This article explains how to use the 'Enter product costs monthly' feature in Link My Books. This is particularly useful if your product costs change frequently.
Why Enter Product Costs in Link My Books?
You only need to enter product costs in Link My Books if you're using one of these features:
Our Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) tracking feature.
Our Amazon Month End Inventory reports.
How to Enter Product Costs
Link My Books offers two main ways to enter your product costs:
Enter product costs as an average: This method is covered in a separate help article.
Enter product costs monthly: This article focuses on this option.
Why Use the Monthly Product Cost Option?
The 'Enter product costs monthly' option is a great fit if:
Your product costs fluctuate month-to-month.
You want to ensure your settlements are only posted to your bookkeeping system once the correct costs for that specific month have been entered.
How the Monthly Product Costs Feature Works
When you choose to enter your product costs monthly, Link My Books will only mark a settlement as "ready to send" to your accounting platform once its corresponding costs for that month have been uploaded.
For example, if you've entered costs for January, February, and March, but not yet for April, then only settlements from January, February, and March would be eligible for posting. Settlements from April would show a status of "missing product costs" until their data is provided.
This feature works seamlessly with our AutoPost feature. When 'Enter product costs monthly' is active, you can turn on AutoPost with confidence, knowing that settlements will only be posted to your bookkeeping platform once the costs for their respective month are fully entered.
How to Turn On the Monthly Product Costs Feature
Follow these steps to enable and use the monthly product costs feature:
Enable the Setting:
In Link My Books, go to Settings > Settlement Settings. Under the 'Cost of Goods Sold' tab, tick the 'Enter product costs monthly' option.
Access Monthly Upload:
Navigate to Inventory > Product Costs in Link My Books. You'll now be able to use the bulk upload option to select a specific month for cost entry.
Monitor Month Status:
On this page, you'll see a visual indicator for each month:
Months shown in green have had costs entered.
Months shown in red have not yet had costs entered.
Upload Monthly Costs:
Download your product file for the month in question.
Enter your costs directly into the downloaded file.
Save it as a CSV file.
Upload the CSV file back into Link My Books, ensuring you select the correct month.
Your newly uploaded costs will be assigned to all settlements dated for the month you chose, and those settlements will then be marked as ready to send. If you have our AutoPost feature enabled, no further action is required once your costs are uploaded – your settlements will automatically refresh and post to your bookkeeping platform.
If you have any questions about this article or feedback on how we could make it better please reach out to the support team via the blue chat icon on the bottom right of the page or via email to [email protected].