Epicor Kinetic Costing Workbench: Part Cost, Rollup and Material Burden
epicor kinetic costing workbench
Also searched as
- epicor kinetic cost rollup
- epicor material burden
- epicor kinetic part cost
- epicor financial reviews and best practices
Short answer
In Epicor Kinetic, part cost is held in cost buckets (material, labor, burden, subcontract, material burden) per costing method. The Costing Workbench is where you view and maintain those costs, and a cost rollup walks the bill of materials and routing to compute a standard cost from lower levels. Material burden is a percentage or amount added on top of material cost, set in costing configuration rather than on the BOM.
Applies to: Epicor Kinetic and Epicor ERP 10.x; costing methods Standard, Average, FIFO, Lot and Actual. Menu names vary slightly by release, so use the menu search.
Review and roll up cost in a controlled way
- 1Confirm the costing method for the part and plant (Part Maintenance, Plant tab or equivalent costing fields). Rollup updates standard cost, so it matters most for Standard costed parts.
- 2Open the Costing Workbench from the menu search. Select the part and review each cost bucket against what you expect.
- 3Verify inputs first: BOM quantities and scrap, routing times, resource group rates and burden rates, and purchasing cost on the supplier price list.
- 4Run the cost rollup for the part or a range, choosing the cost type and level options offered. Do this on a copy or a pending cost record before you commit when your release supports it.
- 5Review the variance between current and rolled-up cost, sorted by largest change. Investigate anything above your threshold before accepting.
- 6Apply the new standard cost at a period boundary to keep inventory valuation clean, and note the date and reason.
- 7Reconcile with the cost reports and the GL inventory accounts after the change.
How the cost buckets fit together
Each part carries separate cost components: material, labor, burden, subcontract and material burden. A rolled-up cost is the sum of the lower-level material and the operation costs on the routing, which come from resource and resource group rates.
Labor and burden cost per operation depend on setup and run times and the rates on the resource. Bad times on a routing produce wrong standard cost long before any costing setting is at fault.
Subcontract cost comes from outside-service operations on the routing. If those are missing, finished goods cost looks too low.
Material burden
Material burden recovers handling or purchasing overhead as a charge on material. It is applied on top of material cost and tracked as its own component so you can report it separately.
Check the burden rate and basis in your costing configuration, and confirm which parts or classes it applies to. A common error is a burden rate present on some part classes but not others, which makes similar parts look inconsistent.
A cost review routine
Good practice is a repeating review rather than a one-off cleanup. Monthly, list parts whose purchase price differs from standard by more than a set percentage, parts with zero cost, and parts with large unfavorable variances.
Quarterly, roll up a sample of top-value assemblies in a test scenario and compare. Annually, re-time routings and refresh resource rates. Document each change so auditors and finance can follow the trail.
Tie the review to your close. If standards change mid-period, revaluation and variance entries follow, so schedule the change deliberately.
Try it here, free
Epicor Resource Group Burden Rate Calculator
Convert monthly overhead and productive hours into a burden rate per hour, add labor, and see the cost per piece for a routing operation.
Common pitfalls
- !Rolling up with out-of-date routing times or resource rates and locking in a wrong standard.
- !Changing standard cost mid-period without planning the revaluation.
- !Zero or missing supplier price list entries making purchased parts roll up as free.
- !Forgetting subcontract operations on the routing.
- !Applying burden to some part classes only.
How an ERP-grounded AI assistant handles this
An assistant grounded in Kinetic data can list parts whose rolled-up cost moved most, trace the cause to a BOM, routing or price change, and show the query it used. It is read-only, so the person with costing authority still applies the change.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Costing Workbench do in Epicor?
It lets cost accountants view and maintain part costs by bucket and run cost calculations such as rollups. It is the main place to understand why a part carries a particular standard or average cost.
What is material burden in Epicor?
It is an overhead charge added to material cost, tracked as a separate cost component. It is used to absorb purchasing and handling costs into inventory value according to your costing setup.
Does cost rollup change average or FIFO costs?
Rollup is mainly for Standard cost. Average, FIFO and Lot costs are driven by actual receipts and transactions, so a rollup is advisory for those methods rather than the source of truth.
How often should I roll up cost?
Most companies roll up at defined points such as annually or quarterly, or after major BOM or routing changes, and review variances monthly. Frequent unplanned rollups make inventory valuation hard to explain.
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