Carrier Code
Carrier code can be alphanumeric. It is typically a meaningful abbreviation like ‘TNT’ for ‘TNT’, ‘AP’ for ‘Australia Post’ or ‘STK’ for ‘Startrack’.
For details on the use of “codes”, see The Role of “Codes” in Online Advantage
Carrier Name
Enter the name you want to use to describe the Carrier. You can use the Courier companies name or if you are setting up a Carrier for your own trucks, then a description of the vehicle or its use. Note that the Carrier’s Name will appear on any Consignment Note printed by the system as well as on any listings of orders despatched that the system generates.
For more details on descriptions, see The Role of “Names & Descriptions” in Online Advantage
Pickup
Select this option if this ‘carrier’ denotes that the items on a sales order are to be collected by the customer from your premises. If you have the Delivery Charge option switched on for Sales Order Entry and you choose a ‘pickup’ carrier, delivery address and charges are not required to be entered.
Account Details
Account Number with Carrier
Enter your Account Number with this Carrier so that it can be printed on the Consignment Note along with the Carriers name and other details. This is then an additional precaution to ensure your Carrier has all the correct details for your despatches so there are no issues with delivery.
Terms and Conditions
You can enter any special terms and/or conditions that you need printed on Consignment Notes that you issue for this Carrier.
Closed
Select this option if you want to disable the use of a carrier. Once a carrier is set to closed, it can no longer be set as a default carrier in Customer Accounts or used as a carrier when entering consignment details on an order. You may choose to set a carrier to ‘Closed’ rather than delete it so that you can view transaction history for the carrier, or you may want to keep the details in case you decide to use the carrier again.
Charges
The ‘charges’ referred to here are for calculating the carrier’s charge for delivery and passing that charge on to your customer via their invoice. Note that there is a lot of variation between carriers on how freight charges are calculated.
Other Charge
Should you want to charge customers a delivery fee for orders sent via this Carrier, you can set up OA to do so by entering a valid “Other Charge” Product at this prompt. If this is done, when this Carrier is nominated against a specific order, an additional order “sale” line will automatically be added to the order as a charge to the customer if the order meets the charge criteria.
Note that valid “Other Charges” are set up in a separate function so these must be established in order to record them against a given Carrier. For more details see Other Charges
Freight Product
This entry is optional and is used in Sales Order Entry when the Delivery Charge option is enabled. When the delivery address is known and delivery charge is calculated, the delivery charge is added as a line item to the Sales Order using this Product. The product used is typically from an add-on product or service charge classification Product Group.
Cost Method
The cost method is optional and is used in Sales Order Entry when the Delivery Charge option is enabled. This indicates if the carrier’s costs are set up and derived by Area (e.g. Metropolitan) or Postcode (postal code e.g. 2000). Note that an Area can be used to cover costs for multiple Postcodes to make it easier to set and change delivery fees per carrier.
Carrier Group
If you have set up multiple carrier entries for the same carrier due to the carrier providing different delivery services, you can consolidate the carriers as a group by entering the code that represents the main carrier here. For example, AP=Australia Post, APE=Express Post, APS=Standard Post, APP=Parcel Post. You can then set up carrier costs against the group (e.g. AP) without having to set costs for each carrier in the group.
Delivery Labels
In the Online Advantage system ‘Delivery Labels’ refers to a label attached to the package being delivered that shows the delivery address and some detail about the package like contents and/or weight.
Format
If the carrier has a specific format for delivery labels, you can override the default delivery label format here by choosing the ‘report layout’ set up for the carrier’s specific requirement. Note: Online Advantage does not come delivered with every carrier format. Contact support if you require help creating a report layout to match a given carrier’s label design.
Delivery Label Content
Choose Itemised details to show contents of the pack e.g. “10 boxes of xyz” on the delivery label ‘contents’ section.
Choose Pack descriptions to show just a description of the package e.g. “1 box” on the delivery label ‘contents’ section.
Delivery Requirement
If your carrier requests that you to specify whether a consignment must be signed for or can be left in a safe place, you can choose the appropriate option here. This option can be overridden for specific customers if required.
