Frequently Asked Questions

Landed cost is the total price of getting a product from your supplier to your warehouse, ready for sale. It includes your product cost, international freight, customs duties, insurance, and handling fees: everything it takes to get goods onto your shelf.

For most importers, landed cost is 20-40% higher than the supplier invoice price. If you're pricing products based only on what your supplier charges, you're likely understating your true costs.

Landed cost includes six main components: product cost, freight, customs duty, insurance, customs clearance fees, and handling/delivery charges.

Missing any of these components means your product costs are understated.

To calculate landed cost, add all costs from supplier to warehouse: product cost + freight + duty + insurance + clearance fees + handling.

The formula per unit:

Landed Cost Per Unit = (Product Cost + All Import Costs) ÷ Quantity

Example: If you buy 1,000 units at $10 each ($10,000), pay $1,200 freight, $800 duty, and $400 in other fees, your landed cost is $12,400 ÷ 1,000 = $12.40 per unit (not $10.00).

Try our free landed cost calculators to calculate your per-unit costs instantly, no signup required.

FOB (Free On Board) is the price at the supplier's port; landed cost is the total price including all costs to get goods to your warehouse.

If your supplier quotes $10 FOB, your landed cost will typically be $12-$14 once all import costs are added.

CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight) includes product cost, insurance, and freight to the destination port. Landed cost adds customs duty, clearance fees, and delivery to your warehouse.

CIF gets goods to the port. Landed cost gets goods to your shelf, ready to sell. See our detailed comparison: CIF vs Landed Cost.

Landara is perpetual FIFO cost of goods sold for Shopify. It syncs your Shopify orders and costs every sale using FIFO (or moving average), then produces a bookkeeper-ready journal (Dr COGS / Cr Inventory) and posts it to Xero or QuickBooks for you, on your command, or hands you a CSV. Shopify keeps tracking quantity; Landara adds the accurate cost layer on top.

The accuracy comes from landed cost: Landara uses AI to extract freight and duty from your invoices and rolls those costs into each inventory layer, so your COGS reflects what goods really cost to land, not a rough average. It's a lightweight replacement for the COGS side of Shopify Stocky, which is end of life.

Yes. This is a core feature of Landara. Real import shipments often involve multiple cost documents from different vendors: a freight forwarder invoice, a customs broker bill, a delivery charge, and more.

In Landara, you create a shipment from your purchase order, then attach as many extra cost documents as you need. Each document is processed by AI independently, and all costs are combined when you run your landed cost calculation.

AI document extraction uses a two-stage pipeline: Microsoft Azure Document Intelligence reads your documents with high-accuracy OCR, then xAI Grok structures the extracted text into usable data. Our system extracts:

• Vendor/supplier name
• Invoice number and date
• Line items with descriptions
• Individual cost amounts
• Currency (AUD, USD, EUR, etc.)
• Cost type classification (freight, duty, insurance, clearance)

Each extracted field includes a confidence score (0-100%). Low-confidence items are flagged for your review, and you can correct any mistakes before proceeding. Your corrections help improve future extractions.

Landara supports a variety of document formats:

For best results, ensure your documents are clear and legible. The AI handles varying formats from different freight forwarders and customs brokers, but higher quality images yield higher confidence scores.

Yes. Landara's AI extraction works with documents in any language, including German, Maltese, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, French, Italian, and more. Our two-stage pipeline (Azure OCR + AI structuring) handles multilingual text natively.

Vendor names and descriptions are preserved in their original language, while cost categories and data structure are normalized to English for consistent processing and reporting.

No, connecting accounting software is optional. You can use Landara in two ways:

1. With Xero connected: Upload documents, calculate landed costs, then publish your original invoices directly to Xero as bills.
2. Standalone mode: Upload POs and freight invoices for AI extraction. Calculate landed costs and export results to CSV.

Connecting Xero unlocks publishing - push your original documents to accounting as bills once calculations are complete. Learn more about our Xero integration.

Landara does one job well: it costs the Shopify inventory you buy and resell, using the movements Shopify reports. A few common setups fall outside that, and we'd rather tell you up front:

Multiple stores sharing one inventory pool. Landara costs each store's own Shopify movements on their own. If several storefronts draw down a single shared stock pool, a full inventory system (Cin7, Unleashed, Katana) is the better fit.

Other channels selling the same stock. Landara costs the orders Shopify reports. If the same inventory also sells on Amazon, eBay, or wholesale, those sales deplete stock outside Shopify, so your COGS would be incomplete. You'd want a multichannel IMS.

