Expense Distribution
Share a month’s bill (rent, power, branding…) over the production entries of the period, into stock cost or into reports only.
Menu: Production → Expense Distribution
Some costs come as one bill for the whole factory: rent for the month, the power bill, maintenance, branding once a year. A production entry can't carry them on the day it is made, because the bill isn't known yet. At month end, an expense distribution shares one such bill over the period's posted production entries.
What happens to a share: the two treatments
| Treatment | Use for | On Apply |
|---|---|---|
| Add to stock cost | Production overheads: factory rent, factory power, maintenance | A voucher is posted. The part of the share for goods still in stock raises the item's cost price; the part for goods already sold goes to cost of sales. |
| Report only | Admin and selling costs: head office, branding, marketing | Nothing is posted and no cost changes. The share is added to the entries' full cost in the cost summary and the reports. |
The steps
- Click New Expense Distribution.
- Enter the Date and the period: Period from / Period to.
- Choose the Expense type *. Its Treatment and Basis fill in; change them for this document if needed.
- Optionally limit the targets with Item (all when empty), Machine (all when empty) or Job order (all when empty).
- Check the Amounts (below).
- Click Load targets: the period's posted production entries are listed with each one's share.
- Click Save draft to keep it, or Apply to post it (Apply saves first). Confirm.
The amounts: bill, already charged, to distribute
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Bill | The period's total on the expense type's accounts in your branch (debits less credits; cancelled vouchers and the vouchers of production entries and distributions are left out). The line Bill by account shows each account. You can type another figure, for example a yearly bill's monthly part. |
| Already charged on entries | What the period's posted production entries already charged to those accounts on their Expenses tab (for example electricity added with Add electricity). |
| To distribute * | Bill − already charged, less anything an earlier applied distribution of the same expense type already shared for an overlapping period. You can change it. |
So nothing is charged twice. When an earlier distribution exists, a warning says Already distributed for this expense type and period: 1,000.00.
Targets and bases
Load targets lists every posted production entry of the period (and of the filters): Production entry, Date, Item, Output, Basis value, Share % and Share amount. Each entry's share = to distribute × its basis value ÷ the total of the basis values. Shares are rounded to 2 decimals and always add up exactly to the amount.
| Basis | Basis value of an entry |
|---|---|
| Output quantity | Quantity produced |
| Machine hours | Hours on its Machines tab |
| Labour hours | Hours on its Labour tab |
| Material value | Value of its materials |
| Production cost | Its book cost |
| Typed share | None: type each Share amount; they must add up to the amount to distribute |
With Add to stock cost, four more columns show how each share splits:
- Produced — the item's output on this distribution's entries;
- On hand — the item's stock now, in all branches;
- To stock = share × on hand ÷ produced (at most the whole share);
- To cost of sales = the rest.
These are worked out again with the stock at the moment you click Apply. If you change the period or a filter, load the targets again (The period or filters changed: load the targets again).
Worked example: October factory rent
Expense type RENT: Add to stock cost, basis Output quantity, account 5201 Factory rent. In October, 5201 was debited 1,200. Two production entries were posted in October:
| Entry | Item | Output | Notes | On hand now | Cost price now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASM-0045 | KIT-1 | 100 | — | 60 (40 sold) | 16.9333 |
| ASM-0052 | KIT-2 | 300 | Expense line of 200 on 5201 | 300 | 5.0000 |
Amounts: Bill 1,200.00; Already charged on entries 200.00 (KIT-2's line); To distribute 1,000.00.
Load targets, basis Output quantity (100 + 300 = 400):
| Production entry | Date | Item | Output | Basis value | Share % | Share amount | Produced | On hand | To stock | To cost of sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASM-0045 | 14/10/2026 | KIT-1 | 100 | 100 | 25.00 | 250.00 | 100 | 60 | 150.00 | 100.00 |
| ASM-0052 | 22/10/2026 | KIT-2 | 300 | 300 | 75.00 | 750.00 | 300 | 300 | 750.00 | 0.00 |
| Total | 1,000.00 | 900.00 | 100.00 |
October rent shared by output quantity, with the stock / cost of sales split
Apply asks Apply this distribution? A voucher is posted and the cost price of the items still in stock goes up. → Yes. The voucher:
| Dr / Cr | Account | Amount | In plain words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr | 1301 Inventory (KIT-1) | 150.00 | The 60 kits still on the shelf take their part of the rent |
| Dr | 5001 Cost of goods sold (KIT-1) | 100.00 | The 40 kits already sold: their part of the rent is a cost of those sales |
| Dr | 1301 Inventory (KIT-2) | 750.00 | All 300 KIT-2 are still on hand |
| Cr | 5201 Factory rent | 1,000.00 | The rent expense moves out of the period's expenses into the products |
Cost prices: KIT-1 16.9333 + 150 ÷ 60 = 19.4333. KIT-2 5.0000 + 750 ÷ 300 = 7.5000. The distribution shows Applied.
The other 200 of the bill was already in KIT-2's book cost, from its expense line. In total, the full 1,200 of October's rent is now in product costs: 900 in stock, 100 in cost of sales, 200 through the KIT-2 entry.
- When the expense type has several accounts, the amount is credited to them in proportion to each account's bill (evenly when none has a bill).
- The cost of sales account is the item's own, or the fallback in Production Settings.
- When no item has an inventory account, the cost price changes without a voucher. If some do and some don't, Apply is refused and names the item.
- A new RENT distribution for October now shows the warning and To distribute 0.00.
A report-only example: branding
Branding is paid once a year (9,600) and is a selling cost. Expense type BRAND: Report only, basis Output quantity, Admin or selling cost ticked. For October, type To distribute 800.00 (a twelfth), load targets: KIT-1 200.00, KIT-2 600.00. Apply asks Apply this distribution? Report only: nothing is posted; the shares are added to the entries' full cost.
Nothing changes in the accounts or the cost prices. KIT-1's entry now shows: book cost 1,693.33 + distributed to stock 250.00 + report-only share 200.00 = full cost 2,143.33, 21.43 per kit.
Cancel a distribution
- A draft: Cancel distribution → Cancel this draft? It is marked Cancelled.
- An applied one: Cancel this distribution? Its voucher is cancelled and the items' cost price goes back by the same amount per unit. In the example, KIT-1 goes back 2.50 (to 16.9333) and KIT-2 2.50 (to 5.0000), and the shares leave the entries' full cost. The status becomes Cancelled.
- Only the latest applied distribution of an expense type for a period can be cancelled. If a later one overlaps, cancel that one first: … cancel distribution DST-0009 first (applied later for this expense type and period).
- Only a draft can be changed. To correct an applied distribution, cancel it and make a new one.
The list
The Expense Distribution list shows Doc No, Date, Period, Expense type, Treatment, Basis, Amount and Status (Draft Applied Cancelled). Click a row to open it.
Share the month's rent over production
This video will show: the bill and what entries already charged, loading the targets, the split between stock and cost of sales, applying, a report-only branding share, and cancelling.