Freight Agreements (FAs) are the basis for calculating transportation charges. In this section, we look at how agreements are determined.
The system determines the agreement based on organization, business partner, validity period, and preconditions. Suppose that several matching agreements exist, which can be determined from the freight order/booking data. In that case, it is possible to have a leading charge type (defined in charge type Customizing), and the first agreement where the defined leading charge type can be calculated is picked. Besides using leading charge types, it is possible to maintain priorities. If the system finds multiple matching agreements during agreement determination, the agreement priority defines the sequence in which the subsequent determination is executed. The agreement priority can be maintained on the General Data tab in the details section.
Built-in Preconditions in Agreement Items
In an agreement, there are two ways of using preconditions for the agreement items (calculation sheets):
Built-in preconditions
BRFplus preconditions
It is possible to define a BRFplus condition or a BAdI to check if a certain calculation sheet is to be processed in a certain business context. The result of this rule is a true or false decision. If the response from BRFplus or the BAdI is true, the calculation sheet is considered for charge calculation. Some built-in preconditions are available on the agreement item level.
Manual Agreement Selection
Often, logistics service providers (LSPs) have multiple FAs with the same carriers and purchasing organizations. This is because an LSP may strike deals with carriers at various levels, for example, on a country, regional, and global basis.
Normally, the larger the contract, the better the rates. However, if a country business partner (BP) pushes a lane to increase market share, the LSP could get better rates. Therefore, having a different contract with the country BP, or even multiple contracts, makes sense.
If there is no rule available to define in a unique way which agreement should be used for the calculation, manual agreement selection is also possible. Manual agreement selection offers additional capability for automatically selecting minimum or maximum agreement items through calculation profile control settings.
Charge Calculation Customizing
Calculation Profile
The calculation profile provides a central location to define the settings you want the system to use when calculating transportation charges. The following are examples of settings you can define in a calculation profile:
- Specify the data type the system uses for the basis for the rate, exchange rate, agreement validity, and ultimately the charge calculation. (For example, the order date, the invoice date, or the expected end date of the main carriage.)
- Specify the level at which the system calculates the charges, for example, at the header, item, or stage level.
- Specify the determination rule that the system uses to determine the agreement and the calculation sheet.
- Specify the default dimensional weight profile for the organizational unit and the condition the system uses to determine the dimensional weight profile.
In the Define Calculation Profile Customizing activity, you define the settings you want the system to use when calculating transportation charges. You find it in Customizing at Transportation Management → Basic Functions → Charge Calculation → Basic Settings for Charge Calculation → Define Calculation Profiles.
Charges Profile
You can enable charge calculation for a purchasing organization by assigning a charges profile to the purchasing organization (see the PPOMEtransaction). The charges profile groups the general settings for charge calculation, such as the calculation profile you want the system to use when calculating transportation charges.
To activate charge calculation in any freight document, you must enable charge calculation in the corresponding freight document type customizing activity.
Freight Order Charge Calculation Process
During freight charge calculation in the freight order, the following steps occur:
- The data is collected from the following TM core objects:
- Transaction business object: freight order, freight booking, service order, stage, item, container
- Configuration objects
- BRF+ conditions
- Master data
- Any BAdI implementation
- The freight agreement is determined.
- The calculation sheet within the freight agreement is determined.
- The values of each charge type in the calculation sheet are calculated.
- The log file of the calculation run is held, and so on.
- The calculated results are shown in the freight order.
Watch the simulation Calculate Transportation Charges and Analyze the Results to learn how to calculate charges in a freight order, add manual charges, and analyze the calculation result.