Order Management

Carriers

Purpose

Carriers are used throughout the Order Management system to allow users to record the delivery methods used on despatches from the warehouse. The purpose of this function is to allow you to add new Carriers into the system, or to adjust Carriers you have previously set up.

You can establish Carriers for external Third Party companies or “Courier” companies that are used to deliver your goods to customers or to other warehouse operations. You can also set up Carriers to cover your own internally controlled trucks/vehicles if you want to tag all orders that leave your despatch dock with the details of delivery. You can even establish a carrier for when your customers come to pick up or collect orders themselves.

Once you have set up Carriers you can start to enter Consignment Details on orders that are processed through the Order Management system. The Customer Service and Accounts Receivable systems all allow the viewing of the Carrier and Consignment details for Orders, Despatch Dockets and Invoices to assist when dealing with the customer.

If a customer has a preferred carrier, you can update the customer master details with that carrier and that will be the default carrier used in Sales Order Entry.

Data Input

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Step 1 – Carrier Code

An existing Carrier can be selected for editing from here, or a new Carrier can be created by entering a Carrier Code that does not already exist on the system. Enter the Carrier you wish to work on.

For details on the use of “codes”, see The Role of “Codes” in Online Advantage

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Step 2 – Description

Carrier Name

Enter the Carrier 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 Carriers 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

Print Consignment Note

Selecting “Yes” here will automatically print a consignment note for sales orders despatched via this Carrier and sequentially allocate the Consignment Note number during the Con Note printing.

If you are using Con Notes that you hand-write then you should answer “No” to printing them. 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.

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.

Terms and Conditions

At this prompt you can enter any special terms and/or conditions that you wish to see printed on Consignment Notes that you issued for this Carrier. These notes will appear on every Consignment Note generated by the system for this Carrier.

Other Charge Product Code

Should you want to charge customers a delivery fee for orders sent via this Carrier, you can set up Online to do so by entering a valid “Other Charge” Product Code 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.

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

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.

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.

Freight Product

This 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 an add-on product or service charge classification.

Cost Method

The cost method 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.

API Key

Key provided by Carrier to connect to their Application Programming Interface (api). Note that a given carriers interface will only operate if we have a written an existing interface 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).

Con. Note Prefix

If necessary, this can be used to prefix consignment notes with any string mandated by 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 carrier’s 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 can be used to define the carrier’s product being used. For example, 3K55 – Express Post with signature. This information is used to lodge electronic shipment manifests with the carrier if required.

Email

Enter an email address for the carrier. This can be used when emailing consignment details or manifests to the carrier.

Consignment Note 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 the support desk if you require help creating a report layout to match the carrier’s con note design.

Delivery Label 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 the support desk 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.

Choose Pack descriptions to show just a description of the package e.g. 1 box

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 the support desk if you require help creating a report layout to match the carrier’s manifest design.

Delivery Requirement

If your carrier desires 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 edification.
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Step 3 – Contacts

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Multiple contacts can be associated with the carrier.

They could be your account rep with the carrier, accounting contacts, 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.
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