Polymer importers and distributors need to connect trade finance, incoming stock, warehouse movements, sales and accounting. When each team keeps a separate record, it becomes harder to explain the cost and margin of a specific lot. This guide maps the information a trading system should carry from the first purchase document to a completed sale.
Start with a traceable import record
Give each import a record that connects the supplier, material grade, purchase terms, proforma invoice, shipment and letter of credit (LC). Record amendments and related documents against that same transaction. The goal is not merely to store files: a finance or operations colleague should be able to see which import a charge, receipt or payment belongs to.
If one shipment contains several grades or is received in stages, the system should preserve those distinctions rather than treating the whole shipment as one undifferentiated stock balance.
Build landed cost from the charges that belong to the stock
The supplier invoice is only one part of an import’s cost. Freight, duty, clearing and other allocable charges can change the cost per unit. A useful workflow records each charge, shows how it was allocated and updates the cost attached to the relevant lot. A simple management calculation is:
Landed cost per unit = (goods cost + allocated import charges) ÷ received units.
The exact accounting treatment and allocation basis depend on your business and jurisdiction, so finance should review the rules used. What matters operationally is that an analyst can trace the number back to the documents and charges behind it. If a late charge arrives after stock receipt, the team should be able to identify which lots and margin reports it affects.
Track physical stock by lot, not just by product
Two lots of the same polymer grade may have different purchase prices, exchange rates or import charges. A product-level quantity alone cannot explain those differences. For each lot, track its grade, source import, received quantity, warehouse location, transfers, allocations, dispatches and returns. That creates a path from physical stock to its cost record.
At dispatch, the team should know which physical lot will fulfill the order and what cost is associated with that allocation. This is especially useful when similar material arrived under different LCs or at different times.
Separate realized margin from cash movement
Sales revenue, stock cost, receivables and payments answer different questions. A sale can show an apparent margin while a supplier charge is still missing, or a customer can pay for a sale that was booked earlier. Review lot-level margin using the recorded sale and the costs attributable to the dispatched stock, and flag incomplete charges instead of presenting an uncertain figure as final.
Approval controls also matter. Teams evaluating software should ask who can change a charge, approve a journal entry, release a payment or override a dispatch allocation, and whether the change is traceable afterward.
A practical software evaluation checklist
- Can the team link an LC, amendments, supplier documents and payments to the same import?
- Can it allocate freight, duty and clearing charges to the right received lots?
- Can it identify grade, warehouse, available quantity and source cost for each lot?
- Can sales and dispatch teams select an actual lot and see the resulting margin?
- Can finance review receivables, payments and approvals without rebuilding the record in a spreadsheet?
- Can users trace reported figures back to the transactions that produced them?
Where PolyDesk fits
PolyDesk polymer trading software is built around these connected workflows: LC management, landed cost, lot-wise stock, dispatch, ledgers and approval controls. Use the checklist above when reviewing its fit for your own process, and request a tailored demo to walk through your import-to-sale workflow.
If you operate a freight-forwarding business rather than trading the cargo, see Waybill CRM for freight forwarders.