Master Data for Charge Calculation
To calculate charges for a freight order or freight booking and distribute those charges among delivery items, you must maintain master data, including freight agreements.
Watch the following video to learn more about freight agreements.
Freight Agreements
Freight agreements represent the contract for transportation services between your purchasing organization and carriers. They are managed using the Manage Freight Agreements app. This app allows you to create and edit freight agreements, which are essential for calculating the transportation charges payable to your carriers. These agreements, combined with calculation sheets, rates, and scales, help you efficiently manage long-term contracts with carriers. With the Manage Freight Agreements app, you can:
- Create freight agreements: Include contractual data such as validity dates, charge lines, and rates.
- Copy existing freight agreements: Duplicate agreements along with their calculation sheets, rates, and scales.
- Display and edit freight agreement details: Modify items like calculation sheets, rates, scales, and calculation rules.
- Add and edit large volumes of rates: Use Microsoft Excel for bulk rate updates.
- Use rate tables: Incorporate rate tables into freight agreements rather than creating them locally.
- Release freight agreements: Make agreements available for use in freight orders to calculate charges.
- Edit released freight agreements: This feature is available only to super users. Changing released freight agreements should be done with special care, since they are already in use.
- Delete freight agreements: Remove agreements that are still in process.
- Display freight order details: View and access details of freight orders in released agreements.
At the header level of a freight agreement, you manage fundamental information, such as the:
- Purchasing organization
- Carrier
- Validity period (start/end dates)
- Document currency
- General terms, including main transportation mode and shipping type
Hint
A frequent root cause for charges not being calculated in a freight order is, that the freight agreement has not been released and remains with status In Process.
Calculation Sheet
The calculation sheet is used to determine transportation charges. It combines the allowed charge types for a document and specifies the order in which these charges are considered during the calculation.
Here's how it works:
- The calculation sheet defines which transportation charges to calculate and how to calculate them.
- It helps in paying suppliers or carriers for subcontracted transportation services.
- The calculation sheet includes various calculation sheet items, each of which can result in a calculated amount.
By using the calculation sheet, the system ensures a structured and accurate calculation of transportation charges. Each calculation sheet item can consist of the following:
- Charge type
- Rate (either flat rate, local rate table or referenced rate table)
Rates contain details of the rate table for each calculation sheet item. You can also enter fixed rates or percentages of other lines in the calculation sheet.
- Calculation resolution base (root, product, or stage)
When calculating charges, the system determines the calculation resolution base by the origin of the data on which the charge aspect is based. You can define the charge aspect for the resolution base as:
Root: This is the header of the freight order.
Stage: To use stage attributes such as distance between the locations visited on a tour.
Product: When product attributes like product quantity, weight, or volume must be used.
For example, suppose you want to determine the freight rate based on the gross weight of the freight order. To do this, you'd use the calculation resolution base of ROOT. To calculate the freight on a per product basis, you'd use the PRODUCT calculation resolution base.
- Calculation method (for example, standard, or breakweight)
- Rounding profile
- Reference item (for relative calculation sheet items)