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Cost of weighted average manufactured parts on customer order line

  • September 2, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 8 views

Vernon Anderson
Sidekick (Employee)
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All, I have a costing question or two.  

The item being manufactured is a manufactured sales part that is weighted average costed by lot batch.  As you know with weighted average costed parts, the true cost isn't really known until the shop order is finished.  However, when I enter a customer order line, the cost field of the line is zero initially, so they have no way of knowing if there is a projected profit or loss.  What I did discover is that the estimated material value of the manufactured sales part is loaded onto the customer order line.  But when you calculate the cost set 2 or 5 of the manufactured part and then copy the result to cost set 1 and select to update the estimated material cost of the inventory part, the manufactured estimated material value cost is not updated.  Also, the unit cost of the "*" lot   is NOT updated.   So my question is in 2 parts:

  1.   how do we get the cost of a weighted average part to appear on the customer order line

 

2.  How do we get the cost from cost set 1 to appear as the cost of the manufactured part to appear on the customer order line???

 

1 reply

Jinal
Sidekick (Partner)
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  • Sidekick (Partner)
  • September 2, 2026

Here's how the Estimated Material Cost / Customer Order line cost mechanism works for weighted-average, lot-costed manufactured parts.

1. Where the Customer Order line cost actually comes from

The CO line doesn't read the "real" weighted average unit cost — since that genuinely doesn't exist until the shop order closes. It reads the Estimated Material Cost field (cost element 110) on the Inventory Part Unit Cost record. That field is specifically designed as a placeholder so you can see a projected cost/margin before the actual costing happens.

The Update Estimated Material Cost engine can refresh that field from Latest Purchase Price or Average Purchase Price, but those two options only apply to purchased parts. For a manufactured part, the intended path is: Calculate Cost on cost set 2 or 5 → Copy Costs to Cost Set 1, with the option to also update the inventory part's estimated material cost.

2. Why Copy Costs to Cost Set 1 isn't updating it

Copy Costs to Cost Set One, the cost set estimated material cost of cost set 1 is replaced with the source cost set's value, and separately — if "Update Estimated Material Cost in Inventory Part" is selected — the estimated material cost of the inventory part itself is updated.

The catch, is that this only works if the source cost set (2 or 5) already has a value entered in the "Cost Set Estimated Material Cost" field on the Part Cost / Part Cost Details tab. Running Calculate Cost populates the rolled-up unit cost (material/labor/overhead buckets), but it does not automatically populate this separate "Cost Set Estimated Material Cost" field — it has to be set independently before you copy. If it's blank on the source cost set, the copy carries over zero and overwrites whatever value was previously there.

3. Why the "*" lot specifically isn't updating

The automatic inventory value recalculation during the copy is explicitly scoped to parts with inventory valuation method set to Standard Cost and inventory part cost level set to Cost Per Part. Weighted Average / Cost per Lot Batch falls outside that scope, so it looks like the copy process's inventory-value update path isn't designed to cascade into lot-level WAC records the same way. For those, the "*" lot's unit cost likely needs to be set directly via the Modify Level Cost Details function on the Inventory Part Unit Cost page.

Suggested sequence

  1. Run Calculate Cost (or Calculate Standard Cost) for the part on cost set 2 or 5.
  2. On the Part Cost / Part Cost Details tab for that cost set, check the "Cost Set Estimated Material Cost" field. If it's zero, enter the calculated unit cost there directly — Calculate Cost doesn't populate this field on its own.
  3. Run Copy Costs to Cost Set One, making sure "Update Estimated Material Cost in Inventory Part" is selected.
  4. Check the Inventory Part Unit Cost record for the "*" lot. If it's still zero, use Modify Level Cost Details to set it directly, given the WAC/Cost per Lot Batch scoping noted above.
  5. Re-check the customer order line — it should now pull the non-zero Estimated Material Cost.