import / export
Financial strategy where timing, cost, and cash flow matter
Import and export businesses operate across suppliers, freight, duties, customs, payment terms, and currency exposure. Centsible helps owners see landed costs and margin clearly.
the situation
Profit can be lost between the purchase order and delivery
Supplier pricing, freight, duties, tariffs, customs fees, warehousing, insurance, currency movement, payment timing, delays, and customer terms all influence profitability. A transaction may look profitable at the quote stage but produce weaker margin once every cost and timing issue is considered.
Margin risk is often found in incomplete landed cost visibility, payment timing gaps, freight volatility, inventory and lead time risk, currency or supplier exposure, and customer concentration. Centsible helps owners identify where true financial pressure is coming from.
what owners ask
What import/export owners need to understand
- What is the true landed cost by product?
- How much do freight, duties, tariffs, and handling really cost?
- Is pricing responsive to cost changes?
- How much cash is tied up in inventory or goods in transit?
- Do supplier payment terms align with customer payment timing?
where margins break down
Where import/export margin is most exposed
Landed Cost Visibility
Incomplete landed cost visibility hides the true profitability of a product until it is too late to adjust pricing.
Payment Timing Gaps
Supplier payment terms that do not align with customer payment timing create cash pressure independent of margin.
Freight and Currency Exposure
Freight volatility and currency movement can turn a profitable quote into a weaker delivered outcome.
Customer Concentration
Heavy reliance on a small number of customers or products adds risk to an already exposed margin structure.
how centsible helps
What an import/export engagement addresses
- Landed cost analysis
- Product and customer margin review
- Cash flow and working capital planning
- Pricing and cost recovery strategy
- Supplier and customer terms review
- Forecasting and inventory planning
- Growth and risk modeling
how the work runs
Landed cost, terms, and the exposure in between
In import and export businesses, the price on the invoice is only part of the cost. Freight, duty, brokerage, insurance, handling, and currency all land somewhere, and if they are not captured per shipment or per product, gross margin becomes an estimate. The business ends up pricing off an assumption that was accurate once.
Centsible builds landed cost by product and by shipment, so margin is measured against what the goods really cost to get in the door. Duty and tariff changes get treated as pricing events rather than accounting entries, and currency exposure gets sized so the owner knows what a move against them is actually worth.
Then there is the cash gap. Money goes out to suppliers long before it comes in from customers, and inventory sitting in transit is capital the business cannot use. Planning that cycle deliberately, alongside supplier terms and customer credit, is often where the fastest improvement comes from. See cash flow and working capital strategy for how that is structured.
common questions
What importers and exporters ask before they start
Our gross margin moves every month. Is that normal?
Some movement is, but large swings usually mean landed cost is not being captured consistently. When freight and duty are recorded separately from the goods, margin looks volatile even when pricing has not changed.
How do you handle currency without turning it into a trading strategy?
By sizing the exposure first. Knowing what a given move costs in real dollars tells you whether it needs managing at all, and most of the value is in that answer rather than in hedging.
We are growing and cash keeps getting tighter. Why?
Growth in this model consumes cash before it produces it, because inventory and supplier payments lead collections. That is a planning problem more than a profitability problem, and it responds well to a forecast built around the real cycle.
financial strategy session
Strengthen financial visibility across your import/export business
Centsible helps import/export owners gain clearer visibility into landed costs, cash flow, margin, inventory, and supplier terms so growth decisions rest on solid ground.