When selected, the delivery requirement option is included on delivery labels and consignment manifests for the carrier’s instruction.
Consignment Note
In the Online Advantage system a ‘consignment note’ is a printed docket that contains information about the packages of one delivery (i.e. one order/invoice). Details can include the number of packages, weight of each package, content of each package etc.
Print Consignment Note
Selecting this option will cause the system to automatically print a consignment note for sales orders despatched via this Carrier and sequentially allocate the Consignment Note number during Con Note printing.
If you are using Carrier supplied Con Notes that you hand-write or generate separately then you should answer “No” to printing them and the system will then assume you will enter the Con Note number used against the Order as part of the Despatch process. This will mean the manual entry of a Con Note number is mandatory in the system for this Carrier.
Format
If the carrier has a specific format for consignment notes, you can override the default consignment note format here by choosing the ‘report layout’ set up for the carrier’s specific requirement. Note: Online Advantage does not come delivered with various carrier formats. Contact support if you require help creating a report layout to match the carrier’s con note design.
Manifest
In the Online Advantage system a ‘manifest’ is a printed report of consignments that is given/sent to the Carrier. For example, a manifest might contain a summary of 5 consignments that are going to 5 different customers.
Manifest Format
If the carrier has a specific format for a manifest, you can override the default manifest format here by choosing the ‘report layout’ set up for the carrier’s specific requirement. Note: Online Advantage does not come delivered with various carrier formats. Contact support if you require help creating a report layout to match the carrier’s manifest design.
Enter an email address for the carrier. This can be used when emailing consignment details or manifests directly to the carrier.
Interface
The fields entered under this section vary depending on the interface selected. An ‘interface’ refers to communication between the Online Advantage system and the Carrier’s internal tracking systems.
Interface
If you want to pass delivery information back and forth between the Online Advantage system and your carrier’s system, then an ‘Application Programming Interface’ (API) needs to be established to allow the two systems to communicate.
If your carrier is not on the list of options available already, then please contact support to go over your carrier’s interface requirements to determine if an interface is possible.
API Key
Key provided by Carrier to connect to their Application Programming Interface (API). Note that a given carrier’s interface will only operate if we have an existing working API for the carrier in question so you may need to ask support for specific details on your carrier.
API Credentials
Credentials provided by Carrier to connect to their Application Programming Interface (API).
API URL
This is the URL the carrier has provided to make calls to their web service.
Tracking URL
This is a URL that can be embedded in invoices and emails that will direct your customer to a web site belonging to the carrier for parcel tracking. Typically, some ‘reference’ for the parcel delivery needs to be provided with this URL.
Con. Note Prefix
If necessary, this can be used to prefix system generated consignment note numbers with any string mandated by or agreed with the carrier.
Service
This can be used to define the type of service being provided by the Carrier. For example, the service for Australia Post might be ‘Express Post’. If you use multiple services from a carrier, e.g. Express Post and Parcel Post, you need to set up multiple carriers to represent each service. The service code can be used to print on delivery labels if required by the carrier, or to lodge electronic shipment detail with the carrier if required.
Carrier Product ID
This is used to define the carrier’s product being used. For example, Australia Post ‘3K55’ is ‘Express Post with signature’. This information is used when lodging electronic shipment manifests with the carrier if required.
Contacts
Multiple contacts can be associated with the carrier.
They could be your account rep with the carrier, accounting contacts, parcel tracking support, IT support (for assisting with electronic interfaces) to name a few examples. In particular, the system provides the ability to send a Delivery Manifest to one or more selected contacts of the carrier automatically via Electronic Document Delivery.
The contacts are shown in a summary list format. You may edit the details of each contact or delete any contacts from the list. There are 2 items in the summary list that require special mention:
Main Contact
Choose one contact that holds the primary contact details for the Carrier. This contact is used to retrieve the main phone number and other details for reporting and viewing purposes.
EDD
This column indicates which contacts are set to receive documents via Electronic Document Delivery.
You may add a new contact here, or attach an existing contact by entering the Contact ID followed by the Add button.
See Contacts for more details about contact information.