How is freight-in and freight-out treated in the financial statements?
The key difference to understand is that freight-in is incurred to ship materials to the company’s production facility. Freight-in is part of the production process and will be capitalized into inventory and expensed through cost of goods sold when the product is sold. Freight-in is the cost incurred to ship finished goods to a distributor or retailer. Freight-in is considered a selling expense and is expensed when incurred.

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What costs are included in costs of good sold?
Cost of goods sold doesn’t have a strict definition, but would generally include any cost incurred to produce a good or deliver a service. Another way to think about a cost of goods sold is whether or not you would incur that cost if you stopped selling a good or service. Cost of goods sold […]
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What is the journal entry to record freight-out?
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What is the journal entry to record freight-in?
Freight-in is capitalized onto the balance sheet since it’s considered a production cost. Therefore, when freight-in is incurred, the company would debit inventory (freight-in) and credit cash (cash outflow to pay the expense). Freight-in only flows through cost of goods sold when inventory is sold and revenue is recognized.