Shipping Fees Overview
Introduction to Shipping Fees App
The Shipping Fees app transforms your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central platform with advanced shipping fee management capabilities for sales and purchase documents. This powerful tool streamlines the calculation, application, and tracking of shipping fees for customer orders, quotes, and invoices, as well as vendor purchase documents.
Purpose and Business Value:
- Automated Fee Calculation: Eliminate manual calculations and ensure consistent shipping fees across all documents
- Flexible Pricing Models: Support weight-based, volume-based, or order value-based fee structures
- Free Carriage Management: Automatically handle minimum order thresholds for free shipping
- Multi-Currency Support: Manage shipping fees in different currencies
- Compliance Ready: Maintain accurate records for regulatory requirements in the Food & Beverage industry
The app integrates seamlessly with Dynamics 365 Business Central, extending standard sales and purchase workflows without disrupting existing processes.
Key Concepts and Definitions
Shipping Fee
A charge applied to the delivery of goods from seller to buyer. In the Food & Beverage industry, this typically covers:
- Logistics and cold-chain transportation
- Specialized handling and packaging (temperature-controlled, fragile items)
- Insurance for perishable goods
- Compliance documentation
Shipping Fee Tariff
A structured pricing table defining how shipping fees are calculated based on:
- Calculation Basis: Weight, volume, or order amount
- Minimum Quantities: Threshold values for fee application
- Validity Periods: Date ranges when specific tariffs apply
Free Carriage
A shipping arrangement where the seller covers all transportation costs when the order reaches a specified minimum value. Common scenarios include:
- Promotional campaigns for bulk orders
- VIP customer agreements
The Minimum Order Value feature (implemented as Free Carriage Check) enables organizations to enforce minimum order thresholds for both sales and purchase documents. This powerful functionality ensures that documents meet predefined minimum values before they can be released, helping optimize logistics costs and maintain profitable order volumes.
The feature supports validation for both customer sales orders and vendor purchase orders, with flexible configuration options ranging from simple warnings to strict blocking of document release when minimum thresholds are not met.
Assignment Methods
How shipping fees are distributed across document lines when using item charges:
- Equally: Distributes the fee evenly across all lines
- By Amount: Proportional to line values
- By Volume: Based on product volume
- By Weight: According to gross weight
Insert Shipping Fee Options
Controls how fees are applied to documents:
- Manual: User must explicitly use “Assign Shipping Fee” action
- Automatic: System adds fees automatically on document release
- Always Ask: Prompts for confirmation on document release