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 an entry 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 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 text of the entry | | **Reference** | The entry's reference, such as the voucher number | | **Expected** | The amount you expect, as long as it is not paid | | **Paid** | The amount paid, usually imported from accounting |
Only **Date** and **Description** are required. If the production is subject to VAT, enter **Expected** and **Paid** as net amounts. A cost item can also have a note, a separate currency for **Expected** and for **Paid**, a tax, a cash flow rule, details for the DFFF (German Federal Film Fund) and attachments.
Select a cost item, and the right panel shows **Cost Item Details**, where you edit it. Select the account, and it shows **Account Details**, which are read-only.
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**. For the account totals, KOSMA converts each amount into the default currency of the set.
Every cost item counts in full towards its account. You cannot set whether it is already part of the account's amount or comes on top.
An example: you enter an invoice with 4,000 under **Expected**. Later you enter 3,850 under **Paid** on the same item. On the account, **Expected** drops by 4,000 and **Paid** rises by 3,850, a net drop of 150. If **Forecast** stays the same, **Free** therefore 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 creates every imported item as paid, with a paid amount and a pay date. See [import accounting data](/kb/article/import-accounting-data).
If your licence does not cover cost control, or the cost control is shared with you read-only, KOSMA greys out  **Cost Item**, and you cannot edit the cells of the items. Point at the greyed-out button to see the reason, for example for a cost control shared read-only:
This dataset was shared with you and cannot be edited. Ask its owner for editing rights.
For what each licence allows, 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. For an imported item, the effects and the tags each come from a column of the accounting file. You set the company once in the import's mapping set, and it applies to every item imported with it. 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 tax's collect-in account (the account where KOSMA collects it) is in the cost control set, KOSMA adds a row to that account. Its **Expected** amount is the tax on the item's amount, less the refundable share. Example: a 10% tax on €1,000, of which 40% is refundable, gives €60 under **Expected**.
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. It is made of the tax, the account of the cost item that triggered it, and that cost item. If you delete the cost item, KOSMA deletes the row with it.
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