Actual landed cost vs standard (planned) cost. Variance signals supply-chain or pricing changes upstream.
At a glance
| What it counts | Actual Unit Cost - Standard Cost per Item (Standard Costing only). Variance > 5% surfaced. Per-SKU. |
| Tax treatment | n/a. |
| Currency | Reporting Currency. |
| Time window | 30D |
| Alert trigger | >5% variance |
| Sentiment key | cost_variance |
| Roles | owner, finance |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Microsoft Dynamics 365 data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
US distributor on BC (Standard Costing on Items). 30D window: ELEC-LAPTOP-A14 standard 15.40 = +8.5% unfavourable variance. Cumulative variance dollars: $32K negative on 26.7K units shipped. Signals procurement or supplier issue.Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair |
|---|---|
| Avg Landed Cost | Cost trend. |
| Margin Erosion Alerts | Downstream impact. |
| Total COGS | Total impact. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in Business Central:Reports > Inventory > Inventory Cost Variance Item Card > StatisticsWhy may differ:
| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Cost vs FIFO/Average | Either | Card requires Items in Standard Costing |