Manufacturing from raw materials. Landara doesn't handle bills of materials, assembly, or work in progress, so turning raw materials into finished goods needs a manufacturing or MRP tool like Katana.

You already run a full IMS. If you already run Cin7, Unleashed, DEAR, or similar, that system already tracks inventory cost and COGS, and Landara would overlap with it rather than add anything.

Landara supports allocation by value (recommended) and by quantity, with weight-based allocation coming soon. Here's how each works:

1. Allocation by Value (Recommended Default)

Costs are distributed proportionally based on each line item's dollar value relative to the total PO value.

allocated_cost = total_cost × (line_value / po_total_value)

Example:
- Total freight cost: $1,000
- PO Total value: $10,000
- Line item A value: $4,000 (40%)
- Line item B value: $6,000 (60%)

Allocation:
- Line A gets: $1,000 × 0.40 = $400
- Line B gets: $1,000 × 0.60 = $600

2. Allocation by Quantity

Costs are distributed equally based on the number of units, regardless of their individual value.

allocated_cost = total_cost × (line_qty / po_total_qty)

Example:
- Total freight cost: $500
- PO Total quantity: 100 units
- Line item A: 40 units (40%)
- Line item B: 60 units (60%)

Allocation:
- Line A gets: $500 × 0.40 = $200
- Line B gets: $500 × 0.60 = $300

The right allocation method depends on your cost type:

Choosing the right allocation method directly impacts your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) and gross margins for each product. Incorrect allocation can lead to:

• Mispriced products: Setting selling prices based on inaccurate unit costs
• Margin blindness: Not knowing which products are actually profitable
• Tax issues: Incorrect inventory valuation for tax purposes
• Audit problems: Inconsistent methodology that can not be defended

Yes, weight-based and volume-based allocation are on our roadmap for v2.0. These methods are particularly useful for:

• Sea freight: Often charged by weight or cubic meter
• Air freight: Typically charged by dimensional or actual weight
• Mixed shipments: Heavy vs. bulky items with different shipping characteristics

To use weight-based allocation, you'll need product weight data. This can be entered manually or pulled from Xero inventory items if you store it there.

Absolutely! Landara allows you to set allocation methods independently for each cost category. A typical configuration might be:

You can also save your preferred configuration as an Allocation Preset to reuse for future calculations, saving time on repetitive shipments.

Landara uses flat, seatless pricing. You pay one price for your whole team, and the COGS tiers are sized by how many Shopify orders you sell each month:

Pricing is flat and seatless, never per seat and never per order. Add as many team members as you like on any plan; you only move up a tier when your Shopify order volume grows.

Nearly everything. The free plan is not a crippled trial and it has no time limit:

• A full perpetual FIFO cost ledger against every Shopify order, fulfilment and return, up to 250 orders a month
• COGS report and inventory valuation, plus reconcile against your Shopify on-hand
• Stocktake with barcode scanning, up to 25 counted lines per count
• Landed cost calculations: AI extraction of freight and duty, allocated per SKU, 10 a month
• Shopify, Xero and QuickBooks connections
• CSV export of everything, and it keeps working even after you cancel

What the free plan cannot do is post and automate: paid plans add posting journals into Xero or QuickBooks (COGS, revaluation, write-down and shrinkage), automatic journals on each Shopify payout, unlimited calculations and stocktake lines, and stocktake filters by collection. On the free plan you can still see every number, check it, and export it.

No credit card required to sign up, and no time limit, so sitting on the free plan costs you nothing and does not use up the 30-day trial on a paid plan.

Neither. Landara is flat and seatless. You pay one price for your whole team, and you are never charged per order.

• No per-seat fees: Invite as many team members as you like on any plan. The price does not change
• No per-order fees: The COGS tiers include a monthly Shopify order allowance (500 / 2,000 / 10,000); you only move up a tier as your volume grows

Your Shopify and accounting connections, documents, and COGS history are shared across everyone on the account, making collaboration seamless without adding cost.

Better than that. The Free plan has no time limit, so you can keep a full FIFO cost ledger, run the COGS report and export everything for as long as you like. Paid plans then add a 30-day free trial, deliberately long enough to cover a whole month end close before you pay anything.

That gives you time to connect Xero or QuickBooks, cost real orders, and check our number against your accountant's before committing. If you don't upgrade, you simply stay on the free plan and keep your history.

Payments are processed through the Shopify App Store as part of your Shopify subscription. Supported methods include:

• All major credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex)
• PayPal

Shopify handles billing and invoicing automatically as part of your Shopify subscription. Charges appear on your regular Shopify invoice.

