains Open.
The unit cost used for landed cost calculations on transfer receipts is sourced from the Item Card (Unit Cost), rather than a Direct Unit Cost as with purchases. There is no vendor or purchase cost associated with transfer movements.
View Posted Predicted Cost
In the Transfer Order lines, the Total Item Charge Cost (LCY) field displays the predicted charge cost related to items on that line. You can click on this field to view the Expected Consignment Lines entries posted with the Predicted Cost Amount for each Charge(Item).
The Landed Unit Cost (LCY) field shows the calculated unit cost including predicted charges (Unit Cost + Total Charge Cost / Quantity).
Posted Entries in Consignment Document
From the consignment card, you can view linked Transfer Orders and Posted Transfer Receipts via the Navigation Menu:
• Click Related Documents → Transfer Orders to see linked transfer orders.
• Click Related Posted Documents → Posted Transfer Receipts to see the posted receipt lines linked to this consignment.
Receipt Line Assignment
When assigning receipt lines to a consignment from the consignment card (using the Receipt Lines assignment page), posted transfer receipt lines will appear alongside purchase receipt lines where applicable. You can select and assign individual transfer receipt lines to the consignment, or unassign them.
The assignment page shows transfer receipt lines with:
- Document No. and Line No.
- Item No. and Description
- Location Code (Transfer-to location)
- Quantity and Unit of Measure
- Gross Weight and Unit Volume
Purchase Returns and Undo Receipt
When goods on a consignment-linked receipt are returned or undone, Advanced Landed Cost automatically adjusts the predicted and actual landed costs so that the items remaining on hand carry the correct unit cost.
What happens on a full return or undo receipt
| Step | Effect |
|---|---|
| Predicted cost reversed | The predicted charge posted against the returned receipt is reversed. |
| Receipt deallocated | The receipt line is removed from the consignment and becomes available for other consignments. |
| Costs redistributed | Shared charges are spread across the receipts still on the consignment. |
| Consignment reopened | A Fully Received consignment moves back to Open so replacement receipts can be added. |
After an undo, the reopened purchase order line can be received again and reassigned to the same or a different consignment.
What happens on a partial return
- The receipt stays allocated to the consignment but only the net (non-returned) quantity participates in cost allocation.
- The returned quantity's share of predicted cost is reversed.
- Remaining items are topped up so their unit cost reflects the full landed cost for the quantity still on hand.
Invoicing after a return
When a charge invoice is posted against a consignment that has returned quantities, the actual cost allocation uses the post-return quantities automatically. Consignments with no returns are unaffected.
Add Posted Receipt
Fully returned or undone receipt lines no longer appear in the Add Posted Receipt function — only lines with remaining quantity on hand are available.
Closed Inventory Periods – Limitation
When an inventory period is closed in Business Central, certain correction and reversal processes are restricted by standard system behaviour.
Reversals (e.g. Undo Receipt) use the original posting date of the transaction being reversed. If that original posting date falls within a closed inventory period, Business Central will block the transaction with a standard validation error:
"You cannot post before date because the Inventory Period is already closed. You must re-open the period first."
Workaround Considerations
The only supported approach to perform such corrections is to Re-open the relevant inventory period, perform the correction, then re-close it.