Cost Control
You know what a cost item holds, when it counts as Expected or Paid, and which tax rows KOSMA adds on its own.
A cost item is one booking on an account in cost control, such as an invoice, a quote, an estimate or a payment. Its amounts make up the **Expected** and **Paid** totals of the account.
Select an account in the cost control grid. KOSMA opens the **Cost Items** tab directly under its row, with the columns **Date**, **Reference**, **Description**, **Expected**, **Paid**, **Pay Date** and **Details**.
| Column | What it holds | | --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | | **Date** | The day the item was entered | | **Pay Date** | The day the item was paid, usually imported from accounting | | **Description** | The booking text | | **Reference** | The booking reference | | **Expected** | The amount you expect, as long as it is not paid | | **Paid** | The amount paid, usually imported from accounting |
You must fill in only **Date** and **Description**. If the production is subject to VAT, enter **Expected** and **Paid** as net amounts. A cost item can also have a note, its own currency for each amount, a tax, a cash flow rule, DFFF details and attachments.
When you select a cost item, the right panel shows **Cost Item Details**, where you edit the item. When you select the account, the panel shows **Account Details**, which you can only read.
A cost item without a paid amount counts towards the account's **Expected**. Once it has a paid amount, it counts towards **Paid**, and KOSMA no longer counts its expected amount. **Pay Date** does not affect this: an item with a pay date and no paid amount stays in **Expected**. KOSMA converts each amount from the item's currency.
Every cost item counts in full towards its account. There is no setting that puts an item inside the account's value or on top of it.
An example: you book an invoice with an **Expected** of 4,000. Later you enter a **Paid** of 3,850 on the same item. On the account, **Expected** drops by 4,000 and **Paid** rises by 3,850. If the forecast of the account stays the same, **Free** rises by 150. For the steps, see [mark a cost item as paid](/kb/article/mark-a-cost-item-as-paid). For how KOSMA calculates the money columns of an account, see [read the six money columns](/kb/article/read-the-six-money-columns).
You add a cost item in one of two ways:
- By hand: in the **Cost Items** tab, click  **Cost Item**. See [add a cost item by hand](/kb/article/add-a-cost-item-by-hand). - By import from accounting: KOSMA books every imported item as paid, with a paid amount and a pay date. An imported item never appears in **Expected** first. See [import accounting data](/kb/article/import-accounting-data).
If your licence does not cover cost control, or someone shared the cost control with you for reading only, KOSMA greys out  **Cost Item**, and you cannot edit the cells of the items. When you point at the greyed-out button, KOSMA shows the reason. For what each licence lets you edit, see [what your licence includes](/kb/article/what-your-licence-includes).
A cost item can have its own effects, companies and tags, chosen from those of the budget. An item imported from accounting keeps the classification it had there. In an import mapping set, the effects and the tags each come from a spreadsheet column. You set the company once in the mapping set, and it applies to every item the set imports. See [set up an import mapping set](/kb/article/set-up-an-import-mapping-set).
KOSMA creates some cost items itself. If a cost item has a tax, and the collect-in account of that tax is in the cost control set, KOSMA adds a row to that account. The row has an **Expected** amount: the tax on the item's amount, less the refundable share of the tax. If the account of the item, or one of its subaccounts, already has a tax, KOSMA adds no row. The same applies to a cost item of a markup. For how a tax is collected on an account, see [how collect-in accounts work](/kb/article/how-collect-in-accounts-work).
You recognise such a row by its name, made of the tax, the account of the source item and the source item. If you delete the source item, KOSMA deletes the generated row with it.
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