Yes, you can cancel anytime with no cancellation fees. When you cancel:

• You keep access until the end of your billing period
• Your data is retained for 30 days after expiry
• You can export your calculation history before leaving
• You can downgrade to free tier instead of canceling

Live now:

• Shopify - Syncs your orders and inventory so Landara can cost every sale with perpetual FIFO (or moving average)
• Xero - Full integration (publish POs and bills, sync contacts, export landed costs)
• QuickBooks Online - Publish POs and bills, attach originals

Coming soon:

• Google Sheets - Direct export to your spreadsheets

Landara produces the period COGS journal (Dr COGS / Cr Inventory) and posts it to Xero or QuickBooks for you, on your command, or hands you a CSV. You always control when it posts.

When you connect Xero, Landara can publish documents to your accounting:

• Create Bills: Push your freight invoices and extra cost documents as bills in Xero
• Create Purchase Orders: Push uploaded POs to Xero if not already there
• Attach Documents: Original PDFs attached to the created transactions
• Sync Contacts: Match or create supplier contacts

Landara is the source of truth for your import documents. You upload here first, then publish to Xero when ready.

Your original documents - not calculated data. This is an important distinction:

• What we publish: Your actual freight invoices and extra cost documents become Bills in Xero, with the original PDF attached
• What we DON'T publish: The calculated landed costs per unit. Those stay in Landara for your reports and exports

You export the landed cost calculations separately to CSV or Google Sheets for inventory valuation and pricing decisions.

Yes! Landara works perfectly in standalone mode:

1. Upload freight invoices - AI extracts costs automatically
2. Enter PO details manually or upload a CSV with your line items
3. Review allocation and calculate landed costs
4. Export results to CSV

This is ideal for businesses not yet using Xero, or for one-off calculations where you don't want to connect your accounting system.

Yes. QuickBooks Online works the same way as Xero:

• Publish Purchase Orders to QBO
• Publish Bills from your freight invoices
• Attach original documents to transactions
• Export landed cost and COGS data

As with Xero, Landara posts the COGS journal to QuickBooks for you when you choose, or hands you a CSV. It never posts to your books without your say-so; you control the timing.

Shopify integration is live. Landara connects to your store, and Shopify stays the source of truth for quantity while Landara adds the cost layer on top:

• Syncs your Shopify orders and inventory automatically
• Costs every order with perpetual FIFO (or moving average)
• Rolls your landed cost (freight + duty) into each cost layer
• Produces a ready-to-post COGS journal for Xero or QuickBooks

AI extraction achieves 90-98% accuracy on standard freight invoices, with every field showing a confidence score so you can verify uncertain items. Accuracy varies based on:

Every extracted field shows a confidence score. Fields below 80% are highlighted for your review. You always have the final say before costs are used in calculations.

You can easily correct any extraction errors:

1. Review the extracted data in our verification screen
2. Click any field to edit the value
3. Add missing line items or delete incorrect ones
4. Confirm the corrected data before proceeding

Your corrections improve future extractions from the same supplier format, making the system smarter over time.

If extraction fails completely (rare), you have several options:

• Re-upload: Try a higher quality scan or photo
• Manual entry: Enter the costs directly into our form
• Contact support: We can investigate specific document formats

No. We only count successful extractions against your monthly limit. If an extraction fails:

• It does not reduce your extraction count
• You can retry with a better quality document
• Partial extractions (some fields extracted) do count, but you can edit/complete them

The AI performs best on typical commercial freight documents:

• Freight forwarder invoices (sea/air)
• Customs broker statements
• Shipping line invoices
• Duty and tax assessments
• Insurance certificates with premiums

Tips for best results:

• PDF exports are better than scans
• Avoid photographing documents at an angle
• Ensure all text is readable
• Include the full document (headers and totals help validation)

Yes. All data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256), with row-level security ensuring users only access their own data. Additional measures include:

• Encryption in transit: All data encrypted with TLS 1.3
• Encryption at rest: Database and files encrypted with AES-256
• Row Level Security: Database policies ensure users only access their own data
• No service key bypass: We don't use admin keys that bypass security
• OAuth 2.0: Secure authentication with Xero (never stores your Xero password)

Landara uses a three-stage AI pipeline, each handling a different part of document processing:

Important: Your original documents are only sent to Azure for OCR. xAI and OpenAI only receive extracted text, never your original document images. None of these providers use your data for model training.

Azure Document Intelligence is GDPR, ISO 27018, ISO 27701, and HIPAA compliant. Data is processed in the AU East region and automatically deleted within 24 hours.

