What a cost item is – Cost Control

What a cost item isCost ControlYou know what a cost item records and how it moves an account from Expected to Paid.A **cost item** is one booking against one account: an invoice, a quote, an estimate, a payment. Accounts carry the plan; cost items carry what actually happened.What it holds| Field | What it is | | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Date** | the entry date — when the item was booked | | **Description** | the booking text | | **Reference** | the booking reference from accounting | | **Expected** | the amount before it is paid — net, if you are subject to VAT | | **Paid** | the amount actually paid — also net | | **Pay Date** | the payment date |Both amounts are **net** where the production reclaims VAT. Entering gross figures inflates every total in the set and breaks the comparison against a budget that is itself net.How it moves an accountA cost item counts towards its account's **Expected** while it has no paid amount, and towards **Paid** once it has one. That single transition is the module's heartbeat: an item booked at an Expected 4,000 becomes a settled item of Paid 3,850 the moment you give it a paid amount and a pay date.Nothing else has to be updated. The account's Expected drops, its Paid rises, its Free adjusts — see [mark a cost item as paid](/kb/article/mark-a-cost-item-as-paid).Where they come fromTwo routes, and most productions use both:- **By hand**, in the Cost Items panel under an account — for a quote you have just accepted or a commitment you want visible before an invoice exists — see [add a cost item by hand](/kb/article/add-a-cost-item-by-hand). - **From accounting**, imported in bulk each period. This is where paid amounts and payment dates normally come from — see [import accounting data](/kb/article/import-accounting-data).Each one is inside the account, or on top of itEvery cost item carries a checkbox deciding whether it counts **inside** the account's value or is **added on top** of it. It changes what the account totals, so it is worth understanding before you book many items — see [include or add a cost item](/kb/article/include-or-add-a-cost-item).They can be classifiedA cost item can carry effects, companies and tags of its own, which is how an imported booking keeps the classification your accounting system already has. The import maps those columns for you.Some cost items KOSMA writes itselfNot every cost item is imported or typed. **KOSMA emits one of its own for the tax collected on another cost item or on a markup item.**An emitted row belongs to the row that caused it, which is what you see if you delete that source: the tax row goes with it. Nothing is wrong — there is no longer anything for it to be the tax on.Markdown