Purpose
The ‘Other Charges’ tool is designed to provide you with a mechanism to have “service” type charges automatically added to transactions based on set rules that you specify in this function. It can be used to apply additional charges to sales orders or invoices depending on certain thresholds and processing activity. It can also be used to add “material” items to orders when conditions are met.
Use this function to enter or change ‘Other Charges’ and set the ‘rules’ on when to apply the charge/item and what conditions should be met before the charge is applied. Note that Orders and Invoices can attract multiple charges based on the rules you choose.
Some examples of charges that may be applied:
- Apply a Small Order Fee to all customers where the total order value is less than a set amount
- Apply an Insurance Fee to all products within a certain category where the order value is more than a set amount
- Apply a Fuel Levy to all invoices for all customers and all products
- Apply an Order Handling fee to all orders received via E-commerce (B2B)
- Apply a Rebate to orders created from back order
- Add a complementary product when certain items are purchased
Other Charges as a Credit Card Surcharge
A secondary use of ‘Other Charges’ in sales is to apply surcharges to Credit Card payments.
To implement this, you need a Product of an add-on classification type to record the surcharge against. Use this Product in Other Charges, choose a charge type of ‘Percentage’ and set charge value to the surcharge % of the credit card. Then go to Tender Types and enter the Product into the Surcharge field.
The result of these settings is that during Point of Sale or Sales Order Entry payments, when that credit card is tendered, additional information is provided on screen to remind the user the card attracts a surcharge.
Note that the ‘Threshold’, ‘Apply To’ and ‘Exclusion’ information in Other Charges is not relevant to credit card surcharge charges and anything entered in those fields is ignored.
Data Input
Step 1 – Charge Code
Product
Enter the Product Code to maintain charge details for. When the charge is applied this product becomes an additional line item on the sales order (or invoice). A Product can only have one set of ‘Other Charges’ rules associated with it. Where you need to have multiple ‘Other Charges’ for similar reasons you should create additional products within the same Product Group to differentiate them and allow for the creation of the different rules. For details on the use of “codes”, see The Role of “Codes” in Online Advantage
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Step 2 – Customer
Customer
Enter a Customer here if you want the charge to only apply to the one customer. Otherwise you can leave the Customer prompt blank and use the charge for multiple customers.
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Step 3 – Charge Details
Charge Type
Select the type of charge:
- Fixed Amount – a fixed value is used when adding the charge to the order i.e. the value of the charge is always the same
- Percentage – the value of the charge is calculated as a percentage of the value of the products that the other charge applies to
- Weight – the value of the charge is calculated based on the weight of the products that the other charge applies to
Charge Quantity
Quantity is only required when the classification of the ‘Other Charge’ product is type ‘SQ’ – Quantity based Service charges.
Charge Value
This is the value/unit price to charge as follows:
- For Fixed charges, this is the set value which is added to the order
- For Percentage charges, this is the percentage of the applicable value
- For Weight charge types, this is the value to charge per unit
Use Sell Price as Charge Value
Select this option to pick up the value of this charge from the Selling Prices for the add-on product. If no Selling Price is found, a charge value of zero is used.
Threshold Type
The ‘Threshold Type’ is part of the criteria that must be met for the charge to be applied. It is used in conjunction with the ‘Threshold Value’ to determine if the order details meet the criteria (rules) required to apply the charge.
Available threshold types are:
- Greater than – the value/weight of the selected application details must be greater than the Threshold Value
- Less than – the value/weight of the selected application details must be less than the Threshold Value
- Multiples – the other charge is applied to multiples of the threshold value e.g. freight may be $50 per 100Kg
Threshold Value
The value used with the ‘Threshold Type’ to determine if the charge should be applied. For example, a small order fee may apply to orders less than $200.00, or insurance may be required on orders over $500.00.
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Step 4 – Apply Charge To
The selections here represent the specific point in the order processing sequence of events at which time the charge is to be applied (assuming the threshold conditions are met):
- New Sales Orders – the charge is calculated and applied when new sales orders are entered
- Changed Sales Orders – the charge is calculated and applied when sales orders are changed
- Back Orders – the charge is calculated and applied when sales orders are created from back orders
- New Quotes – the charge is calculated and applied when new quotes are created
- Existing Quotes – the charge is calculated and applied when quotes are changed
- Invoices – the charge is calculated and applied at the point the invoiced is raised
- Point of Sales Invoices – the charge is calculated and applied when Point of Sales Invoices are entered
- B2B E-commerce Sales Orders – the charge is applied to orders entered via the B2B portal
- B2C E-commerce Sales Orders – the charge is applied to orders entered via the B2C portal
Note: You cannot select options Invoice and Point of Sale Invoice in combination with New, Changed or Back orders.
Non-processing apply options
All Customers – tick this option if the charge is to be applied to every customer. Note: you can exclude certain customers, or if you only want to apply the charge to a few customers, you can enter the other charge code on the Customer Master details function for those specific customers.
Carrier – you can use the Carrier Details function to enter a charge code against a particular carrier(s) to apply other charges to orders that are delivered via that carrier(s). This is an easy way to setup an automatic freight charge per carrier.
Step 5 – Apply To Categories
This is a list of Product Categories that the charge applies to. Select and add the product categories required.
You can also enter a list of Product Groups or Products. Since these ultimately belong to a Category, you are given the option of removing groups or products that are within the Product Category that you select here.
Step 6 – Apply To Groups
This is a list of Product Groups that the other charge applies to. Select and add the product groups required. You may not enter a product group whose category is already listed under ‘Apply To’ categories.
You can also enter a list of Products. Since these ultimately belong to a Product Group, you are given the option of removing products that are within the Product Group that you select here.
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Step 7 – Apply To Products
This is a list of product codes that the other charge applies to. Select and add the product codes required. You may not enter a product where the group or category is already listed in the ‘Apply To’ groups and categories.
Where sizes exist for a product, you must enter the size the charge is to apply to. You can select to apply the charge to ‘All’ sizes.
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Step 8- Excluded Groups
This is a list of product groups that are excluded from having a charge applied. The product group entered here must have its corresponding category listed in the ‘Apply To’ categories. Select and add the product groups that should be excluded from incurring the charge.
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Step 9- Excluded Products
This is a list of products excluded from having a charge applied. The product codes listed here must have their corresponding Product Group listed in the ‘Apply To’ groups for the charge. Select and add the product codes that should be excluded from incurring the charge. No size is entered here.
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Step 10 – Excluded Customers
Here you can enter a list of customers that are excluded from incurring the charge. This list is applicable when the ‘Apply to all Customers’ option is ticked.
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