Your data is stored on infrastructure provided by:

Supabase and Vercel are SOC 2 compliant with enterprise-grade security. Your permanent data (documents, calculations, account info) is stored in Supabase. AI providers only retain data temporarily for processing.

Yes, but with your control. Uploaded documents are stored to:

• Allow you to review extractions later
• Provide audit trail for your calculations
• Enable re-processing if needed

You can delete individual documents or your entire account at any time. Documents are stored in encrypted Supabase Storage with access controlled by your user credentials.

Yes. You have full control over your data:

• Delete individual documents: Remove specific uploads
• Delete calculations: Remove saved calculations
• Disconnect integrations: Revoke Xero access
• Delete account: Complete data removal within 30 days

Account deletion removes all your data from our systems, including backups, within 30 days.

Yes. We comply with GDPR requirements:

• Right to access: Export all your data anytime
• Right to deletion: Delete your account and all data
• Data minimization: We only collect necessary data
• Consent: Clear consent for data processing
• Data Processing Agreement: Available for business customers

Shopify handles all billing and payment data in a GDPR-compliant manner as part of the Shopify App Store.

Landara calculates landed costs using a clear, auditable formula:

For each line item in your Purchase Order:

1. Base Cost = Unit Price × Quantity

2. For each cost type (freight, duty, insurance, etc.):
   If allocation method = "By Value":
     Allocated Cost = Total Cost × (Line Value / PO Total Value)

   If allocation method = "By Quantity":
     Allocated Cost = Total Cost × (Line Qty / PO Total Qty)

3. Total Landed Cost = Base Cost + Sum(All Allocated Costs)

4. Landed Unit Cost = Total Landed Cost / Quantity

Example Calculation

Purchase Order with 2 line items and $1,200 in freight costs:

Widget A: ($1,000 + $480) / 100 = $14.80 per unit (48% markup)
Widget B: ($1,500 + $720) / 50 = $44.40 per unit (48% markup)

Landara combines costs from all documents linked to a shipment into a single landed cost calculation. Here's how it works:

1. Upload your purchase order. AI extracts line items and any embedded costs (e.g., shipping charges on the PO itself)
2. Upload additional cost documents: freight invoices, customs bills, broker statements, delivery receipts
3. AI extracts and categorises costs from each document independently (freight, duty, clearance, insurance, other)
4. When you calculate, all costs are pooled by category and allocated across your PO line items using your chosen method

Yes. Saved calculations can be:

• Viewed: See full breakdown anytime
• Duplicated: Copy as starting point for new calculation
• Adjusted: Modify costs, allocation methods, or line items
• Re-exported: Generate new exports with updated data

Each edit creates a new version, preserving your audit trail. You can view the history of changes for any calculation.

Landara supports multiple export formats:

CSV exports include all line items with complete cost breakdowns, suitable for import into any system that accepts CSV.

Unlimited, on every plan including free. Nothing expires and nothing is deleted.

This matters more than it sounds. A FIFO cost ledger works by replaying every movement in order, so its accuracy compounds with the length of its history. Deleting a free user's history would quietly break the very number they came for.

FIFO (First In, First Out) COGS means the first stock you bought is the first stock counted as sold. Landara builds a cost layer each time you receive inventory, at your true landed cost including freight and duty, then draws down those layers in order as Shopify orders ship.

Because Landara syncs your Shopify orders, every sale is costed automatically against the correct layers. You always know your real cost of goods sold, not a rough average or a last-known price.

Yes. Landara is a lightweight replacement for the COGS side of Shopify Stocky. Stocky is end of life (delisted in February 2026, with shutdown on 31 August 2026), leaving Shopify sellers without a built-in way to track cost of goods sold.

Landara fills that gap without forcing you into a full inventory platform. Shopify keeps tracking quantity; Landara costs every order with perpetual FIFO (or moving average) and produces a bookkeeper-ready journal. It's life after Stocky without a rip-and-replace migration.

Yes, on your command. Landara produces the period COGS journal (Dr COGS / Cr Inventory) and posts it to Xero or QuickBooks for you when you tell it to, or hands you a CSV. It never posts silently or without your say-so.

This keeps you in control of your books and your period-end close: Landara does the FIFO maths that Shopify and a spreadsheet can't, then posts the journal on your timing, or exports it if you'd rather post it yourself.

Landara supports both. The right choice depends on your accounting method and your stock:

FIFO gives the most accurate per-order COGS when your landed costs change between shipments. If you're unsure, FIFO is the common default for importers.

COGS plans are sized by how many Shopify orders you sell each month, never charged per order and never per seat.

Pick the tier that fits your current volume and move up only as you grow. Everyone on your team is included at no extra cost.