Arithmetic cannot outrun its inputs
Landed cost is a calculation over inputs. If an input is modeled, the output is modeled. If an input is absent, the output is not a number — it is an open decision with a named blocker.
The discipline is not to compute more carefully. It is to refuse to compute until each input carries a state.
Inputs, each with a state
Established, supplied, modeled, open, or unreached. Mixed states are normal; hidden states are not.
- 01Freight basis for the reviewed volume band
- 02Duty treatment and classification path
- 03Origin, as distinct from the organization-country field
- 04Destination, handling, and inland movement
- 05Benchmark or prior-purchase context, and its spec distance
What a good ruling looks like
Not “landed cost is X”. Instead: this is the strongest ruling the available inputs support, this is the single controlling gap, and this is the smallest request that would close it. That ruling stays useful even when the answer is “not yet”.