Speaking of accounting and terms that are related to export import business; even if you have a bookkeeper or an accountant that will take a good care of your books, there are some things and terms that you should know. Before starting to talk about terms, I want to tell you mt story. When my husband and I just started this business, we had no experience in this field at all. We even didn’t have any experience in running any kind of business, so all the financial and non-financial terms were new for us. When we first time went to talk to a custom broker I thought he was speaking in some different language with us. Even the word freight sounded very weird to me, “Why wouldn’t you call that shipping??” I though. So, I know your pain when it comes to business slang.
FOB destination
FOB destination – title of the goods passes from a seller to a buyer AT destination. That means that seller is responsible for loss or damage of goods until shipment is delivered to a buyer. For example, you bought a car from Germany with FOB destination terms. In this case if anything happens to a car while it’s been shipped, you have NO responsibilities for that, and you will not have to pay for any damage or loss of the car. You even don’t have to buy the car when it arrives, if it is not in the acceptable condition. All expenses are handled by the seller.
Freight out:
Freight out (Transportation out) – the terms to record the transportation costs or delivery expenses, when the seller is responsible for delivery (FOB destination). (The seller will record the transportation cost as Freight-Out, Transportation-Out, or Delivery Expense.)
FOB shipping point:
FOB shipping point (FOB origin) – title of goods passes from a seller to a buyer at the seller’s shipping doc. That meant that a buyer is has to pay for the delivery. Basically, If you bought a car with FOB shipping point or FOB origin terms, you are the one who is responsible for delivery and damage or loss of the car. If the car arrives in a poor condition because of an accident that happened WHILE the car was shipped, you cannot ask for money back.
- Destination Freight Prepaid – the seller pays and takes all the freight charges and. (Pretty much the same as FOB destination)
- Destination freight Prepaid and Charged Back – The seller pays the freight charges, but charges them back on the buyers invoice. (For instance, when you buy something from Amazon.com, they usually include the price of the shipment in the receipt. That means they pay for shipment, but they charge you back for that.)
- Destination Freight Collect – The buyer pays and takes all the freight charges. (However, the buyer pays all expenses, just when the car arrives to the destination.)
- Destination Freight Collect and Allowed – the buyer pays the freight charges, but the seller takes the charges in the invoice. (For example, you bought a car that cost you $5,000 and you paid for shipment $1000. Total: $6000. When the car arrives and you receive the invoice from the company that sold you the car, you see that they charge you just $4000, because they made an allowance of $1000 for shipment.)
Freight in:
Freight in (Transportation in) – the terms to record the transportation costs or delivery expenses when the buyer is responsible for delivery (FOB shipping point, FOB origin) (The buyer will record this cost as Freight-In or Transportation-In.)
