Cost Guard watches the unit costs on your received purchase orders over time and flags suppliers whose prices are creeping up: the quiet margin erosion that is easy to miss when you are only looking at one order at a time. It compares the first and most recent recorded cost per product and surfaces the biggest increases, so you can renegotiate or switch suppliers with the numbers in hand.
Where to find it
Open Cost Guard from the app menu.
How to set it up
Receive purchase orders with unit costs
Cost Guard is built from your own receiving history, so enter the unit cost on each line.Wait for a second received order
A product needs at least two received purchase orders before its cost can be compared over time.Review the list
Products whose cost has risen by 5% or more are listed, biggest rise first, with the supplier and the margin before and after at your current retail price.
Example
A product retails at $20. Your first received order cost $8 (a 60% margin) and the latest cost $9. That is a 12.5% cost rise, and Cost Guard shows the margin falling from 60% to 55%.
Plan required
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